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The education of Mily Treviño-Sauceda began in agricultural fields all
over the West, traveling with her parents and nine siblings from state
to state and across the border.
It continued when she became involved in community organizing and when
she had the opportunity to interview farmworker women in a project that
led to the creation of Líderes Campesinas, a statewide organization of
farmworker women who advocate on behalf of their communities.
Now, after 12 years as the organization’s executive director, Treviño-Sauceda
is leaving to expand her education in another way, by working toward a
master’s degree in the oral histories of farmworker women.
Her contribution to Líderes Campesinas — which means “farmworker women
leaders” in Spanish — is being recognized at an event Saturday in
“I always think of her as a walking library,” said Suguet Lopez, Líderes
Campesinas’ director of programs. “She’s always been into sharing her
experiences, her knowledge. She’s a great leader with a great
philosophy.”
Treviño-Sauceda, 51, who lives part-time in
“I’ve matured a lot,” she said. “I’ve learned to respect women more,
I’ve learned to respect my family more, I’ve learned what it is to live
in a healthy family.”
She plans to get her master’s degree as a fellow with the Rural
Development Leadership Network, which partners with UC Davis to help
community leaders who are seeking educational degrees. Her thesis will
be a collection of oral histories of farmworker women.
She plans to get a doctorate after that.
“If I leave this position, I’m going to have to go all the way,” she
said with a laugh.
It is a big goal for a person whose childhood education was interrupted
by regular moves. Her family moved from
“I started feeling like maybe I wasn’t smart enough, and at the same
time I was very angry as a teenager,” she said. That feeling was
reinforced by her experiences working alongside her family in the
fields. Sometimes, she said, the family would be paid less than they
were promised. They were exposed to pesticides, and sometimes toilets
weren’t available to field workers. She remembered that when she was
about 7 years old, her brother cut his hand badly moving an irrigation
pipe.
“It was a shock, and going to the hospital and then hearing him cry for
several days — it was a bad experience,” she said. “It was a lot of
mixed feelings about everything. You feel like you don’t have rights.”
Sexual harassment was also a part of her work, one that she would later
learn was a widespread problem for female farmworkers.
In the 1970s, Treviño-Sauceda’s family became involved with the United
Farm Workers union. Things changed for her when she began learning her
rights as a worker.
“I started understanding that I could do more,” she said. “I learned
that speaking up was a better way than being silent.”
Treviño-Sauceda was hired by California Rural Legal Assistance as a
liaison, then in 1988 participated in a needs assessment that was part
of her former sister-in-law’s master’s thesis. That project turned out
to be the seed for Mujeres Mexicanas, a group of about 50 women in the
By the time the second chapter in
Motivated by a brother who went into teaching, she earned a bachelor’s
degree in Chicano Studies with a minor in Women’s Studies from
Lopez said Treviño-Sauceda’s oral history project will be beneficial to
the population Treviño-Sauceda has worked with and been a part of.
“She’ll continue to be the voice of these farmworker women,” Lopez said.
The next executive director will be Daniela Ramirez, who, Treviño-Sauceda
said, is from |