YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

February 20, 2010

Villanueva to be honored for years of work for farm workers

OLYMPIA -- Longtime farm worker rights advocate Tomás Villanueva will be honored Monday in Olympia under a House resolution introduced by Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle.

House Resolution 4672 recognizes Villanueva's decades of work promoting social justice, education and health care opportunities for farm workers and low-income families.

The 68-year-old is credited with helping start what would become the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic. Villanueva has been a familiar face in Olympia, where he has lobbied to establish basic work place requirements, including water and toilets, in Washington fields and orchards.

He was born in Monterrey, in northern Mexico, but moved to the United States at the age of 13 to become a migrant farm worker. Villanueva worked as a carpenter and at one time dreamed of becoming an accountant or doctor.

Instead, he became a community activist during his years at Yakima Valley Community College, and especially after meeting Cesar Chavez in California.

Villanueva and his wife, Hortencia, live in Toppenish and have seven adult children.

Over the years, Villanueva became the local expert on employment law and has heavily promoted unionization.

"Tomás highlights what is great in humanity and he represents what greatness is in Washington state," Kenney said in a news release. "The state owes a great deal to him for his work with the farming community and its workers."

Last summer Villanueva suffered multiple strokes and has kept a low profile since. He will attend the public reception in his honor about 10:30 a.m. Monday in the Washington Room of the Pritchard Building in Olympia.