Currently, people in the United States are facing a lot of tension, uncertainty, and division in relation to immigration issues. This has generated anxiety for those who have documents and those who do not, especially those who feed the country, agricultural workers who live in fear of a future that does not look promising.
Despite the uncertainty and division, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to declare the week of March 25-31 as Farm Worker Week, as a way of recognizing and celebrating these invisible heroes, despite the difficult work they do to put food on the tables of Americans and many around the world.
“This year it is more important than ever, many of our farm workers live in fear because of the national rhetoric. It's a mistake! So this year we wanted to take some time to celebrate (the farm workers),” said Supervisor Ray Muller, who represents District 3.
At the supervisors' meeting on Tuesday, March 25, Anna Delgado, granddaughter of César Chávez, who lives in San Mateo County, came to speak to the supervisors on behalf of her family and to show her gratitude for honoring her grandfather.
“This was not just a call for a party or a day off. It was a call to action, a reminder that even in the midst of struggle, we must celebrate our humanity, our resilience, and our victories, no matter how small,” Delgado said.
This, he said, “is a way to instill hope in the darkest moments, to remind us why we fight and to inspire others to join our cause. He (César Chávez) knew that song and celebration could bring communities together and remind us of the beauty that exists even in the face of adversity. It was a way to honor.”
Among the events held this week to honor farm workers was a special screening of Campesinos: America's Unsung Heroes by director Joe Poni and producer Alex Ontiveros on the Coastside campus of San Mateo University.
The film focuses on agricultural workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers a first-hand view of the difficulties they face locally and nationally, traveling across California to document the difficult work they do to provide for the United States, with a special focus on Half Moon Bay.
The screening was followed by a panel discussion involving a range of organizations, educators, lawyers and county workers, including ALAS; Puente de la Costa Sur; and Dr. Enrique López Lira, director of the Low-Wage Labor Program at the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center, which researches wage issues for low-income workers.
In addition to Shireen Malekafzali, director of San Mateo Equity; Carolina Babbidge, attorney for the San Mateo County Counsel's Office; and Robert Anderson, member of the San Mateo County Farmworker Health Care Commission.
Some of the panel's main conclusions were that, despite all the laws California has to protect employees, the department that oversees and enforces the regulations is severely understaffed, making it difficult to investigate labor violations.
According to Dr. López Lira, knowing this, San Mateo County is creating a program in which it will partner with the District Attorney's Office, the County Attorney's Office, and the offices of the county executives to ensure that fair labor practices are applied, especially with regard to wages.
The program will begin in late spring, early summer, and there will be a helpline where people can file complaints to request an investigation.
The program will be launched first in unincorporated areas and will eventually be extended to other cities, and will be translated into Spanish, English, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.
The advice line will also put people in touch with non-profit lawyers to ensure confidentiality, so that no government official, especially at the federal level, can obtain information from those who file a complaint, regardless of their immigration status.
“I'm an immigrant, so I understand. We're not different, we just have different jobs. Like Shireen, I'm excited to start collaborating. We want to make sure that immigrants in San Mateo County can earn fair wages and can fight against employers who don't pay,” attorney Carolina Babbidge, who will assist in wage compliance investigations, told the farm workers present at the hearing.
On Friday, March 28, 2025, ALAS, in collaboration with Behavioral Health & Recovery Services, Voices of Recovery San Mateo County, and Silicon Valley Latino, hosted a party in Half Moon Bay, near the city center, to close the official San Mateo County farm worker week and honor them and their families.
Dressed to the nines, the farm workers attended the event with their families for a catered dinner, dessert bar, dancing and live mariachi performance.
To close the official week of agricultural workers in San Mateo County, on Monday, March 31, residents of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties got up early to board buses at around 6:00 a.m. and head to Delano, California, to march in honor of César Chávez Day, a state and federal holiday.
In 2014, César Chávez Day was proclaimed an official federal holiday by former President Barack Obama as a day for Americans to remember the work that Chávez did alongside Dolores Huerta to protect farmers, some of whom are still in the shadows today despite their great work, work that allows us all to continue to enjoy food on our tables.
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