By Sharon Abercrombie
Staff writer

Gina Palomba, right, stands with Maria Almanza, left, and Iris Rodriguez, as they are briefed about the work they will do alongside farm workers at Valley Pride in Salinas. Pauline Lubens PHOTO

Last month, for two uncomfortable hours, Gina Palomba, a senior political science major at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, put herself in the shoes of a Salinas immigrant lettuce harvester. She left the sweltering hot fields with sore muscles, an aching heart and a brain full of questions.

Palomba’s hands, arms and shoulders have since healed from lifting 50 pound boxes of romaine lettuce over her head at breakneck speed on to a conveyer belt.

Her heart hurt is going to take longer to recover as she continues to remember the daily misery of migrant farmworkers who put in 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for an average wage of eight dollars an hour, depending upon their position within the crew, the crop being harvested and the company they work for.

Her head keeps asking: “Why can’t companies be less corporate and more human?” Why can’t helping people be more of a priority than making money?” “Why should an immigration document determine whether a person has the right to basic human dignity?”

Palomba was one of 12 St. Mary’s students who spent the weekend of Oct. 2-4 walking in the footsteps of farm workers through the Salinas Immersion program, sponsored by Saint Mary’s Mission and Ministry Center.

Alicia Villanueva, a junior in women’s studies, went on the trip, too, but for other reasons. She already knew most of what Palomba would find out. Her parents are farm workers in the Yuba City area, and she, too, has experienced what being a field laborer is like.

Farmworkers take a break under the only shade available in the Salinas lettuce field for about 100 workers. GINA PALOMBA PHOTO

“I wanted to be a part of the Salinas Immersion to hear what other people were thinking about the issues surrounding farm work and to learn how to get more involved in farm labor advocacy this coming summer,” she said.

Initiated in 2008, the Salinas Immersion introduces students to the cultural, political, economic and social issues surrounding migrant farm labor, explained Leo Guardado, assistant director of justice and education at the campus center. Catholic teachings on social justice are a strong part of the program’s underpinnings.

After attending three classroom seminars on the dignity of work, worker rights and immigration, the students traveled to Salinas for an experiential weekend. They stayed at Dorothy’s Place, a shelter for homeless women.

When they weren’t out in the fields working, or hearing immigrants’ stories, talking with immigration assistance attorneys and city officials, the students cooked dinner for the women, cleaned the shelter, and helped guests with letter writing. On Sunday morning they attended Mass at Cristo Rey, a poor Spanish parish, and met with Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia.

The students spent Friday night in sleeping bags on the floor of the shelter, then got up at 4:45 a.m. on Saturday for their drive to the fields. They ate their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the way.

Palomba dressed for the freezing early morning weather, but as soon as the sun came up she was wilting from the heat. Besides the physical discomfort, her emotional equilibrium was shaken, as she learned what farmworkers contend with every day.

When Palomba took a short break from the sun to get a drink of water, she discovered that her fellow workers — hundreds of them — only had access that day to the same small shade canopy — a little larger than five feet by five feet. “And there’s really no shade because the angle of the sun changes every two seconds,” she said.

Then, there were bandanas which all the women wore across their faces. What was this about? To protect themselves against the sun and pesticides? Yes, but there is another reason, Palomba learned when Michael Marsh, a lawyer at California Rural Legal Assistance, told the St. Mary’s group that women wear the bandanas and well as baggy clothes to conceal their feminine features from the advances of field supervisors and would-be sexual predators. The outfits also serve as gestures of solidarity and silent protest against sexual harassment.

A May 2008 Los Angeles Times article reported that sexual harassment “has been a dirty secret of migrant labor.”

Because of their limited English skills, their poverty, and often their undocumented status, the victims are told by harassers that they will be reported as illegal immigrants if they tell what has happened to them.

“It’s really difficult for women to report that they are sexually harassed because they are embarrassed, shamed, don’t know where to go to report it, and don’t know their rights.” Alicia Villanueva said.

Only one lawsuit brought by a female worker, Olivia Tamayo, has ever reached a federal jury. Tamayo received almost $1 million from her suit against a Fresno agricultural company where she had been raped three times by the same supervisor. The company’s solution was to reassign her to an isolated spot in a field near to the supervisor’s home.

In March 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center in conjunction with community groups, universities and other organizations launched “The Bandana Project” as an expression of solidarity with the women. The SPLC and their partners invited members of the farmworker community and their supporters to decorate bandanas that were then displayed in museums, community centers and schools as a symbolic gesture to raise awareness of the sexual exploitation of these vulnerable women.

Palomba is planning to continue to learn about the suffering of farmworkers and other migrants during St. Mary’s spring Holy Week immersion at the Arizona-Mexico border, where the students will explore the issue of immigration and why migrants are dying in the desert.

Last March a group of students participated in an environmental justice immersion experience in West Oakland and Richmond. A weekend immersion in urban poverty and education is now in the planning stages. So far, about 60 students have participated in both the weekend and weeklong experiences.

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