Crowd memorializes farm worker’s death
CALEXICO — The 40th anniversary of the fatal shooting of farm worker Rufino Contreras was memorialized on Saturday at Mountain View Cemetery with a procession, prayer, song and chants of “Viva Rufino.”
In homage to the Feb. 14, 1979, funeral procession in Calexico that had been attended by thousands, Saturday’s smaller procession made its way from the cemetery’s entrance to Contreras’ nearby grave site.
The occasion marked the first time that his daughter, Nancy Contreras, spoke publicly about the death of her father, a 27-year-old United Farm Workers union member who was participating in a contentious lettuce strike at the time of his shooting.
A visibly emotional Contreras, of Mexicali, spoke highly of the UFW and the support it had shown her family before and after her father’s death, which occurred when she was about 4 ½ years old.
During her brief remarks, Contreras announced that her mother, Rosa Contreras, had made good on her final promise to her husband 40 years ago.
“She told him to go peacefully and that she would take care of their children,” Contreras said in Spanish. “She has done it, and not just for us but for his grandchildren as well.”
Helping lead Saturday’s procession was Deacon Marco Lopez of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Brawley.
Lopez spoke of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how his lasting legacy is defined by his acts of compassion and sacrifice on the cross for the sake of humanity.
So too should Rufino Contreras’ legacy be thought of in terms of the life he sacrificed for the betterment of the farm worker community and the inspiration many have drawn from his life and death, Lopez said.
“The souls of the just are in God’s hands,” Lopez said in Spanish. “Rufino is in God’s hands.”
On Feb. 10, 1979, Rufino Contreras was among dozens of UFW members who had trespassed onto a field near the boundaries of Calexico and Holtville where strikebreakers had been employed by local grower Mario Saikhon.
Shots rang out, one of which struck Contreras in the face. Though three arrests were made that day, charges of murder and assault with a deadly weapon would eventually be dismissed in April 1979 against the defendants.
The sense that justice continues to elude Contreras’ family and supporters was evident on Saturday.
“This case will never be closed,” said Eric Reyes, event organizer and member of the Rufino Contreras 40th Anniversary Committee.
During his remarks, county Supervisor Luis Plancarte spoke about growing up in the Kennedy Gardens subdivision in Calexico around neighbors who worked in the fields much like his parents, who had immigrated to Calexico from Mexicali in the 1970s.
It was from his neighbors that Plancarte said he first learned of the UFW and its efforts, as well as news of Rufino Contreras’ shooting, which had prompted a large gathering of mourners at the subdivision at the time.
On Saturday, Plancarte recalled how at the time of Contreras’ death he became concerned by some local officials’ statements to local media that he perceived to be disparaging to the farm worker community.
“I don’t think that they were very perceptive to what was going on in the community,” Plancarte said. “Nowadays we have a tendency to get involved and look for that equity.”
He also assured those gathered on Saturday that he, like many children of local farm workers, have since ascended to authoritative positions and continue to seek parity for vulnerable members of the Valley.
“The community’s power continues to work,” Plancarte told those gathered.
Current UFW President Teresa Romero was also on hand to address the crowd. She read aloud in Spanish the eulogy that UFW founder Cesar Chavez had delivered at Contreras’ funeral on Feb. 14, 1979.
Similarly, Ricardo Ortega, Calexico Neighborhood House executive director, read aloud Chavez’s eulogy of Contreras in English.
“Rufino lives among us. It is those who have killed him and those who have conspired to kill him who have died; because the love, the compassion, the light in their hearts have been stilled,” both quoted Chavez as saying.
Rufino Contreras was one of five UFW members, four men and one woman, who lost their lives during farm worker strikes, the UFW reported.
Although three firearms were recovered in connection to the shooting death, the bullet that killed Contreras was never located.
A review of the court transcripts by the Washington Post in 1979 revealed that county District Attorney Fielding Kimball did not make a closing argument during the preliminary hearing for defendants Leonardo Alfredo Barriga, Froilan Perez Mendoza and Anthony Andres San Diego.
The case’s presiding judge, William E. Lehnhardt, reportedly disclosed to the Washington Post that he ultimately dismissed the case after it appeared as though Kimball did not want to proceed with the prosecution.
“He [Kimball] didn’t actually say, publicly, in front of the defense lawyers, that he wanted the charges dismissed, but he let it be known,” Lehnhardt reportedly told the Washington Post for an article that was published Sept. 16, 1979. “He wasn’t ready to take that stance publicly. It had to be me.”