Fighting for rights of farmworkers
Yuma woman advocates nationwide in memory of her husband, who died from COVID-19 in 2020
The sunlight beamed through a plastic turquoise butterfly that swayed from Maria Yolanda Bay’s rearview mirror on a recent afternoon. The words “Mom’s Taxi” were printed on the butterfly as it hung, entangled with a rosary.
Bay, or “Yoly” as she’s better known, turned toward the back of her van to speak with the six farmworkers whom she ferried through Yuma’s streets. The six men sat huddled in the back of the van with their week’s groceries in the trunk.
The farmworkers arrived in Tijuana at 2 a.m. that morning and were now on their way to their home for the next five months, a nondescript apartment complex on the outskirts of town. They were brought to Yuma on a seasonal contract to harvest lettuce during
the winter season.
The six farmworkers are among thousands in Yuma County who cultivate about 90% of the leafy greens produced in the winter in North America. From November to April, Yuma County is known as the “nation’s salad bowl,” touting an agricultural industry that harvests roughly $3 billion a year.
Donning sunglasses and a denim shirt, Bay, a former farmworker herself, casually chatted with her passengers, filling the van’s cabin with tales of the backbreaking field work and the grueling first week that lay ahead. The first workweek is when your body acclimates to the arduous and fast-paced conditions required for the job.
One farmworker from Durango talked about his fingernails falling off, his hands swelling up and his knees, back and waist hurting.
Bay had returned from Washington, D.C., only hours before she shuttled the handful of workers to their apartments. In D.C., she joined more than 60 other farmworkers to promote the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a bill that would provide undocumented farmworkers a path to citizenship.
The act would update the H-2A temporary worker program that provides visas to seasonal and temporary workers. The legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2021 and is working its way through the Senate.
The United Farm Workers helped organize the rally in D.C. the week before Thanksgiving to underscore the importance of farmworkers in the U.S. and on dinner tables. Demand for temporary agricultural workers has drastically increased across the country as farmers struggle to maintain a stable workforce.
While Bay was only a farmworker for a short time, she now advocates for workers nationwide in memory of her husband who died from COVID-19. Bay’s husband, Luis Alfonso, contracted the virus while working in agriculture in July 2020 and remained in the hospital for 18 days before his passing.
“He didn’t stop,” Bay said. “I’m in this in the name of my husband.”
For more than 20 years, Bay has been driving the essential farmworkers who feed most of the country, nourishing yearslong relationships as their conversations fill her taxi’s cabin. Clients often call her for help if they need medicine for injuries or ailments sustained on the job, fearing the loss of a day’s work.
A short time later, she’s at their door, equipped with antibiotics and ready to help.
Out of the shadows
“Thank God that my children had the opportunity to be here, to grow here and go to college. That’s what I want for other families that I know who struggle a lot.” Maria Yolanda Bay
Bay’s husband came to the U.S. in 1985 with hopes to earn more money and improve the lives of Bay and their 5-year-old son in Mexico. The couple’s son soon became ill and died, prompting Bay’s husband to return.
Two weeks after the death of their child, the pair returned to the U.S. where they lived near Phoenix. During this time, Bay became depressed as she wanted to visit her son’s grave and, six months after they arrived, the pair returned to Mexico.
In 1987, Bay’s husband was able to return to legally work on a cotton farm in the U.S. A short time later, Bay joined him and the family moved to Yuma where Bay’s husband worked as a farmworker.
In 2001, Bay became a U.S. citizen followed by her husband shortly after. Today, Bay’s two daughters are a teacher and a social worker while another son is training for his commercial pilot’s license.
“Thank God that my children had the opportunity to be here, to grow here and go to college,” Bay said. “That’s what I want for other families that I know who struggle a lot.”
Farmworkers who harvest lettuce have to be crouched for 10 to 12 hours a day and, if they’re harvesting celery, they must kneel for the same amount of time. Bay has heard from workers harvesting celery that their toenails have fallen off due to the labor conditions.
“All of the people go through this suffering daily,” Bay said. “It’s very heavy work, especially for people who are undocumented.”
Without any form of citizenship,
farmworkers from Latin America can be brought to work on farms for years with seasonal contracts and without any assurance that they will be called the next season. Once workers are no longer useful, farmers can choose not to bring them back and leave them without any rights or benefits for their years of work, Bay said.
The bill would help change that. “(Farmers) are going to finish them in a few years and they bring young people and they’re going to retire with nothing. Without any rights, without any insurance,” Bay said.
“They need to come out from the shadows.”
‘It’s a very hard life, that of the field, but it’s needed’
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to grant certified agricultural worker status to a farmworker who has performed 1,035 hours of agricultural labor in the two-year period before March 8, 2021, and if their status was in danger on that date.
The person must have been continuously present in the U.S. to receive the status. The certified worker status would be valid for more than five years and may allow for the spouse and children of the worker to be granted dependent status.
A certified worker and their dependents may apply for lawful permanent resident status after meeting various requirements, including performing a certain amount of agricultural labor for a number of years.
People with pending applications could not be detained or removed and would be able to work until a decision on their application was made.
Additionally, the bill would renovate the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker visa program by requiring employers to guarantee minimum work hours and making the program available for agricultural work that is not temporary or seasonal.
The bill would establish a program that provides financial assistance for rural rental housing and off-farm labor housing while giving rental assistance to qualified tenants of such housing.
“It’s a very hard life, that of the field, but it’s needed,” Bay said.
As Bay spoke from the driver’s seat of her taxi, vast fields of lettuce blended away into her rearview mirror from which the turquoise butterfly hung. Suddenly, her phone rang, announcing a call from longtime farmworkers who needed a ride.
After a brief conversation, Bay hung up and pressed forward. She was on her way.