Speaker 1: Latinos are a growing segment of our population. We have
Speaker 1: a lot of power. We organize our families, we organize
Speaker 1: our communities, and we organize our workplaces. And we want
Speaker 1: to make sure that Latinas across our country have the
Speaker 1: tools and information that they need to be able to
Speaker 1: build power and to be able to help you know,
Speaker 1: change change laws, and change circumstances. That is Monica rameras
Speaker 1: a champion for gender equality and farm worker rights. Starting
Speaker 1: when she was only fourteen years old, Monica has led
Speaker 1: a life of groundbreaking activism. She's helped found many of
Speaker 1: the organizations that advocate for farm worker women, migrant workers,
Speaker 1: and Latina's. I'm Kim Azzarelli and this is Seneca's one
Speaker 1: hundred Women to Hear. We'll bring you one hundred of
Speaker 1: the world's most inspiring and history making women you need
Speaker 1: to hear now. As a young teen in rural Ohio,
Speaker 1: Monica noticed that farm workers like her family were being
Speaker 1: sidelined despite being crucial community members. That moment of realization
Speaker 1: was a spark that would light a career of advocacy.
Speaker 1: Monica has been involved in creating organizations such as Justice
Speaker 1: from Migrant Women, Latin X House, she said, and the
Speaker 1: National farm Workers Alliance. Monica is also credited with helping
Speaker 1: ignite the Times Up movement that happened back in when
Speaker 1: she wrote a letter which was published in Time saying
Speaker 1: that farm worker women supported the women in Hollywood who
Speaker 1: were speaking up about sexual harassment. Listen and learn why
Speaker 1: Monica Ramirez is one of Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So you are one of the country's leading experts on
Speaker 1: migrant women and farm worker women and the issues they face.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit about the organization
Speaker 1: you run? Sure? So. My organization is called Justice for
Speaker 1: Migrant Women UM. The organization is focused on ensuring that
Speaker 1: migrant women workers, including farm workers UM, have the same
Speaker 1: civil and human rights as all other people in our country,
Speaker 1: and we focus a lot of our work on UM
Speaker 1: policy advocacy. I'm building power with migrant women workers as
Speaker 1: well as ensuring that the stories that are told about
Speaker 1: women who are working in agriculture and as migrant women
Speaker 1: workers are accurate. So a good deal of our work
Speaker 1: relates to the narrative shift. So in some sense, you're
Speaker 1: giving a voice to some who are voiceless and trying
Speaker 1: to raise those voices. Can you tell us about your
Speaker 1: own personal history and how you got into this work
Speaker 1: and how you found your own voice. I'm the daughter
Speaker 1: and granddaughter of migrant farm workers. I live in the
Speaker 1: same community where my family settled out of the migrant stream.
Speaker 1: So both my mom's side of the family and my
Speaker 1: dad's side of the family used to travel on the
Speaker 1: United States picking crops and um as a result of
Speaker 1: that work, my myself and my siblings were raised by
Speaker 1: my parents to know our history, to understand some of
Speaker 1: the struggles of the farm worker community which existed then
Speaker 1: when our family worked in the fields and unfortunately still
Speaker 1: exist today. And UM it was really to an understanding
Speaker 1: of my family's background that I was able to find
Speaker 1: my voice because I was really young. I was fourteen
Speaker 1: years old when um an area newspaper, had this full
Speaker 1: pull out section of the paper that had this headline
Speaker 1: that said welcome back fisherman. And I was really confused
Speaker 1: by it because I didn't see a section that staid
Speaker 1: of welcome back farm workers. And in my community, farm
Speaker 1: workers and fishermen come back to my area in June.
Speaker 1: They come back around the same time. So I asked
Speaker 1: my dad why there wasn't a welcome back farm worker
Speaker 1: section in the newspaper, and he said he didn't know,
Speaker 1: and that I should ask about it. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: I live in a very small place, and the newspaper
Speaker 1: was literally down the street room of my house. So
Speaker 1: I hopped on my bike and I rode my bike
Speaker 1: to the newspaper and I asked the editor, who happened
Speaker 1: to be the father to some kids I knew from school,
Speaker 1: and he didn't have a good answer, but he told
Speaker 1: me that I could write about it. So at the
Speaker 1: age of fourteen, that's when I got my newspaper beat
Speaker 1: and I was writing about the farm worker community and
Speaker 1: then eventually writing about the Latino community UM in this area.
Speaker 1: And that really helped me to sort of understand, I think,
Speaker 1: the importance of telling our stories and also the consequences
Speaker 1: of not telling our stories and therefore making certain communities
Speaker 1: invisible UM. And that was a really powerful early lesson UM.
Speaker 1: And I don't know that I would have asked that
Speaker 1: question about why there wasn't a welcome back farm worker
Speaker 1: section of the newspaper had it not been for my parents,
Speaker 1: who really instilled great pride in us related to our
Speaker 1: family's background working in the fields. And so this is
Speaker 1: kind of an amazing moment here that we're in as
Speaker 1: a country, and we know that migrant women are facing
Speaker 1: incredible difficulties right now during COVID, but this has gone
Speaker 1: on for a while. Can you tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about the pay gap for migrant women? Sure? Well,
Speaker 1: the pay gap for women at large, you know, is
Speaker 1: something that we are all confronting. But for Latinas we
Speaker 1: are paid, our pay gap is actually the widest that
Speaker 1: we have documented. I say that because we don't have
Speaker 1: the numbers to reflect accurately what undocumented women are paid
Speaker 1: or what other groups of women are paid. So but
Speaker 1: understanding the data that we do have, farm workers who
Speaker 1: are primarily Latina fall into this category. And so for
Speaker 1: US um Latinas are being paid fifty five cents to
Speaker 1: the one dollar that is paid to white non Hispanic
Speaker 1: men for farm workers. That means that on average, a
Speaker 1: farm worker mail is paid between twenty four thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year and a farm worker woman is being paid
Speaker 1: eleven thousand dollars a year. For Latin Us overall, no
Speaker 1: matter our education level, no matter the industry that we're
Speaker 1: working in or the sector that we're working in, we
Speaker 1: are across the board being underpaid. And for us, it
Speaker 1: will take more than a hundred years for us to
Speaker 1: pay to close the pay gap, according to a new
Speaker 1: study that was done by the Institute for Women's Research Policy.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that this means is that when
Speaker 1: you're not paid equally, that means we have less money
Speaker 1: to pay our bills, to buy food, to pay for rent,
Speaker 1: to say, for our children's future, and so we are
Speaker 1: always behind. And unfortunately, when you make eleven thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year, like farm worker women do, um and you're
Speaker 1: hit with a crisis like the COVID pandemic that we're
Speaker 1: all living through, there's literally no safety net. So over
Speaker 1: the past seven months, as this crisis has continued to unfold,
Speaker 1: we've been in communication with farm worker women across the
Speaker 1: country who are talking to us about how their families
Speaker 1: are going to work every day to feed our nation
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day they themsel elves
Speaker 1: don't have food to eat, and how they're facing eviction
Speaker 1: and some have become homeless. So it's a it's already
Speaker 1: a critical situation for farm workers under normal circumstances, given
Speaker 1: the poverty, wages, and dangerous working conditions. But when you
Speaker 1: add something like this pandemic on top of it, it
Speaker 1: makes the situation even more difficult for the community. And
Speaker 1: what are some of the solutions that you're trying to
Speaker 1: drive to remedy this. I mean, obviously it's a huge
Speaker 1: issue and it's not a new issue, but what can
Speaker 1: be done well in the case of farm workers. You know,
Speaker 1: most people don't realize that the farm worker community was
Speaker 1: not included in some of the basic employment laws in
Speaker 1: our country um over eighty years ago. So the Fair
Speaker 1: Labor Standards Act, which is the employment law that protects
Speaker 1: most workers in our country, specifically excluded farm workers. So
Speaker 1: there are many rights that farm workers still today don't have,
Speaker 1: and we need to remedy that situation because farm workers,
Speaker 1: like all workers, should be guaranteed the basic rights. In
Speaker 1: this moment of COVID, we need to make sure that
Speaker 1: as members of Congress are passing bills that provide aid
Speaker 1: to people during the crisis, that they are including immigrant workers.
Speaker 1: You know, the overwhelming majority of farm workers in our
Speaker 1: nation are immigrants, and many of them are undocumented, and
Speaker 1: over the last few months, as different bills have been passed,
Speaker 1: these immigrant workers have not been provided the same benefits,
Speaker 1: and so we need to make sure the political leaders
Speaker 1: understand that you can't call a group of workers essential
Speaker 1: workers but treat them like they're disposable, which is the
Speaker 1: case for the farm worker community and many other immigrant workers.
Speaker 1: With respect to closing the pay gap, we need political
Speaker 1: leaders to pass laws like the Paycheck Fairness Act. We
Speaker 1: need the Care Act to pass, which would um for
Speaker 1: once and for all, hopefully put an end to children
Speaker 1: as young as the age of twelve working without restriction
Speaker 1: and agriculture. I know that shocking that we have kids
Speaker 1: who are working without restriction as of the age of
Speaker 1: twelve and fields across our country, but that is the
Speaker 1: law and we need that to change. And we also
Speaker 1: need to make sure that Congress takes action on the
Speaker 1: be Heard Act in the workplace, because farm worker women
Speaker 1: and many women workers across our country are not only
Speaker 1: dealing with hey discrimination, but they're also at the same
Speaker 1: time dealing with sexual harassment. So all of those are
Speaker 1: really important steps in order for us to improve circumstances
Speaker 1: for farm worker women and for many women workers across
Speaker 1: our nation. Senecas one hundred Women to Hear will be
Speaker 1: back after this short break. You mentioned sexual harassment, and
Speaker 1: you're also credited with having to help launch the Times
Speaker 1: Up movement with a letter you wrote that was published
Speaker 1: in Time magazine in can you tell us about that letter?
Speaker 1: The letter is known as the Dear Sister's Letter. And
Speaker 1: you know, because I come from the farm worker community
Speaker 1: and the farmacer movement, we know that sexual harassment is
Speaker 1: a widespread problem for farm workers, for farmacre women specifically
Speaker 1: UM And in fact, the little data that we have
Speaker 1: indicates that, you know, as many as nine of women
Speaker 1: who were interviewed in one study said that sexual harassment
Speaker 1: was a major problem for them. And in another study
Speaker 1: that was done in of farmacrew women said the sexual
Speaker 1: harassment is a major problem for them. So we're talking
Speaker 1: about a huge issue that our community has been confronting
Speaker 1: for many years. And you know, as an organizer in
Speaker 1: my community, we've been trying to combat that problem. And
Speaker 1: because of the work that we've been doing over the years,
Speaker 1: we understood the risks that individuals take when they decided
Speaker 1: to speak out against sexual harassment and other workplace issues.
Speaker 1: And so when the women and that the entertainment industry
Speaker 1: started to share their experiences related to treatment mistreatment against
Speaker 1: them in sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein, we took notice
Speaker 1: of what was happening, both what was being said as
Speaker 1: well as some of the public reaction, and we were
Speaker 1: really worried that the women were going to experience retaliation
Speaker 1: and backlash and the ultimately they would be silenced. So
Speaker 1: we wrote this statement which was eventually published in Time magazine,
Speaker 1: and our letter essentially said to the women in entertainment
Speaker 1: that we stand with them, that we believe them, and
Speaker 1: that we understood that what was happening to them was
Speaker 1: not their fault, and we really wanted them to feel
Speaker 1: encouraged and to understand that we were with them in solidarity.
Speaker 1: So I wrote that letter on behalf of Alianza Nasonade
Speaker 1: Campasina is one of the organizations that I co founded,
Speaker 1: which is the National farm Worker Women's Alliance, And the
Speaker 1: letter came on behalf of the seven thousand farmworker women
Speaker 1: in our country. And that letter, it's been credited with
Speaker 1: sparking Time's up. And you know, I always say it's
Speaker 1: important to recognize that women in entertainment. They were already
Speaker 1: organizing themselves, they were already figuring out the next steps.
Speaker 1: And I think that our letter just helped make it
Speaker 1: clear that there were many women workers who were experiencing
Speaker 1: this problem, and something needed to be done for all
Speaker 1: industries where this problem was occurring. And so we're just
Speaker 1: really fortunate that we've been able to be part of
Speaker 1: that work and and and part of that movement and
Speaker 1: and certainly I'm part of the building to create change
Speaker 1: so that people don't have to endure that violence anymore.
Speaker 1: And since then, you've created a few more organizations, are
Speaker 1: co founded a few more organizations, recently latinox House with
Speaker 1: America Frera and Eva Longoria. Can you tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about that on the Latino X House. Um
Speaker 1: was co founded um By actually was co founded by
Speaker 1: olga Ura and Alex Martinez Condracci, who are who I
Speaker 1: met through Times Up. There founders of times up along
Speaker 1: with Eva and America and and times Up helped us
Speaker 1: when we did our launch and we did an event
Speaker 1: with Eva in America and some other latinas to celebrate
Speaker 1: what we were building, but also to further the goals
Speaker 1: of Time us Up. So UM. The latin X House
Speaker 1: is an organization that is focused on bringing together content creators,
Speaker 1: folks and entertainment, grassroots organizers, UM, you know, political leaders
Speaker 1: and other people who care about the latin X community
Speaker 1: because one of the things that has happened in this
Speaker 1: country is that our story as a collective has not
Speaker 1: been accurately told. And unfortunately, many of the media outlets
Speaker 1: and entertainment they image that they've portrayed of Latinos in
Speaker 1: our country has been negative. You know, We've been portrayed
Speaker 1: as gang members and as criminals and UM as people
Speaker 1: who take and don't give. And so the Latino X
Speaker 1: House is really focused on ensuring that we are that
Speaker 1: we are telling our own stories, that the that the
Speaker 1: narrative about our community is accurate and authentic. And we
Speaker 1: believe that the best way that we can do that
Speaker 1: is by bringing together these different UM individuals from these
Speaker 1: different walks of life so that we can hear each
Speaker 1: other's stories and then UM, you know, share those in community.
Speaker 1: So that's that entity. And then the other entity UM
Speaker 1: that I recently co founded with America Fair and Evil
Speaker 1: Longoria and seven other Latina leaders is called She Sitwether
Speaker 1: and that organization is focused on. It's a lifestyle platform
Speaker 1: focused on empowering Latinas. You know, Latinas are a growing
Speaker 1: segment of our population. We have a lot of power.
Speaker 1: We are that we organize our families, we organize our communities,
Speaker 1: and we organize our workplaces, and we want to make
Speaker 1: sure that Latinas across our country have the tools and
Speaker 1: information that they need to be able to build power
Speaker 1: and to be able to help, you know, change change
Speaker 1: laws and change circumstances confronting Latinas so that you know,
Speaker 1: we no longer have to face this pay gap and
Speaker 1: some of the other things that Latina's confront So it's
Speaker 1: that's been an exciting initiative to put together. Both of
Speaker 1: them have been but you know, over the last month
Speaker 1: or so since we launched Sitwether, it's been really wonderful
Speaker 1: to see how energize the community is around that particular project. Well,
Speaker 1: that's amazing, um, and that is something to be optimistic about,
Speaker 1: which kind of leads me to my last question, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously this is a very difficult period for
Speaker 1: all of us and certainly for migrant women. Is there
Speaker 1: anything right now that makes you optimistic about the future
Speaker 1: of migrant women and farm worker women in particular. You know,
Speaker 1: the thing that makes me optimistic is that even though
Speaker 1: the past seven months have been so difficult with this
Speaker 1: COVID crisis, farmworkers women have continued to organize. You know,
Speaker 1: we've seen farmaker women who are creating funds and food
Speaker 1: drives and really being in touch with one another about
Speaker 1: what they need and and trying to work together to
Speaker 1: ensure that people have the food and the other resources
Speaker 1: that are most needed in this moment. That gives me
Speaker 1: a lot of hope because even though these have been
Speaker 1: difficult times, we haven't lost both our ability to connect
Speaker 1: with our community and our ability to ensure that we're
Speaker 1: doing all that is in our power to make sure
Speaker 1: that we have what we need. Um And you know,
Speaker 1: I've always said us and I believe it's true. In
Speaker 1: our community, we've never been waiting for someone to save us.
Speaker 1: We've been working and organizing hard to save ourselves and
Speaker 1: we will continue to do that, and we've shown that
Speaker 1: during the course of this pandemic. Amazing. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: so appreciate you being on the show, and hopefully those
Speaker 1: who are listening can support your organization. Justice for Migrant
Speaker 1: Women because it's an amazing organization that's doing incredible work
Speaker 1: right now. So thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Thank you what an incredible conversation and what an inspiring life.
Speaker 1: Here are three things that I took away from my
Speaker 1: talk with Monica. First, when you want to make a
Speaker 1: difference in the world, to start with your own corner.
Speaker 1: The daughter and granddaughter of farm workers, Monica was just
Speaker 1: young girl when she realized that families like hers were
Speaker 1: being marginalized, so at fourteen, she became a voice for
Speaker 1: her community. Second, it's important to acknowledge the real cost
Speaker 1: of goods and services we consume every day. Many of
Speaker 1: the fu some vegetables we eat are picked by farm
Speaker 1: worker women, who face the widest pay gap in the US.
Speaker 1: How to help get behind organizations like the National farm
Speaker 1: Workers Women's Alliance and Justice for Migrant Women. Finally, know
Speaker 1: that we're all connected. In Monica Rameris had helped ignite
Speaker 1: the Times Up movement when she wrote a letter saying
Speaker 1: that farm worker women were supporting the women in Hollywood
Speaker 1: who were speaking out. That might seem to be an
Speaker 1: unlikely pairing, but when women connect, the results are powerful
Speaker 1: and tune in on Thursday to learn about our next
Speaker 1: featured woman and discover why she's one of Seneca's one
Speaker 1: hundred Women to Hear. Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear
Speaker 1: is a collaboration between the Seneca Women Podcast Network and
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner PNG. If
Speaker 1: you like what you heard on the show, rate and
Speaker 1: review it on Apple Podcasts, we hope you'll join us
Speaker 1: for our next episode of one hundred Women to Hear,
Speaker 1: where we can all listen, learn and get inspired. Have
Speaker 1: a great day, h