March 25, 2023
2023-03-25T11:00:00
501 N. Main St.
P.O. Box 20000
Las Cruces, NM 88001
The Historical Impacts of Agricultural
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Carlos Marentes will discuss the historical impacts that have taken place in the Southwest United States within the industry of agriculture. Marentes will correlate his work as an advocate for farm workers and his efforts to improve the working and living conditions of the migrant and seasonal farm workers in southern New Mexico and far west Texas. It is work he has focused on since 1977 and let to is founding of Sin Fronteras Organizing Project in 1983.
More recently, Marentes founded the Border Agricultural Workers Project (BAWP), an effort to organize the farm workers of the US-Mexico border, especially the Chile pickers, in the fields and in their communities on both sides of the border. Under BAWP, Marentes initiated a campaign for food sovereignty to address the issues of oppression of farm workers and the climate crisis, as a way of promoting a new model of food production and food consumption.
This program is recommended for ages 18+.
Another effort initiated by Marentes under the BAWP, is the Bracero Project, which is an attempt to rebuild the history of the "braceros," to bring justice to the Mexican peasants who worked in US during the Bracero Program, from 1942 to 1964, and to use the experience of the Bracero Program to push for new more humane and dignified immigration policies.