farm workers on strike - photos / exhibition in mexico city
FARM WORKERS ON STRIKE AGAINST WISH FARMS
GUADALUPE, CA - 13JUNE23 - Strawberry workers went on strike against Wish Farms, a large berry grower in Santa Maria and Lompoc, for two days. They demanded that the company stop cutting piece rates, and live up to promises of better pay.
The workers rallied in front of the company office in Guadalupe, a small farmworker town near Santa Maria on the central coast. After trying unsuccessfully to negotiate with the company manager on the phone, they went to a nearby strawberry field and called on the workers there to leave and join the strike. Some did, before the company called the sherriff.
Workers then went back to the company office where they continued meeting. The company eventually agreed to raise the wages, and workers went back to work the following day. They decided to keep organizing a union, which they called Freseros por la Justicia, or Strawberry Workers for Justice.
Most pickers are indigenous Mixtec migrants from Oaxaca and southern Mexico, but who now live in the U.S. The company also brings in contract H-2A contract workers from Mexico. The strike was supported by the Mixteco Indigenous Community Organizing Project. People who want to support the workers can contact Fernando Martinez, (805) 940-5528, fernando.martinez@mixteco.org
PHOTO EXHIBITION / EXPOSICION DE FOTOS Mas Que un Muro/More than a Wall Photographs by David Bacon / Fotografias por David Bacon
International Meeting on Human Mobility 2023 Encuentro internacional sobre movilidad humana 2023
Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo Moneda 13, Centro Histórico Centro, Cuauhtémoc 06000 Ciudad de México CDMX, Mexico
Opening - Conversation with David Bacon and Jason De Leon Inauguracion - Conversatorio con David Bacon y Jason De Leon "Between the hope and the pain: narratives of migration on the Mexico/U.S. border" "Entre la esperanza y el dolor: narrativas de la migracion en la fronter Mexico-Estados Unidos" Tuesday/martes, July 11/11 de julio, 7PM
El Museo de Arte de Nogales Av. Adolfo López Mateos 120 Fund Legal, Centro, 84000 Nogales, Sonora Mexico 1 de abril - 11 de mayo/April 1 to May 11, 2023
Global Museum San Francisco State University 1600 Holloway Avenue San Francisco, CA October 8 - December 3, 2023
MORE THAN A WALL / MAS QUE UN MURO
More Than a Wall / Mas que Un Muro explores the many aspects of the border region through photographs taken by David Bacon over a period of 30 years. These photographs trace the changes in the border wall itself, and the social movements in border communities, factories and fields. This bilingual book provides a reality check, to allow us to see the border region as its people, with their own history of movements for rights and equality, and develop an alternative vision in which the border can be a region where people can live and work in solidarity with each other. - Gaspar Rivera-Salgado
David Bacon has given us, through his beautiful portraits, the plight of the American migrant worker, and the fierce spirit of those who provide and bring to us comfort and sustenance. -- Lila Downs
Published by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte with support from the UCLA Institute for Labor Research and Education and the Center for Mexican Studies, the Werner Kohlstamm Family Fund, and the Green Library at Stanford University
"The "border" is just a line. It's the people who matter." - JoAnn Intili, director, The Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund
IN THE FIELDS OF THE NORTH / EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE
Photographs and text by David Bacon University of California Press / Colegio de la Frontera Norte 302 photographs, 450pp, 9”x9” paperback, $34.95 (in the U.S.)
order the book on the UC Press website: ucpress.edu/9780520296077 use source code 16M4197 at checkout, receive a 30% discount
Exhibited throughout the pandemic in the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford. The online exhibition (https://exhibits.stanford.edu/bacon), which includes additional content not included in the physical show, is accessible to everyone, and is part of an accessible digital spotlight collection that includes significant images from this body of work. For a catalog: (https://web.stanford.edu/dept/spec_coll/NonVendorPubOrderform2017.pdf)
Online Interviews and Presentations
Red Lens Episode 6: David Bacon on US-Mexico border photography Brad Segal: On episode 6 of Red Lens, I talk with David Bacon.
David Bacon is a California-based writer and documentary photographer. A former union organizer, today he documents labor, the global economy, war and migration, and the struggle for human rights. We talk about David's new book, 'More than a Wall / Mas que un muro' which includes 30 years of his photography and oral histories from communities & struggles in the U.S.-Mexico border region. https://www.patreon.com/posts/71834023?fbclid=IwAR0BRhHYbrYU3BoeoAMFKU_zdHs5Xirmmt1LzQtfwf1yD8p9EYLXKhzzbDE
Letters and Politics - Three Decades of Photographing The Border & Border Communities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvs6SyXsM-4 Host Mitch Jeserich interviews David Bacon, a photojournalist, author, broadcaster and former labor organizer. He has reported on immigrant and labor issues for decades. His latest book, More Than A Wall, is a collection of his photographs of the border and border communities spanning three decades.
Exploitation or Dignity - What Future for Farmworkers UCLA Latin American Institute Based on a new report by the Oakland Institute, journalist and photographer David Bacon documents the systematic abuse of workers in the H-2A program and its impact on the resident farmworker communities, confronted with a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXKa2lHJXMs
Documentary Matters - View from the US Social Documentary Network Four SDN photographers explore themes of racial justice, migration, and #MeToo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWl-uENA7SQ&t=1641s There's More Work to be Done Housing Assistance Council and National Endowment for the Arts This exhibition documents the work and impact of the struggle for equitable and affordable housing in rural America, inspired by the work of George “Elfie” Ballis. https://www.thereismoreworktobedone.com/david-bacon Dark Eyes A beautiful song by Lila Downs honoring essential workers, accompanied by photographs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdC2gE3SNWw
Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press, 2008) Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008 http://www.beacon.org/Illegal-People-P780.aspx
