Between the legacy of César Chávez and the anti-immigrant vision of Republican extremism

For example, this week the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing called The Biden Border Crisis: Part 2, in Yuma, Arizona, the birthplace of iconic farm worker leader César Chávez. Just taking a look at the Republican congressmen who make up the delegation - Jim Jordan, Tom McClintock, Andy Biggs, Matt Gaetz, among the most recalcitrant - it is easy to see that they have come to repeat their tired script of an "uncontrolled" border and a few immigrants that they equate with “terrorists” and “drug traffickers”.

"Since they don't live here (on the border), they don't know how we live," says Eva in a telephone interview. And she adds: “What we do is work hard and help the country's economy. They don't know that we get up, we get cold, in hot weather we get dehydrated, we end up in the hospital and the next day we continue working hard, because we have to harvest the harvest and support our families”.

And this immigrant is quite right, because that hard work is directly reflected in the enormous agricultural production that has made the United States the leader in the sector, a country that was able to contribute $175 billion dollars to the Gross Domestic Product in 2020 ( GDP), along with the fishing and forestry industries, according to New American Economy. In 2018, for example, it was the largest corn-producing nation with 392 million tons. And all this, and more, with the hands of thousands of migrant worker families who are constantly ignored and attacked, as the most extremist wing of the Republican Party, entrenched as a majority right now in Congress, intends to do again in Yuma.

Eva comes from a family of farm workers originally from Sonora. His grandfather, Juan Robles, worked and marched with Chávez, the leader who led the fight for the rights of farm workers who, in today's sun, despite the advances, continue to receive no fair treatment, starting with the legalization of who are undocumented. In fact, it is known that more than 30% of the peasants in the United States are Mexican or of Mexican origin and that their purchasing power is around $881 billion, which represents 57.2% of the total purchasing power of the Latino population of the United States. country. But there are Republican politicians who would like to hide these hard facts.

“My paternal grandfather was in the marches with César Chávez, he was his escort; and my father, since he was seven years old, has worked in the fields and still continues to do so. They were always in the bullfights (seasonal harvests), ”recalls Eva. In such a way that she does not hesitate to call Chávez “our leader”. Well, thanks to him, she adds, “we have privileges that we didn't have before. His legacy is very important. Children are taught history and they come to appreciate its legacy.”

Thus, for her it is outrageous that politicians, on the one hand, accuse immigrants of all evils, and on the other make promises that they do not keep. She says: “It is unfair that they do not provide a solution to the problems we have here at the border. That they come to take the beautiful photo, but that (also) take action on the matter, because people need legalization. They work hard in the hope that there will soon be a solution.”