Hi Everyone,

Today, I had the pleasure of interviewing Leonel Perez, from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), along with Nico Page, from the Alliance of Fair Food. Nico

Leonel Perez

came on board to not only translate for Leonel, but to talk about the important role that the Alliance for Fair Food has had in protecting the farmworkers in Florida. Both of these organizations work in solidarity with the Student Farmworkers Alliance, which engages students across the country to campaign for human rights protections and fair pay for farmworkers.  Mr. Perez worked for years in the fields of Florida and along the East Coast harvesting tomatoes, watermelon, and other crops.  Today, as a part of the Fair Food Program, Mr. Perez and his colleagues educate tens of thousands of farmworkers’ on their rights in the fields on all farms participating in the Program, including the right to work free of slavery, sexual violence, and health and safety risks.

Nico Page is Chilean-American and grew up both in Chile and the U.S. As a high schooler in Chile, he got involved with student protests making videos and large-scale art and fell in love with organizing. He is now a junior, studying Literary Arts, at Brown University in Providence, RI., where he has taken a semester-long leave to intern with the Alliance for Fair Food in Immokalee, Fl. He has been instrumental on collaborating with student actions, boycotting corporations that won’t participate in the Fair Food Program, and learning from the Coalition’s long history of organizing. 

It was very exciting to learn more about how these three organizations are working hand in hand, to create a safer, more equitable working environment for the often forgotten farmworker, who helps put the food on our tables. If you are a student, check out the Student Farmworkers Alliance. If you don’t have a chapter at your school, consider starting one!!

If you missed our interview, you can listen to it here.