FRESA FARMS: It’s a Whitewash

FRESA FARMS: It’s a Whitewash is an audio/video installation focused on farm workers in the strawberry industry of California and the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) campaign for unionization. I developed this installation over 1997 for the exhibition HOME GROWN: THE FIELDS OF CALIFAS, at Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco.

This audio/video and sculptural installation was made up of three parts. The audio was a 14 minute track primarily of interviews I conducted with farm workers in the strawberry farms of Watsonville in Central California over April, May and June of 1997, as well as audio I collected at related demonstrations, arrests of workers, and related activity. The video was made up of images of the fields, worker's housing, strawberry picking, demonstrations, arrests, and text from media sources on the industry and campaign. The sculptural element was an actual strawberry shack in the gallery, built in the same way as strawberry selling shacks in the Watsonville area. Visitor entered the shack, and through the back windows would see and hear stories about the actual conditions of the strawberry workers and the California strawberry industry.

ARTIST STATEMENT, 1997

In the mid 1990s, the strawberry industry had revenues of about $650 million a year. About 80 percent of the nation's fresh strawberries are grown in California, primarily in the Watsonville area. While there are 270 growers in the Watsonville area, about eight big companies, control the industry. They influence prices and field conditions, and collect, cool, package, distribute and market the crop.

California's 20,000 strawberry workers earn an average of $8,500 a season. Strawberry workers labor stooped over ankle-high plants for 10 to 12 hours a day in fields treated with numerous pesticides. Few have adequate health insurance, clean drinking water or bathrooms in the fields. Many workers return to the same fields year after year, yet they must reapply for the same jobs and can be fired on a whim.

The United Farm Workers Union asked the strawberry industry to obey labor laws and increase wages by $0.05 per pint in their "five cents for fairness" campaign. Growers have responded brutally to the campaign by threatening, intimidating and laying off workers, shutting down production, closing their businesses and even plowing under crops. On April 13, 1997, more than 30,000 workers, activists, students, artists and supporters from 36 states and three countries marched on Watsonville. On April 29, 1997, seven religious leaders and actor Martin Sheen were arrested at at Gargiulo Inc. (a subsidiary of Monsanto Corporation). More info at the Chicago Tribune and the Atlantic.

Images below are all taken by Praba Pilar and used in the installation, of strawberry fields, Watsonville murals, worker's housing in pesticide laden fields, organizing by UFW workers, campaign marches, rallies and arrests.