Though her years of picking strawberries in La Conner have long passed, Rosalinda Guillen remains deeply connected to the local farmworking community, to whom she refers as “we.”
As a nationwide crackdown on immigration intensifies and federal agents escalate arrest tactics, the pressure falls heavily on her former colleagues — the people who grow and pick our food, many of whom are undocumented or have loved ones who are.
The Migration Policy Institute estimates about 344,000 undocumented people lived in Washington in 2023, including roughly 37,000 working in agriculture. In Skagit County, many have built lives here over decades and see the valley as their home.
In addition to the fear of people being arrested and deported by immigration agents any day, Guillen worries that undocumented farmworkers may lose their jobs to H-2A Visa holders — temporarily imported workers who, critics like Guillen have said, are more vulnerable to exploitation, whereas supporters argue the program helps address labor shortages in the agricultural industry.
As a Mexican-American who lived and worked alongside other immigrant families at Hulbert Farms just outside of La Conner during her childhood, Guillen has not only developed a strong appreciation for farmworkers, but a sense of responsibility towards them as they face increasing challenges due to their immigration status.
This led the La Conner resident to founding and leading Community to Community Development, a Bellingham-based grassroots organization that fights structural racism and food injustice in Skagit and Whatcom counties.
Born in Texas from Mexican parents, Guillen spent most of her early childhood in Mexico before relocating to Skagit Valley at the age of 10, in 1960. Her family of 10 came from a long line of farmworkers, and growing food had always been part of their identity. This relationship to the land has been extensively documented in the works of her late father, acclaimed artist Jesus Guillen, whose paintings honor his fellow farmworkers and the beauty of Skagit’s countryside.
In her adult years, despite breaking a long intergenerational tradition of working in the fields when she became Skagit State Bank’s first hire of color, Guillen never forgot the racial divide between workers and farm owners that had been apparent to her from a young age.
Her involvement in civics began in the 1980s, when she volunteered for Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign. Though the U.S. wouldn’t elect the first president of color until over two decades later, the overall experience further deepened Guillen’s understanding of systemic racism and prepared her to become a community organizer advocating for farmworkers in Washington and California.
In 1993, Guillen became one of the leading organizers of a farmworkers’ boycott of Chateau Ste. Michelle in Yakima Valley, which led to a collective bargaining agreement that still exists to this day.
After some legislative wins in California as United Farm Workers’ legislative representative, she decided to move to Washington to start C2C in 2004, inspired by the political activism of farmers in Brazil and the principles of labor leader Cesar Chavez.
In talking with local farmworkers, many of whom from Mexico and other Latin American countries, Guillen and her team found that the greatest concerns were low wages, unfair labor practices, lack of recognition and opportunities and often, plain racism in the workplace.
“Every piece of fresh vegetable or fruit that you eat in Skagit County was touched by one of us — one of the farmworkers, one of the immigrants. And you’re eating whatever exploitation goes with that,” she said.
To Guillen and C2C, the role of farmworkers in our food system is deserving of recognition beyond the title of “essential worker” — which, she said, has meant having to work during a global pandemic. Not just fair pay or better working conditions, but a real pathway to residency and citizenship.
“As an organization, we can’t represent and work with farmworkers without dealing with immigration reform,” she said.
Guillen said it has been extremely difficult to become a U.S. citizen due what she described as a costly, slow and difficult process. Under the current administration, she said, it is becoming even harder: while the system gets dismantled and the efforts to become legal residents go up in smoke for many, immigrants also live in fear of leaving their homes due to the fear of being placed in unmarked vehicles by masked agents. In some cases, she said, U.S. citizens may not be safe, either.
“If you look like a Mexican person, whether you’re a citizen or not, you’re considered illegal … Many of us are not undocumented … We don’t know when they’re going to decide to attack us,” she said.
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
