Farm Labor Rights and “Ecofeminism” with Rosalinda Guillen

Rosalinda Guillen is a widely recognized rural justice leader and a champion of farmworker rights. Born in Texas, Rosalinda spent her first decade in Coahuila, Mexico before emigrating with her family to LaConner, Washington in 1960. At the age of ten she went to work as a farmworker in the fields in Skagit County. Today, Rosalinda is the executive director of Community to Community, an organization that works to, broadly, redefine power in order to end settler colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy. Within the labor movement Rosalinda has worked with Caesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers of America and has represented farmworkers in ongoing dialogues of immigration issues, labor rights, trade agreements, and strengthening the food sovereignty movement.

“We have no choice but to take action,” says Rosalinda on this episode as she discusses organizing, participatory democracy, and embracing what she and her colleagues call “ecofeminism” which she explains is about empowering the feminine in our society—both people and mother nature herself. Rosalinda also talks about some of her proudest victories as an activist and organizer, and what she’d like to accomplish next.

Tune in to hear about

• The lowdown on participatory democracy
• Ecofeminism—Rosalinda explains that it is possible to consult the earth in matters that pertain to her.
• The way our food is tainted by the sweat and blood of farm workers
• How we make changes as individuals and communities to remedy this!

Listen at the link below, on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts.