NW Ohio is a battleground in the migrant farm laborer rights movement.
In 1978, 2,000 migrant workers walked off their jobs at Northwest Ohio’s Campbell Soup facility, citing workplace injustices. Those brave activists were all members of The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), founded in Toledo almost a decade earlier by Baldemar Velasquez in effort to organize migrant workers living in this area.
Today, Velasquez maintains as an activist, still serving as president of FLOC and fighting for families and individuals at risk of deportation.
Join FLOC with their special guest, author Sandra Cisneros, to celebrate five decades of impact during Remembering 50 Years of Struggle: Farm Labor Organizing Committee.
This free event will include a reception, performance of labor songs by Aguila Negra, a remembrance of pivotal events and the contributions of community and religious supporters, and a presentation by Cisneros. During the evening, books by Cisneros will be sold by Friends of the Library for the author to sign.
Her works include the internationally-lauded The House on Mango Street, Caramelo, Woman Hollering Creek, Have you Seen Marie?, and most recently, A House of My Own. In addition to receiving the MacArthur Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the author also founded the Macondo Foundation, the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation, and Los MacArturos (the Latino MacArthur Fellows).
6-8:30pm. Wednesday, May 31. Toledo Lucas County Main Library, 325 Michigan St., 419-259-5200. Toledolibrary.org Free
