empowering farmworkers to improve their living and working conditions since 1981

Carrying on the Good Fight

Newsletters - Spring 2009 Newsletter

It is hard for me and so many of us to carry on our work and not have Shelley Davis, our colleague, our mentor and our fighter, among us. How do we succeed without Shelley calling us into action to tell the powers that be when they are being unfair, when they are not protecting those whom they should protect and when they are failing to do what the law says they should do? Shelley's effect was like a strong magnet. She pulled us along and aligned those around her to fight the good fight.

Working as an advocate for migrant and seasonal farmworkers for more than 22 years was Shelley's life's passion. Shelley once said, "We have the rare privilege of living out our most deeply held principles, every single day. This is a privilege I would not give up for higher pay or more status - or frankly, anything."

Shelley's tireless advocacy and brilliance as a litigator led to strengthened worker safety protections for farmworkers and their families. While she advocated or litigated on behalf of farmworkers, she also worked with them, to give them a voice. Shelley developed award-winning health education programs to bring preventive health messages to thousands of farmworkers around the country by training lay health educators, or promotores de salud. It was in developing some of these programs that Shelley and I began our work together almost a decade ago. Shelley saw the strength of the promotora model and ran with it, helping empower thousands of workers.

Her efforts to give farmworkers a seat at the table did not stop with community education. She brought farmworkers to the halls of Congress and the EPA so they could testify first-hand about the conditions they endure. If she saw that farmworkers would be absent from meetings or conferences focusing on worker protection and safety, Shelley would push the organizers to change the agenda to include them so their voices could be heard.

Shelley spent countless hours working on behalf of farmworkers. While some of her work took place in the court room, most of it took place behind the scenes. Day in and day out, she consistently looked out for the interests of farmworkers.

Shelley was incredibly versatile. With ease and grace, she went from chatting with workers to taking on the head of a chemical company. She served on numerous government advisory committees. For the past several years, Shelley and I served on the same government pesticide committee. It was here that I so often had the honor of watching her in action. This is where I learned the most from Shelley and where I am so thankful to have had her as a mentor. She could cite policies, studies and regulations without a second thought. She used this encyclopedic knowledge to make her point. She knew what needed to be done and made sure those in power heard about it. It was hard to argue with Shelley. The thing about Shelley was that she was always so right. You knew that if Shelley was in a meeting with you, the right things would be said. And if you were co-signing a letter she had drafted, you knew before you read it, that it was right and that it needed to be written.

Shelley always looked forward. Her optimism and continued commitment never ceased. In accepting one of her many awards she said, "It is my great pleasure to accept this award on behalf of the farmworkers I represent, not because of any great accomplishments of the past, but as a commitment to fight this fight until we succeed."

So what are we to do without Shelley in our world? It's a hard question to ask, but we must ask it. We must ask what are we to do without our friend? Our mentor? Our colleague? Our fighter? We all have enormous shoes to fill. As we work on our worthwhile programs, or get up each day and care for one patient after the next, so many of us make our own mark in this world to help migrants. All of these efforts are needed and important. But we must also ask ourselves what we are doing to bring about change that will fundamentally and systematically improve people's lives. What are we doing in our daily efforts to affect policy change? It's hard to do when we're at the mill day after day. We need our Shelley Davis. We need that strong voice. We need our advocate.
Now, it's our job to keep up the advocacy and bring about the policy and legal changes that are still so desperately needed. I know that we cannot replace Shelley, but we must look to Farmworker Justice and partner with them to carry on her legacy.
More than anything, I know Shelley wants us to keep up the fight and raise our voices for the farmworkers she was humbled to serve. We must do that for Shelley and we must do that for the farmworkers we serve. We must fight the good fight until we succeed!