It has been nearly two months since the debut of Esperanza – a 15 foot animated farmworker puppet, who as her name reveals, embodies the hopes of farmworkers for dignity and freedom in the fields. Her first major public appearance came at the first-ever Farmworker Freedom Festival in Palm Beach, FL, which culminated in a powerful ceremony designed to bring the Fair Food Nation’s message of hope home to Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz.
Farmworkers, their families and their allies gathered in a gorgeous park across the street from Peltz’s beachside mansion, where they shared, framed by giant banyan trees, the hopes of the farmworker community for a future of partnership with Wendy’s — a partnership to empower workers themselves to monitor and enforce their own human rights through the expansion of the Fair Food Program to Wendy’s produce suppliers. The hopes were written down on bandanas, which were then tied together and draped around Esperanza. During this Pilgrimage of Hope, Esperanza stood squarely at the center of the park and looked toward Peltz’ mansion.
It was a spectacle months in the making.
From the earliest sketches of Esperanza to the hundreds of hours of clay molding, basket weaving, zip tying, engineering, paper macheing, painting, and fine-tuning, she was a work of art sprung from many creative minds and many dedicated hands.
And that was just the beginning for Esperanza.
As we make exciting plans for her next big event, we want to thank the fantastic artists who supported the Immokalee puppet team from as far away as South Africa and England and as close by as LaBelle and Naples. For your time, talent, creativity, and support, we want to send a very special thank you to Andrew Kim of Thingumajig Theatre, Adrian Kohler of Handspring Puppet Company, Mark Safford of Barebones Puppets, Danika Fornear Perry and Phoenix Perry of LaBelle, Tree and Erik with the Raow Raow Collective, and everybody else who had a hand in Esperanza’s creation.
Esperanza is also the latest in a long tradition of larger-than-life puppets and papier mache works of art to enrich and enliven the demands of farmworkers. Perhaps the most famous puppet made by the Fair Food Nation is the Immokalee Statue of Liberty, which depicts the Statue of Liberty holding a tomato bucket and tomato. She was carried by farmworkers and allies over 230 miles in 2000 as part of the March for Dignity, Dialogue, and a Fair Wage, and now lives on permanent display at the National Museum of American History in Washington DC.
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Gerardo Reyes Chavez, farmworker and senior staff member of the CIW, speaking on a panel at the DC screening of “Food, Inc. 2:” “Workers in other parts of the US and the globe today want to replicate the protections we have created for workers in the fields in their own realities…. The time for Worker-driven Social Responsibility has come.” Senator Cory Booker on Mr. Chavez and the CIW:“Sincerely, I was floored and blown away by what this man has accomplished with others in organizing both here in the United States and across the world, giving people not just dignity and fair […]
Thea Lee, Department of Labor’s deputy undersecretary for international affairs on the original Department of Labor report: “We commissioned the report,” she said, “precisely because there are so many versions of inadequate worker voice or social audits or corporate-driven compliance programs. We really wanted to have a well-researched, well-articulated framework with clear examples that would be of real value to corporations, to government, to unions and to organizers who are trying to create something better for workers.” Lee on the CIW: “The Coalition was really able to make something out of nothing. They were able to leverage the power of the […]
Lupe Gonzalo, farmworker and CIW staff member: “Continuing to expand is quite urgent. It’s quite important because only this path of the Fair Food Program has made a difference for thousands of workers.” A few days ago, we announced a partnership with Spanish farmworkers to explore building the first-ever Worker-driven Social Responsibility program in the EU. Today we have another exciting piece of news to share: MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving has announced that the Fair Food Standards Council (FFSC) – the third-party monitoring organization responsible for enforcing the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program (FFP) – will receive a grant […]
US Dept of Labor Report: “The FFP has raised compensation, reduced health and safety risks, and eliminated forced labor, child labor, and gender-based violence for approximately 30,000 workers at 20 employers supplying 14 retail, fast-food, and food-service companies.” “When authentic worker voice exists, workers participate in collective efforts to… identify problems, propose solutions, negotiate agreements, and hold parties accountable – democracy in action, at work.” A newly released report from the US Department of Labor compiles countless case studies from around the world to conclude that enhancing workers’ voices promotes more robust communities, and safer, more equitable, more democratic workplaces. More tangibly, the […]
Lucas Benitez, CIW co-founder: “As workers ourselves – the men and women who built this new model and experienced this remarkable change – we are excited to continue the dialogue with workers around the globe about how they can transform their industries in similar ways through implementing WSR programs.” Rafaela Rodriguez, Worker-driven Social Responsibility Network (WSRN): “When worker organizations lead the creation, design and implementation of solutions, the results are truly transformative…” There is a human rights revolution underway across the world, and it all started right here in the tomato fields of Immokalee. Facing abusive crewleaders and a pervasive climate of […]
The much-anticipated sequel to the Oscar-nominated 2008 documentary “Food, Inc.” will hold a nationwide “sneak preview” at 100 theaters across the US on April 9th, ahead of its national theatrical and digital release on April 12 ! Click on this link to see which theaters near you are screening “Food, Inc. 2” on April 9! Major cities hosting screenings include: New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, and more! The film will then be available on major streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime, starting April 12. In the works for several years after the Oscar-nominated documentary “Food, Inc.” shook consumers and […]
Gerardo Reyes Chávez, CIW, in Civil Eats: “[Farmworkers in the FFP] don’t feel pressure to keep working under conditions that are placing their lives and their health at risk. And that’s fundamentally different from what happens outside of the program.” Civil Eats: “This model pioneered by FFP, known as Worker-Driven Social Responsibility, has been adopted by other industries long plagued by abuse. It inspired Bangladesh’s garment industry to form a similar partnership between brands and trade unions, protecting over 2 million factory workers with a legally binding accord.” As the US gears up for another scorching summer harvest season, experts and […]
Lupe Gonzalo, CIW: “We wanted as workers to leave the place where we live and the place where we work, and come here to the place Nelson Peltz lives, to show him our faces as humans, and invite him to be part of this program.” Fast Company, on the Pilgrimage and Esperanza: “The puppet served as a physical embodiment of the sentiment that farmworkers like Nely Rodriguez wanted to capture through the Farmworker Freedom Festival, a three-day event put on by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), an organization that advocates for the rights of farmworkers. “We wanted to make her […]
Check out the must-see video from Day 3! CIW’s Nely Rodriguez (VIDEO): “The bandana doesn’t only represent protection, but for many women it also represents sexual harassment, abuse, and violence, and those same bandanas hold for many of us our tears and suffering… And with these bandanas, we are creating a circle of hope.” Sunday, March 10th, saw the culmination of the 3-day Farmworker Freedom Festival in Palm Beach with a powerful ceremony designed to bring the Fair Food Nation’s message of hope home to Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz. Farmworkers, their families and their allies gathered in a gorgeous […]
Longtime member of CIW family and artist/activist extraordinaire, Olmeca, after receiving first-ever CIW Artist of Conscience Award: “CIW doesn’t just see the long-road, CIW is the long-road!” Esperanza, the CIW’s 15-ft tall puppet representing the hopes of all farmworkers for a more humane agricultural industry, continued her sojourn in Palm Beach on Saturday, Day 2 of the Farmworker Freedom Festival, where she was joined by hundreds of workers and allies from around the state for a jam-packed day of cultural action and reflection. Streaming into town in buses and caravans from Tampa, Miami, Homestead, and Gainesville, the Fair Food Nation made its […]