La Jornada: “Marco Antonio Hernández Guevara should not have died. The farmworker, like so many others, came to the United States to work in the fields of Florida and support his wife and three daughters in Mexico. He will now return to his country for his funeral."

Reyna Jimenez, widow of Marco Guevara: “I would do anything to ensure that no one else ever has to go through what Marco and our family are going through today.”

Lucas Benitez, co-founder of CIW: Mr. Guevara's death reflects "a systemic problem that the agricultural industry in general has had for decades, particularly those companies that benefit from the labor of farmworkers—supermarkets, large restaurant chains, and producers—that refuse to be part of the Fair Food program agreements."

Late last week, we shared the news that Immokalee-area farmworker Marco Antonio Hernández Guevara had been hospitalized after collapsing from heat stroke in Florida’s fields.

Today, with heavy hearts, we share the news that Mr. Guevara passed away over the weekend. His wife — who had rushed from Mexico on a humanitarian visa to be by his side — was with him in his final moments. He leaves behind three young daughters, ages 4, 8, and 14. In the wake of this unimaginable loss, his family must now navigate the painful return of his body to Mexico and the burden of medical and legal costs.

Mr. Guevara came to the U.S. on an H-2A guestworker visa, laboring under punishing heat without the enforceable protections of the Fair Food Program, enduring long hours and rising temperatures to provide for his family and help put food on our tables.

His wife, Reyna Jimenez, reflecting on her family's unimaginable loss, said: “I would do anything to ensure that no one else ever has to go through what Marco and our family are going through today.”

It is in that spirit — honoring her call, and Mr. Guevara’s ultimate sacrifice — that we continue working to expand the Fair Food Program’s life-saving heat protections. The FFP's protections, hailed by the Washington Post as “the strongest set of workplace protections in the United States,” stand as a model to prevent further needless deaths in America’s fields.

Mr. Guevara’s passing comes at a time when outdoor workers across the nation and the rest of the world are coping with rapidly rising temperatures that seem to set new records every year, while protections against heat illness all too often lack meaningful enforcement or are absent altogether. Just a few days ago, The New York Times published a timely op-ed that sounded the alarm on this trend, and on the emergent economic divide between workers exposed to deadly heat and those employed in air-conditioned workplaces.

The author of the Times story cites a study that concludes: “All in all, low-paid workers suffer five times as many heat-related injuries as their highest-paid counterparts,” and paints a grim picture of the pressures to continue working even though one can physically feel their body failing. The author, Jeff Goodell, tells the story of a farmworker who suffered an all too familiar fate: 

“Without protections, many workers are forced into a kind of extreme heat arbitrage: I need the paycheck, so I will work in the heat and keep my mouth shut and gamble that it won’t kill me. Even workers whose employers try to do the right thing understand it’s a dangerous bargain…

That strategy didn’t work out very well for a 38-year-old farmworker named Sebastian Perez, whose family I met with while reporting on the impacts of the brutal 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Perez knew very well the risks of extreme heat — his mom even warned him about it the night before he died. But he most likely also knew that if he asked for a break from the heat while he was working, he might get fired.

Mr. Perez apparently thought he was stronger than the heat. But his co-workers found him unconscious in the field, his half-full water jug at his side. He died shortly afterward.”

This harsh reality is why the FFP, backed by legally binding commitments from some of the world’s biggest buyers of fruits and vegetables, enforces rigorous heat stress protections that include the mandatory provision of shade, water, electrolytes, rest breaks every two hours, training, as well as the right to stop working and seek medical treatment without fear of retaliation. 

CIW co-founder Lucas Benitez spoke with La Jornada, Mexico City’s leading newspaper, about the tragic death of Mr. Guevara and the urgent need to bring the FFP’s life-saving provisions to more farms across the country: 

“Marco Antonio Hernández Guevara should not have died. The farmworker, like so many others, came to the United States to work in the fields of Florida and support his wife and three daughters in Mexico. He will now return to his country for his funeral. Although the cause of death was technically heatstroke, the underlying cause was the lack of protections and standards for farmworkers, which exist and save lives every day for those who work under the Fair Food program.

The farm where Hernández Guevara worked is not part of the Fair Food program, which establishes labor protections and standards for thousands of farmworkers promoted by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. This program has transformed working conditions in agricultural fields in some 18 states and is now a model being adopted in other parts of the United States as well as in several other countries (from Chile to South Africa).

Lucas Benítez, a co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, commented in an interview with La Jornada that this case highlights something all too common. The death itself was not the result of a political issue or a government problem, but rather "a systemic problem that the agricultural industry in general has had, particularly those companies that benefit from the labor of farmworkers—supermarkets, large restaurant chains, and producers—that refuse to be part of the Fair Food program agreements.

Benítez emphasized that Hernández Guevara's case "is an example, because the Fair Food program doesn't exist on the farm where this loss occurred. To date, we haven't had a single report of this type of heatstroke in the fields that are receiving support.

"That's because these workers are being protected; they are given breaks every two hours, all machinery is shut down, and the farmworkers go to the shade where they drink water with electrolytes."

To help Mr. Guevara’s family in their time of need, we are re-sharing this fundraiser organized by Pastor Miguel Estrada. At this time, the fundraiser has exceeded its initial goal of $20,000, but every dollar counts to help alleviate the enormous financial burden now on the family, not just with the immediate medical and legal expenses but also the sudden loss of their primary source of income.

Even a small donation of $5 or $10 can help. Thank you.