Martinez said she picked strawberries for four years before getting the diagnosis. It was about one month after her son was born. 

“I was given eight sessions of chemotherapy. Then I had an operation. I had a very big operation and they took out all my stomach. Now I live without a stomach,” she said to gasps from the crowd. Small meals eaten more frequently can help with digestion.

Martinez spoke at a rally organized by the Watsonville-based Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture, or CORA, which advocates for growers to transition to organic. The rally was held behind T.S. MacQuiddy Elementary School at 330 Martinelli St. in Watsonville.

Longtime labor leader Dolores Huerta, 95, joined the rally. She and Cesar Chavez founded a farmworker union that in 1966 merged with other unions to become the United Farm Workers.

Huerta called Watsonville-based multinational berry company Driscoll’s Inc. a “bad company” because of its use of pesticides and for not being unionized. The company produces conventional and organic products and is one of the world’s largest distributors of berries.

“Let the world, let everybody know that this company is not a company that cares about its workers, it doesn’t care about the community, it doesn’t care about the consumers,” Huerta said. “We’ve got to start making a serious effort to say to Driscoll’s and the other strawberry companies, ‘If you’re going to keep using pesticides, we’re not going to buy your products.’”

When asked for a response, Driscoll’s representatives said the Environmental Protection Agency and California Department of Pesticide Regulation “are responsible for protecting community health through rigorous, science-based oversight” rather than growers. “If the public has concerns or believes changes are needed, we encourage the public to direct those requests to the appropriate agencies,” Driscoll’s representatives wrote in a statement. 

This year, CDPR proposed a lower daily exposure limit of the likely cancer-causing pesticide 1,3-dichloropropene for farmworkers. The proposal wouldn’t change that threshold for schoolchildren and residents near pesticide applications, who can legally be exposed to 14 times that limit. Pesticide activists are urging state regulators to adopt the stricter exposure limit for everyone — or ban the pesticide as 40 nations have. 

Maricela Cruz Martinez, left, described a powdery pesticide on the berries that would burn her eyes as she worked in berry fields. After four years of picking strawberries, she was diagnosed with cancer. She stands with her family at a rally behind MacQuiddy Elementary School in Watsonville on Saturday. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)

At Saturday’s event, Watsonville resident Ernestina Solorio spoke of her childrens’ learning challenges that she believes is linked to pesticide exposure. Solorio said she has four children. While pregnant with her first two, she didn’t work in the fields. But while pregnant with the second two, she did work in the fields and they both have significant learning disabilities.

“The truth is that it’s been very hard with my two youngest children,” Solorio said in Spanish. “They are constantly going to medical appointments with counselors and psychologists. And it’s very difficult for me to see how they’re not able to get better and progress. If I had known that there were chemicals in the fields, I would not have chosen to work there,” Solorio said.

Exposure to some pesticides has been linked to cancer, learning disabilities and other health harms, according to several peer-reviewed studies. 

Pesticides near schools

CORA activists have focused on pressuring growers to transition fields near schools to exclude pesticides because children may be more susceptible to chemicals’ health harms than adults. 

State law prohibits the application of certain pesticides within a quarter mile of a school on school days. But activists say it’s not enough because fumigants injected into the soil turn into a gas and can drift in the wind for miles. 

A new state program allows residents to sign up for notifications when some pesticides are scheduled for use near their home, school or any other location in California. CORA organizer and former Pajaro Valley Unified School District trustee Adam Scow has called the notification program a “Band-Aid” and said the real solution is farming without harmful pesticides.

Watsonville resident Ernestina Solorio, center, tears up while describing the struggles of her children who suffer from learning challenges. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)

Ann Lopez, director of the Center for Farmworker Families, speaks at a rally Saturday. Lopez called the use of pesticides ‘environmental racism,’ and said the burden in Santa Cruz County disproportionately falls on Latino communities. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)

Dolores Huerta, center, joins Watsonville residents Saturday. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)

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Read more

• Pesticide use near schools detailed in Santa Cruz County – April 26, 2024
• Watsonville residents push for stricter pesticide rules – Jan. 14, 2025
• Watsonville mayor joins fight against pesticides near schools – June 3, 2024

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