Omar Dieguez poses for a photo at an event Friday. (Contributed)

Dieguez, who grew up in Watsonville, said he felt compelled to take such an extreme action because he’s seen pesticides negatively affect his community. He said he has asthma, which is linked with pesticide exposure. Dieguez emphasized that more than 1 million pounds of pesticides are used in the county every year, which can put farmworkers and their children at particular risk of harm.

Dieguez works as a youth advocate at Santa Cruz-based Barrios Unidos and Salinas-based Partners for Peace, and recently helped restart the Watsonville Brown Berets, a youth-focused advocacy group originally founded in Watsonville in 1994 and inspired by the Brown Berets of the 1960s. He said he hopes the hunger strike will “inspire, empower and educate the youth so that they can start organizing to stop the use of pesticides, because it’s harming our community.” 

Dieguez said he’s been preparing physically, mentally and spiritually for the hunger strike for about six months. He said his Indigenous identity has also inspired him to hunger strike, and he has spent time meditating, meeting with elders, speaking with people who have gone on hunger strike, checking in with his doctor and making other preparations for the fast.

He said he is aware the action comes with significant health risks. He plans to consume water, sage tea and electrolytes, and will have nurses checking in with him during the fast. 

Dieguez and pesticide activists with CORA hope the action will pressure Driscoll’s Inc. to convert more of its farmland to organic.

The Watsonville-based multinational company mostly buys from independent farmers, and many of the local fields that use pesticides are growing berries for Driscoll’s. Some of these fields also border schools, which Dieguez said further inspired him to take action targeting the company.

Agricultural fields border several schools in Pajaro Valley, including Amesti Elementary School on Amesti Road near Watsonville. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local file)

Since Driscoll’s has organic berries grown in Watsonville, Dieguez said the company has the ability to convert fields next to local schools to organic. 

A Discoll’s representative declined a request for an interview and directed Santa Cruz Local to a statement on its website. 

“We want to assure our local community that the use of pesticides, including their application near schools, is strictly regulated and closely monitored by multiple government agencies,” the statement reads. “If the public has concerns or believes changes are needed, we encourage the public to direct those requests to the appropriate agencies.”

Dieguez said the present-day campaign to transition fields to organic is part of a long history of advocacy by Latino leaders around the issue, including legendary labor leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union Dolores Huerta, who visited Watsonville in May for another event organized by CORA.

“We’ve been fighting for too long and we need to go organic,” Dieguez said, adding that he believes the use of pesticides in predominantly Latino areas is environmental racism. 

Sunday at Barrios Unidos in Santa Cruz, Dieguez will join Ann Lopez, director of the Center for Farmworker Families, Adam Scow of CORA, and others for a discussion on the campaign against pesticides in the Pajaro Valley. A short documentary screening and a performance by Monterey County-based band Chicano All Stars are also planned.

The event will also seek to bring attention to a new pesticide alert system, Dieguez said, which shows when and where certain pesticides are scheduled to be used in California. SprayDays allows users to sign up for notifications when pesticide uses are planned within about a mile of a home, school, workplace or any other address in the state. 

“We can make change if we come together. Enough is enough,” Dieguez said. “Pesticides are harming our Mother Earth, our community, our Indigenous community, our farmworkers, our youth, our teachers, our oceans.”

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