Omar Dieguez plans to hunger strike for the month of September to protest the use of pesticides near schools in Pajaro Valley. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)
Editor’s note: Find the original story below.
Day 11 — More join in solidarity hunger strikes
Eleven days into a 30-day hunger strike, Omar Dieguez said he was having trouble concentrating and small tasks were making him tired. He said he had lost 12 pounds.
But even though he’s starting to feel the effects, he said “I’m in it for the 30 days.”
“The only way you could get me to stop those 30 days is if I fall unconscious and I end up in the hospital,” Dieguez said on Thursday, Sept. 11. “Simple acts like walking and setting up for a presentation is tiring for me.”
When reached by phone on Sept. 8, Providence Martinez Alaniz said after eight days of no food, she had only felt less and less hungry. She committed to striking for 30 days alongside Dieguez.
“I’m feeling good,” she said. “My family and everyone has been really supportive.”
By Sept. 12, Alaniz said she was feeling “a little tired.”
Rev. Julianne Porras-Center, a Watsonville-based Presbyterian pastor, said she plans to begin a fast at sundown Sept. 12 and go without food for three to five days.
“Fasting and hunger strikes are powerful ways of standing in solidarity with people. Particularly for spiritual people and faith leaders, this is a spiritual practice,” Porras-Center said at a Sept. 2 rally to announce the hunger strike.
Dieguez said he was touched to learn that a 17-year-old Pajaro Valley High School student had joined him in fasting for several days last week.
Watch a day 11 video interview with Dieguez on Santa Cruz Local’s Instagram.
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Santa Cruz Local will update this story with news on the hunger strikers every few days. Or follow updates on Santa Cruz Local’s Instagram.
Day 5 — Cabrillo College, agricultural commissioner
Five days into a 30-day hunger strike, Omar Dieguez said he was hungry. He had prepared for this action for months, he said, and practiced fasting for several days at a time.
“The first four days were good. Today a little while ago I felt a little tired,” he said Friday night. “I know I need to start slowing down.”
Dieguez and other members of Safe Ag Safe Schools met with Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner Dave Sanford earlier Friday.
“He didn’t promise anything, but he seemed genuine,” Dieguez said. “He heard us express our concerns.”
Ahead of the meeting, Sanford wrote in an email, “We all share his concern that children have a healthy space for learning.” He added that the state sets pesticide regulations, not county agricultural commissioners. “We take enforcement of those regulations very seriously.”
Dieguez also spoke with students at Cabrillo College on Friday. “A lot of the students were like, ‘What can we do to make change?’” he said. He advised them to show up to public meetings and write to decision makers.
Dieguez said he plans to attend an event at the First Presbyterian Church of Mountain View on Saturday.
Pam Sexton, a teacher at WASC Adult school in Watsonville, said she ended a three-day fast Friday. She said she fasted to be in solidarity around “an issue that I care deeply about and that needs all of our attention and advocacy.”
Pam Sexton, a teacher at WASC Adult school in Watsonville, said she plans to join the hunger strike for several days. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)
Editor’s note: Original story published Sept. 2.
WATSONVILLE >> Omar Dieguez and Providence Martinez Alaniz have not eaten for two days – and that’s just the start. They plan to go without food for another 28 days, a dangerously long fast, to protest the use of pesticides near schools in the Pajaro Valley. The two Watsonville born-and-raised residents said they’re going to such extreme lengths because pesticides are continuing to harm their communities.
Their goal: to pressure local berry growers to transition to organic farming practices and put an end to the harms caused by pesticides use.
Dieguez, 48, decided to undertake the radical form of protest about six months ago and has been preparing physically and mentally, he previously told Santa Cruz Local. He said he wants to bring attention to this critical issue facing his community and to inspire youth into activism. He plans to visit schools through Santa Cruz and Monterey counties to speak about pesticides throughout September as he continues his fast.
About 50 people rallied outside of Driscoll’s offices on Westridge Drive in Watsonville on Tuesday to kick off the hunger strike. Several residents, including faith leaders, pesticide activists and former school teachers, plan to join Alaniz and Dieguez throughout the month in fasting — some for several days and some longer.
Earlier in the day, Dieguez spoke with fifth graders at MacQuiddy Elementary School in Watsonville.
“They already knew about pesticides,” Dieguez said. “They were concerned about their parents working in the fields — what’s going to happen to my parents? Are my parents going to be OK?”
Alaniz decided to join Dieguez in the 30-day hunger strike in part because her daughter was exposed to pesticides while at an afterschool program at Alianza Charter School two years ago. A neighboring farm applied pesticides and the wind pushed the chemicals onto the school.
Several students were experiencing symptoms, she said, and after her daughter started vomiting she took her to Stanford Hospital. While there, she said she learned that a lot of children with cancer from the Pajaro Valley go to Stanford for treatment.
Her daughter recovered and she moved her to a different school that isn’t next to a field, but she said she was left feeling shaken. Pesticide exposure has been linked to several childhood cancers and other health problems.
“We need to bring awareness, we need to stop killing kids, we need to stop with the pesticides,” Alaniz said on Tuesday, adding that her Lutheran faith inspired her to take action in service of her community. She serves as the chairperson of the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Cruz board, representing Watsonville.
Two rabbis were among the faith leaders that attended Tuesday’s rally outside Driscoll’s Watsonville offices. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)
The hunger strike is an escalation of a local movement against the use of pesticides near schools, headed by the Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture. State law prohibits the use of pesticides within a quarter mile of a school on school days, but gaseous fumigants can drift in the wind for miles.
The ongoing action targets Driscoll’s Inc. and California Giant Berry Farms to pressure them to stop using pesticides on fields next to schools.
Several schools in the Pajaro Valley are bordered by fields that grow conventionally, using pesticides to fight diseases and boost crop yields. But activists said the companies could use organic farming practices, as many farms in Watsonville do, to grow food without the use of pesticides.
Driscoll’s and California Giant did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Dieguez said the last full meal he ate was spaghetti and vegetables his mother cooked. Alaniz said her last meal was Mexican sweetbread and a glass of milk.
Rev. Julianne Porras-Center, 28, said hunger strikes are a powerful way to stand in solidarity with a movement — she committed to a three-day fast this month alongside Dieguez and Alaniz.
“I believe this is an environmental racism issue,” said Porras-Center, an organizing pastor with the Presbytery of San Jose and executive director of nonprofit community center Somos Watsonville. “No value, no profit margin, nothing should ever compete with the value of human life.”
Pit River elder Bruce Gali, left, speaks with Omar Dieguez and says a blessing. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)
A Driscoll’s employee asked Santa Cruz Local to leave the company’s offices and declined to address questions or provide a media contact. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)
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Nik Altenberg is a bilingual reporter and assistant editor at Santa Cruz Local. Nik Altenberg es reportera bilingüe y editora asistente para Santa Cruz Local.
