VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project

VT Law School. TBA

Middlebury. TBA

***Contact us to host a viewing in your community by emailing vtmfsp@gmail.com***

The film will be followed by a discussion and dialogue with the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project and film makers.

About Silenced Voices
Migrant Farmworker José Obeth Santiz Cruz was killed in a farming accident in December 2009 in Vermont. The VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project sent a delegation to Mexico to return his remains and document his family and community coming to terms with his death and sharing stories about the causes, effects, and their experiences of migration. Their stories draw attention to the conditions and economic policies that force migrants from their homes in Mexico and suggest a need for a new dialogue about the root causes of migration.

Produced and Directed by Gustavo Terán, Brendan O’Neill and Sam Mayfield for the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project

On January 9, 2010 the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project led a delegation to Chiapas, Mexico to return the body of migrant farmworker José Obeth Santis Cruz who was killed in a VT farming accident. We spent the first week with Obeth's family and community and the second week seeking to understand why so many people are migrating from Chiapas to Vermont. This 3 part interview with Abraham Rivera from the Center for Economic and Political Investigation and Community Action (www.ciepac.org) sheds light on the root causes of migration. Click on 'Read More' for parts 2 and 3.

This article was published on the front page of the St. Albans Messenger on 4/15/2010 by Linda Collins.

Enosburg Falls- Sixteen year old Gabino Hernandez , a junior at Enosburg Falls High School, is one of the voices that has been recorded on a website featuring interviews with Vermont's migrant farmworkers. Hernandez has a special interest in the project because his parents are migrant workers on the Gervais Farm in Bakersfield.

(Oakland, CA) More than 800 federal, state and local agents descended April 15 on four Arizona communities - Nogales, Rio Rico, Tucson and Phoenix -- in one of the largest dragnet immigration enforcement operations conducted by the Obama Administration. Isabel Garcia of the Tucson-based Coalición de Derechos Humanos said, "Instead of bringing in the Department of Justice to investigate the immigration abuses and uphold our rights, the Obama Administration sics the ICE police on our communities." (Full Press release available at http://www.nnirr.org/resources/docs/ArizonaICEraidspressrelease.pdf)

The Vermont's Silent Voices Project seeks to amplify the silenced voices of migrant farmworkers in Vermont in order to raise awareness about the experiences, needs, and hopes of some of the approximately 2,000 migrant farmworkers who have come to the aid of Vermont dairy farms in crisis. We hope to engage Vermonters in a much needed dialogue to work for more socially and economically just communities for ALL of those living and working in VT. In this first interview one of Vermont’s Silenced Voices shares the interdependencies between VT dairy farmers and migrant farmworkers. In the end, he appeals to the U.S. government to support both farmworkers and farmers. For more of Vermont's Silenced Voices Project go to: http://vtmigrantfarmworkersolidarity.org/taxonomy/term/1.