Fresno Branch Makes Video about Farmworkers and Covid-19

Angel Vasquez and Patricia Wells in a play available on YouTube that was co-written by Agustin Lira and WILPF Fresno member Patricia Wells. 

By Patricia Wells
Fresno Branch

January 2023

WILPF Fresno has recently completed a video about Covid-19 and farmworkers and is in the process of distributing it. The branch hopes the video will be shared by WILPF members with their local Spanish-speaking community organizations and individuals. The video is in Spanish with English subtitles and is available on YouTube.

“Covid-19, A Play” was written by Agustin Lira and Patricia Wells during the height of the pandemic in 2020. As the virus swept through cities and states, it hit farmworkers and workers in food processing industries especially hard, causing significant fatalities in the Central Valley of California and throughout the country. Deemed “essential,” these workers by law had to keep working, and as the pandemic raged on, they were the ones who kept the country alive and fed though they were given no protections whatsoever. This play was created so that their sacrifices will not be forgotten. 

This is not a medical study; it is a dramatic story of a small farmworker family living in the outskirts of town, unaware of the present danger which will send them in a life and death struggle for survival, greatly affecting their lives. This play shows workers who to contact, where to go and what to do to protect themselves and their families against the ravages of Covid- 19. Given the continued lack of protections and support for these workers, they have experienced higher rates of serious illness and death from the virus.

Please view and share the video "Covid-19, a Play" with your own local communities.