Teen Farmworker's Death, Probed as Heat-Related, Stirs Outcry

[MountainLaurel]

I haven't seen anything about this here since it happened.

Until her death on May 16, Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez was another undocumented farmworker at the bottom rung of California's farm production chain.

On Wednesday, nestled in a white satin coffin, the 17-year-old girl became to farm labor advocates more a symbol of what they say are secretive and abusive conditions in some of California's orchards and vineyards.

California occupational safety authorities are investigating the girl's death in Lodi as a heat-related fatality. The United Farm Workers Union is calling her treatment an "egregious" violation of safety regulations put into effect three years ago after three farmworkers and a construction worker died of the heat.

"Maria's death should have been prevented," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/640805.html

[sandsavage]

1. The more things change, the more they stay the

same. When I was a child,my father worked as a migrant worker for awhile. Jobs were hard to find,he took what ever her could get. That time is burned in my mind. Animals were treated better. No doubt in
my mind, that this tragic story is true. Two lives lost, it breaks my heart. I'm a old lady now but believe me I remember. Back then the children worked right along side their parents. No one cared all those years ago and they still don't care. I will pray for Maria's family and all the others that will have to continue taking this abuse.