Wasco residents marched on the streets on Feb. 6 to speak out about local farm workers getting evicted from their apartment complex.
Late Tuesday afternoon, pedestrians started meeting around 5:30 p.m. in Wasco’s Cormack Park. A planned march organized by Daniela Simunovic and a committee named, Por los Derechos de Nuestros Ni§os (For the Rights of our Children), started at 6 p.m. with approximately 250 people marching along Poplar Avenue and ending on Poso Drive at Barker Park next to the Veteran’s Hall. A city council meeting started at 7 p.m. to discuss the evictions made by the Housing Authority.
At the rally, flags of the United States were waved as well as Mexico, United Farm Workers, and Center on Race, Poverty, and Environment.
Kern County Sheriff’s Department officers Dan Ederle and Kevin Zimmermann, both with 16 years on the force, were watching the march closely to make sure no one caused trouble, although none broke out. A parade permit was requested and given to the marchers.
“The march was peaceful,” said Ederle. “Even though I didn’t understand their chants, I respect their cause.”
Miguel Raya, a civilian, marched along with the 250 supporters and stood nearby his family. “We want a clear answer from the federal government,” Raya said. “The city council has the highest power in the city, they should be able to do something.”
There were speeches given and chants repeated. Daniela Simunovic, 23, works for the CRPE in Delano as a community organizer, fighting against pollution. “I fight against the hazards that are affecting quality of life for low income colored people,” said Simunovic. She told the crowd they would enter soon, so the crowd began forming a line of people.
When it was close to 7 p.m. they all started to move toward the Veteran’s Hall.
Approximately 160 of the marchers attended the meeting and listened to what the council had to say. Wasco Mayor Danny Espitia attended as well as Tilo Cortez Jr., council member; Kathy Krause, deputy city clerk; Bonny Garcia, city attorney; Larry F. Pennell, city manager, and many more.
A few minutes after the meeting started, the mayor asked the audience if anybody wanted to speak about any issues or concerns. However, no one stood up at this point.
Later in the meeting, on issue number eight, the interpreter stood up and began to translate what the council members were saying.
After this comment the mayor again asked if anybody wanted to step up on the microphone and say anything for two minutes. The speakers were overwhelmed with a lot of cheering and chanting.
“Si se puede!” yelled the audience after Miguel Raya spoke.
Former Bakersfield College student and current state Sen. Dean Florez, 43, took the microphone and began to mention his ideas to the council. A fact that Florez brought up was Article Two of the California Emergency Services Act.
Since this issue is a state emergency, this helps rebuild houses for natural disasters, including tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes, just for California but also provides help for countries all around the world.
Florez proposed three ideas to help the cause. Number one, provide rental assistance for farm workers from the economic wages, which is 2.1 billion.
Number two, make all houses available today, and they also have the power to get private property and put it to excellent use. Number three, a one-year moratorium of all evictions of undocumented.
Wegman then asked the senator “How soon?” but instead of Florez answering, the audience yelled “today!” and the chants started again.
Excitement was in the air, but an incident at just after 8 p.m. caused an ambulance to come.
An elderly male located in the back of the room, passed out due to the body heat of the closed building. With more than 100 people in the room, the meeting was slightly delayed.
More speeches were given after Florez, but the mayor interrupted and said they have an agenda they have to follow, so the speeches were cut short.
At the end of the speeches, the council members voted on the ideas of Florez and all agreed to the ideas. “We will vote today and call tomorrow” said the mayor.
A concern that the mayor put out was “What happens in one year?” Florez responded “each problem has its solution, no change to regulations. Everything still applies, we will see what happens when it’s here.”
A recess was taken and mostly all of the people in the room left. On the outside, Florez and Simunovic said some last words to the remaining 130 people gathered around.
The city of Wasco has labor camps for farm workers that provide them with homes for farmer’s families. Since 1949, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had a major requirement, now that the people there have to be legal residents or a U.S. citizen. This law was enforced on undocumented workers in November 2006.
There are four levels of how a person gets evicted. The city sends a letter for the person to come in their office mainly to check their legal status. So far, more than a dozen people in Wasco are in that stage.
Next, they send another letter saying that the person can’t live there, again mainly because of their legal status.
Right now around a dozen more have received this letter.
Then the 30-day letter arrives saying “At time of re-certification you did not meet USDA-RD Labor Housing eligibility. You must be a citizen or legal resident of the United States . If you fail to quit and deliver possession, legal proceedings will be instituted against you to obtain possession . ”
Six people have gotten this notice even though half of some of these families are U.S. citizens.
The final stage is eviction and they are forced to leave. A proper solution has not yet been found. Upcoming meetings will be announced on the City of Wasco website.
“If politicians don’t do much, then they get corrupted. If the people speak out for what they need, then we get to work and solve the problem,” Florez said.