Farmworkers’ daughter rejects “Strawberry Scholarship” in solidarity with San Quintin

[Oxnard, CA 5/18/15] Last night at the Strawberry Scholarships banquet (sponsored by Driscoll’s & The California Strawberry Commission), Gladys Morales, a young daughter of farmworkers rejected her award from the growers’ cartel who have been complicit in supporting the slavery-style conditions of farmworkers in San Quintin. She is a student at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) who is studying for her degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Expressing her support for the fighting jornaler@s of San Quintin, she ended her rejection statement with the words “Viva la lucha estudiantil y obrera!” – Long live the struggle of workers and students!”

“I want to thank my family for teaching me great personal values like honor, self-respect and honesty, and to always have dignity.

I want to thank my teachers for supporting and believing in my capacity as a scholar.

And most of all I want to thank all of the farmworkers on strike that are teaching me a great lesson of dignity.

So I want to say to the California Strawberry Commission, ‘thank you but NO thank you.’

I want to say that dignity and self-respect has no monetary value and that I reject this scholarship because I also stand united with the farmworkers.

Viva la lucha estudiantil y obrera!”