In The state of California, Latinos, predominantly Mexican Americans, make up close to 40% of the population, yet suffer 50% of Covid-19 infections. This disproportionate share of infections out of the state population is due to the large number of “essential workers” of Mexican descent that comprise the work forces in agriculture, meat processing, urban service sectors, including in the hospitality and medical fields, and the garment industry. Mexican Americans provide most of the unskilled yet essential labor in the nation’s most populous state and pay billions in state and federal taxes.

In the meat processing industry alone, over 1,400 workers in California have been infected, as a result of the President’s April 2020 executive order meant to “solve the liability problems” for big business, which was issued during the previous height of the pandemic in California. One Los Angeles garment manufacturer has had over 300 positive cases in one factory.

When forced to face the issue by the media, federal government agencies have said “they are taking steps to address unsafe workplaces.” The Republican majority in the Senate has presented another liability clause to benefit business to be included into the next government financial relief package, along with reduced unemployment benefits, and a reduction in Food Stamp benefits for families that rely on the SNAP program. The needs of immigrants have been deliberately excluded from any relief aid.

Recent attacks by the president take aim at an accurate constitutional count in the census along with attacks on the voting rights of all minorities, not just Mexican Americans.

Human Rights are not negotiable.

Essential workers should be treated as essential for producing fresh produce for the country, processing the meat for the country’s tables and restaurants, preparing food for the nation’s restaurants, sewing clothing and PPE, cleaning and disinfecting hospitals, restaurants, hotels, delivering goods, and providing maintenance for vehicles, homes, and businesses.

Forcing vulnerable “essential” workers to choose, either to continue to work in unsafe and unsanitary conditions for below minimum wage or lose their livelihoods during this pandemic amounts to profiteering from the indentured servitude of brown indigenous people of America, a systemic practice that dates to the arrival of the first white Europeans to the Americas, it is no less than 21st century slavery.

Juan Rojas Aguilar
Descendant of Mexihcah
July 22, 2020