Farmworker Olivia Tamayo Successfully Sued Her Supervisor For Rape

Olivia Tamayo, a migrant farmworker, took her supervisor and Harris Farms of Fresno, California to court on charges that he raped her several times:

The first attack occurred in his car when she accepted a ride to work. The second, under a stand of almond trees. The third, at her home while her husband was at work and her children asleep. The company’s solution, according to the suit: Reassign her to an isolated spot in a field nearer to her attacker’s house.

While her lawsuit against the supervisor — and subsequent retaliation lawsuit against Harris Farms — were successful, the LA Times brings up a good point - there are countless other Olivia Tamayos who remain silent:

Studies are sparse, but one by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that 90% of female farmworkers in California surveyed in 1993 said sexual harassment was a serious problem. Vulnerable because of their poverty, their limited English skills and often their immigration status, these women are easy prey. Harassers sometimes threaten to report illegal immigrants or their relatives if victims do not remain silent, advocates say.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has taken steps to draw attention to the abuse female workers face:

In California, bandannas hang in exhibits from Salinas — where female farmworkers refer to one work site as the “field of panties” because of frequent sexual assaults there — to Santa Ana. The project has received attention because of Tamayo’s victory, but in one respect, the court decision is bittersweet. Hers is the only suit brought by a female farmworker to reach a federal jury.

The immediate question, then, is how to give and make female migrant workers aware of the resources and support they have so that they can confidently and vocally bring their attackers to justice? That, or teach every female worker how to fashion a shiv out of a stick.

Female farmworkers at risk [LA Times]