FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CIW Co-Founder Lucas Benitez to receive Wallenberg Medal for Achievements in Human Rights on October 10, joining the company of previous medal recipients Rep. John Lewis, Elie Wiesel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama among others
Lucas Benitez: “I am immeasurably honored and humbled to receive the Wallenberg Medal in recognition of our efforts to forge a new paradigm for the protection of fundamental human rights from the fields to factories around the globe.”
IMMOKALEE – Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, is set to be awarded the Wallenberg Medal by the University of Michigan for his extraordinary achievements in the field of human rights. Previous recipients include Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, and the Dalai Lama of Tibet as well as Rep. John Lewis, Miep Gies, Paul Rusesabagina, Masha Gessen, and Denis Mukwege.
Born into a family of rural farmers in the highlands of southern Mexico, Benitez was one of six children living in a simple, rural house with dirt floors. At the age of 17, he joined his older brother in traveling to the US to work in the fields to help support his family. Upon arrival, the conditions he found in the fields of Florida and Alabama — from wage theft to violence to endemic sexual harassment — moved him, even at that young age, to stand up against the abuse.
The moment presented itself to join a small group of likeminded workers in Immokalee gathering at the local Catholic Church to ask why conditions were so brutal for people who left their families behind at home to feed the world. Mr. Benitez not only joined the meetings, he immediately took the lead and hasn’t looked back since. Those early gatherings led to the development, decades later, of the new ‘gold standard’ program for protecting workers’ fundamental human rights: the Fair Food Program, which was institutionalized first in the tomato fields of Florida in which Benitez used to work and is now covering over a dozen crops in 10 states and three countries including Chile and South Africa.
In addition to being one of the earliest farmworker leaders in the Fair Food movement, Mr. Benitez played a critical role in the investigation of several slavery cases, helping to free over 700 workers in one case alone. He also works with consumer allies to organize national actions — renowned for their creativity and effectiveness — designed to bring pressure on the large retail purchasers of Florida produce to join the Fair Food Program. Currently, Mr. Benitez is one of the primary ambassadors in U.S. and international expansion of the Fair Food Program. Benitez has received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award as well as the “Ohtli” Award, the highest distinction conferred by the Mexican Government on citizens living outside of the country.
“I am immeasurably honored and humbled to receive the Wallenberg Medal in recognition of our efforts to forge a new paradigm for the protection of fundamental human rights from the fields to factories around the globe,” said Mr. Benitez. “I also want to recognize the efforts of my entire community, the decades of labor of countless women and men in Immokalee in the fields that have brought us to where we are today. We stand on the shoulders of past Wallenberg recipients like the late Representative John Lewis and Desmond Tutu, who embodied courage and commitment. And our work is still far from over. We recognize the urgent need to continue expanding the protections we won first for farmworkers in the U.S. to new fields and new industries across the country and the world.”
“Lucas Benitez’s work with the CIW reflects the ongoing need for frontline advocates for vulnerable people in our society. This movement harnesses the economic influence of consumers to improve working conditions, labor practices, and pay for farmworkers through its worker-led, market-enforced approach to the protection of human rights underlying corporate supply chains,” said Sioban Harlow, Professor Emerita of Epidemiology and Global Public Health and chair of the Wallenberg Medal Selection Committee.
The Wallenberg Medal honors the achievements of Raoul Wallenberg who saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II. Wallenberg issued thousands of protective passports and placed tens of thousands of Jews in safehouses while confronting Hungarian and German forces to secure the release of Jews, whom he claimed were under Swedish protection. He ultimately saved more than 80,000 lives.
Mr. Benitez will receive the 2023 Wallenberg Medal and deliver a lecture on CIW’s 30 years of achievements and the future of human rights for farmworkers on October 10th at 7:30pm in Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan. It is free and open to the public.
