Antonia Rios in The New York Times: “The most beautiful thing is knowing all of the other workers, chatting with them, learning about their lives and their experiences. Many have left their families in order to put food on the table.”

Silvia Perez, CIW staff and friend of Antonia: “Antonia was a powerful woman. She was a strong woman. She always believed in the dignity and the justice for workers.”

Today, we mark a month since the incalculable loss of our dear friend, Antonia Rios Hernandez, whose bright light in our community was extinguished all too suddenly in a terrible accident at work.

Antonia was a pillar of the Immokalee community whose tireless efforts to realize justice for farmworkers while raising a family continually inspired us. A true human rights hero, Antonia’s life was cut short prematurely when an out-of-control driver jumped a curb and struck her while she was doing landscaping work in the Immokalee area. She leaves behind a husband, Alfredo Leon Cruz, two daughters, Daniela Leon Cruz and Vanessa Leon Cruz – both of whom grew up in the CIW community – and an entire community in mourning.

One of Antonia’s dreams was for her two beautiful daughters to have educational opportunities beyond what she herself had as a young woman. To that end, friends of Antonia and her family are maintaining a GoFundMe to support her family and help pay for the college tuition of her eldest daughter. If you are able to, please consider donating to her family by clicking here. 

Antonia was, by every measure, an extraordinary human being. Today, we would like to take a moment to remember her life and the impact she has had as an irreplaceable leader in the human rights movement born in Immokalee, a place she has called home for decades. Antonia had been deeply involved in the work of the CIW since 2017, and in her years with us, she took part in our Campaign for Fair Food and quickly became indispensable as a community leader. Whenever there was an action to call for accountability from the biggest corporations at the top of the food supply chain, Antonia was there – leading chants, carrying signs, engaging community members, and embodying the virtues the CIW seeks to cultivate in the world.

For five days in 2018, Antonia went without food in the frigid cold with other CIW members and allies outside the Manhattan hedge fund offices of Nelson Peltz – the chairman of Wendy’s – to demand justice for the farmworkers facing sexual abuse in the fields.

Antonia (second speaker) responds to Wendy’s outrageous dismissal of the 2018 fast in New York.

Throughout the entire week-long fast, in spite of freezing rain and the even more frigid response from Wendy’s, Antonia remained resolute and cheerful. In our successive marches to Palm Beach in 2022 and 2023, Antonia was there at the front of our group. For our most recent 5-day march, when Antonia couldn’t participate because of her job, she sent her youngest high school-age daughter Vanessa in her stead. Antonia radiated with pride when she saw Vanessa, so often a quiet artistic presence, leading other youth in chants from the stage on the final day of the march.  Antonia lives on in her daughters, who miss her love and guidance terribly but shine with the same, unique light that she brought to the world and carry her fire into the future. 

Antonia’s commitment to her community went beyond participating with the CIW. She was also actively involved in Cultivate Abundance and Rural Neighborhoods. She led the charge to organize a petition drive to demand a long-overdue stoplight at one of the most dangerous intersections in town that many families had to cross to get to the local health clinic. County planners originally promised they would get to installing the light in six years, but thanks to the campaign organized by Antonia, the stop light appeared at that intersection in three. Antonia was the caretaker of a lush backyard garden including chickens, beehives, and fruit trees from which she would generously share cuttings, honey, and many a mango.  

We will always remember Antonia’s contagious smile and indomitable spirit. She could be counted on to lend a hand whenever asked. She would always gladly share her story and sage advice. She was able to inspire others to participate in the CIW with her humble but consistent and committed presence.

Antonia and many other members of the CIW Women’s Group joined together to create a powerful call to action that was screened during Glennon Doyle and Abby Wombach’s 2017 Together Live Tour.

Many of the CIW women’s group’s current participants were inspired to come to their first women’s group meeting by Antonia, and the CIW women’s folkloric dance group was graced by her participation and her ever-present smile, laugh, and encouragement of others. She would share about the CIW and our struggle for justice wherever she went and especially with her co-workers.  

Antonia will be greatly missed by everyone in Immokalee and beyond.

Finally, we want to share coverage of her remarkable advocacy, starting with a first-person profile from The New York Times during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voices From the Front Lines of America’s Food SupplyAntonia Rios Hernandez – Former farmworker, Immokalee, Fla.

I worked on and off over the years. I worked for the last full season here, including during the pandemic. I started in August of 2019 in planting, then I worked all the way to the end of harvest, around May or June last year.

It’s a long day, it’s very challenging work. We would be picking, for example, cucumbers in the morning and tomatoes in the afternoon and they’re both very heavy work. My fingers would hurt by the end of the day. It hurts your back and makes your lungs ache to work that hard. I would sometimes come home and would just cry.

We were working long days, but they put a lot of protections in place. Lipman Family Farms were a part of the Fair Food program, and followed the procedures.

We would clean all of the tables with Clorox or bleach and make sure that everyone was washing their hands well. Thank God no one I know got sick. I wasn’t too afraid of the pandemic because of the precautions that the company was taking. They hired people specifically to clean the buses every day.

In the beginning of the pandemic, we knew that if we didn’t do this work, prices could go way up. We knew that when there aren’t people to pick the food, it could have a much bigger impact on everything else.

Our work is important, but the phrase “essential worker” is a title that we were given. We should have been not just thanked, but given real support. Especially in the beginning, when everything ran out in the stores. They had big gallons of sanitizer at work, and I brought a little bit home to keep our house clean.

If what we’re doing is so important, I thought we would be paid extra. All we got from the government was the one Covid check.

I found another job in landscaping, which is a bit lighter. But I believe that field work is incredibly important. It’s not just a tomato. Behind every vegetable is this long process.

The most beautiful thing is knowing all of the other workers, chatting with them, learning about their lives and their experiences. Many have left their families in order to put food on the table. I would try to encourage them and say, “Don’t worry, paisano.”

Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States

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