La Union del Pueblo Entero

ΞLOCALHEROSΞ

About two years ago, Xochitl Pasaye was sent to Gonzales with a formidable task: organize a committee of farmworkers to address their countless social needs. Pasaye, a half-Mexican, half-Argentinean immigrant, had picked strawberries in Salinas for seven years. She says she was excited to go back to the fields, this time representing La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), a nonprofit group founded by César Chávez.

Pasaye immediately met resistance. Some male campesinos didn’t believe Pasaye, an educated, sharply dressed woman in her 20s, had ever been a farmworker. Pasaye had to show them proof.

She came back the next day with old tally sheets that showed how many boxes of berries she picked. Pasaye eventually earned the farmworkers’ trust. She later helped community leaders submit a proposal for a new childcare center near downtown. The committee is now virtually self-sustaining.

“Now when I am not there they call me and say, ‘We have a meeting with the City and we are working on this, this and this,’ ” Pasaye says.

Pasaye was born in Cordova, Argentina. Her name Xochitl, pronounced So-cheel, means “flower” in Aztec. A daughter of wealthy parents, her family moved to Michoacan, Mexico when she was 8.

Starting at the age of 12 Pasaye helped her mom give vaccines to indigenous communities in Michoacan. She worked closely with the Purepechas group and learned their language, in addition to two other native dialects.

Pasaye finished her studies and received a nursing assistant certificate all by the time she was 16. But instead of staying in Mexico, Pasaye took a rebellious turn. She defied her parents and immigrated to California on a tourist visa with her boyfriend. But since she had limited English skills and was still a minor, she says she couldn’t find work other than picking strawberries.

While she toiled in the fields, she took ESL classes at the Salinas Adult School. Pasaye tutored other farmworkers and heard about their struggles to pay rent and send money back to their homeland. “That’s when I learned about their needs,” she says.

In 2000 Pasaye injured her back. This forced her out of work and gave her some free time. So Pasaye volunteered at the Citizenship Project in Salinas. She taught kids contemporary and folkloric dances, and she taught them about indigenous culture in Mexico.

Later she worked for the Service Employees International Union, campaigning for Measure Q, an unsuccessful tax measure for Natividad Medical Center, and then organizing home support workers in San Jose. Now 28, Pasaye is an experienced community organizer for LUPE.

But while she has focused on improving the living conditions of others, Pasaye’s biggest struggle may involve her own life.

With an intravenous tube dangling from her arm, Pasaye walks up the stairs to her office at the LUPE Firehouse in Salinas. A blue backpack with a pouch of serum to replenish her with fluid and vitamins hangs over her shoulder. Pasaye is six months pregnant. But instead of staying home and resting, she acts as her own nurse. “If I started staying home I would really think that I was sick,” she says.  

Pasaye does, in fact, have a serious disease. Just over a year ago, doctors diagnosed her with lymphoma. She is putting off chemotherapy to have the baby.

But Pasaye doesn’t feel sorry for herself. “There are a lot of people with more issues than me,” she says. “I can walk and I can talk.”

In fact, Pasaye turns her illness into a lesson for others to put money away for medical emergencies. “It’s not easy when you are sick and you don’t have the resources,” she says. “That’s why we really need to educate the community to save money.”