Ann López has been researching binational farmworkers and their families in Mexico since 1997. Her research addresses the human side of the binational migration circuit from the subsistence and small producer farms of west central Mexico to employment in California’s corporate agribusiness. Working with 33 farmworker families in Watsonville and Salinas, California and their family members on 22 farms in the west central Mexico countryside, the post-NAFTA reality of farmworkers and their family members became painfully clear.

Dr. López’ findings while interviewing central California farm worker families and their family members in Mexico, were fundamentally disturbing and life-transforming.

As a result, she and others are actively attempting to create awareness about the Human Rights abuses that are endemic to every juncture of the migrant circuit. She has initiated many projects on both sides of the border designed to alleviate some of the inordinate suffering experienced daily by migrant farm workers and their family members in Mexico.

Dr. López’ doctoral dissertation (From the Farms of West Central Mexico to California’s Corporate Agribusiness: The Social Transformation of Two Binational Farming Regions), book (The Farmworkers’ Journey), and the Center for Farmworker Families are the results of her solid commitment to rectifying the Human Rights’ abuses and unimaginably difficult life circumstances in this binational population.

Ann López is currently a Research Associate at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2006, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship sponsored by the University of California Office of the President, as a researcher in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. She has also taught courses in biology, environmental science, ecology and botany in the biology department at San José City College for many years. Photo: Dr. López distributes shoes to impoverished families in Mexico.

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