Interview: Cesar Chavez on Human Trafficking

Each week, I will be bringing you a new interview with a formerly-active activist or abolitionist, that is, someone now deceased.  I'll be talking to the men and women who paved the way for the abolitionists of today and getting their thoughts on the problems and solutions of modern-day slavery.  How do I contact not just the dead, but the famous and dead?  Every good blogger must have her secrets! 

This week..... Cesar Chavez

How's the afterlife treating you?

Muy bueno. 

For those non-biography readers out there, how about you tell me a little about yourself.

I was a champion of Mexican-Americans and migrant workers during the 1960s and 70s, and worked for fair labor standards and pay for thousands of agricultural workers.  I formed what eventually became the United Farm Workers (UFW) union.  

What do you think is the biggest problem in the modern-day abolitionist movement?

Aye de mi!  I'd say combating the rampant labor trafficking and exploitation which still takes place in agricultural industries around the world.  The regulations are difficult to enforce, and labor trafficking victims who are in the country without proper documentation are often arrested and deported. 

If you were alive, what would you do to fight slavery?

I'd work to improve and enforce labor standards in agriculture in the U.S. and around the world, especially for vulnerable migrant workers.  I'd make it a lot harder for traffickers to get away with exploiting the labor of hard-working migrants. 

Any last thoughts for our readers?

Buena suerte.