Faith fills more than a spiritual void for California’s migrant workers

The church has long played a role in the fight for justice for farmworkers. Although today, as photographer Brian L. Frank shows, it looks a little bit different.

A sky made eerily yellow by wildfire smoke greets workers as they pick stone fruit in California's Central Valley. On this particular day in 2021, pollution from catastrophic fires in the north of the state mixed with smog from the south and sat like a blanket over the endless rows of food.
Photographs byBrian L. Frank
Video bySandra Garcia
Text byAmy McKeever
July 18, 2023
10 min read
This is one of eight stories from The Past Is Present project, a collaboration between National Geographic and For Freedoms.

Faith and farmworkers have long been pillars of life in California’s Central Valley—intertwined in a fight for justice.

You can see it throughout the story of César Chávez, the civil rights leader and devout Catholic who sought better wages and working conditions for Mexican migrants in the 1960s. Chávez infused the movement with religious teachings of nonviolence and ministry to the poor, and even rallied the Catholic Church to support La Causa.

Today, faith still plays a key role—although photographer Brian L. Frank shows in this photo essay that it looks a little bit different.

Catholic priests are still preaching in the fields but instead of Spanish they’re learning Indigenous languages to serve their congregations who have migrated from farther south in Latin America. And ministry is no longer dominated by Catholics either, as evangelical churches expand their reach.

Faith has become even more important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which laid bare the inequities migrant workers face. As most Americans took refuge in their homes, migrants continued to farm the nation’s food. Fearing deportation, they turned to the church—not government—for help with child care and healthcare.

Here’s a glimpse of life in the Central Valley.

As the COVID-19 pandemic forced houses of worship across California to close their doors, many migrant workers in the Central Valley wondered not only where they would go for solace in their time of need, but also where they would take their children when they had to report to work, as schools across the region were closed. 

That’s where churches like Nuevo Pacto stepped in. Flanked on all sides by agricultural fields where its parishioners work, Nuevo Pacto adapted where it could—by holding services outdoors when the weather permitted and setting up a child-care center. In this image, deacon Jose Trujillo and his son Damian carry a cross to an altar being arranged for an outdoor service.

As an undocumented worker in the valley, Lorenza Cortez Barrera did whatever odd jobs were available to her to survive and feed her family from cleaning homes to childcare and agricultural work. When Cortez Barrera began losing her sight, she was unable to turn to assistance programs or proper health care because of her immigration status—and eventually went blind.  

In the U.S., immigrants are ineligible for naturalization if they have received or applied for social assistance. Cortez Barrera is one of many immigrants who has had to balance her need for health care against her desire for U.S. citizenship. Instead, she relies heavily on her faith in God for strength, the love of her husband as her caretaker, and faith institutions to deliver food to her home when the family can’t make ends meet.
Father Rafa B. Rios distributes the Eucharist as part of a packed Sunday Mass at San Judas Tadeo Church—a communal event that’s largely attended by the farmworkers who live and work in nearby Bakersfield. Masses like this one are an opportunity for union leaders to share news and organize agricultural workers.

The Catholic Church has a long history of progressive priests who have supported the labor movement. Priests, able to navigate between the worlds of farm owners and workers, have often provided a shield against violence during worker strikes and marches. Among the most notable historical figures was Msgr. George Higgins, who worked alongside Cesar Chávez and was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  
Evangelical churches have experienced explosive growth in Latino communities over the past decade. Churches have focused on filling a practical, service-based gap in their congregants’ lives, many of whom don’t have access to social services in the U.S. But these churches also fill a spiritual void for those immigrants who cannot return to their home countries or see loved ones.

The churches have had immense success reaching out to youth by taking a more modern approach—not only empowering youth pastors but also hosting Christian rock and hip hop shows and other events.
Some Indigenous spiritual practices have been incorporated into local Catholic rituals and ceremonies. In the Calwa suburb of Fresno, dancers from Mixtecos Unidos perform during a posada, or traditional Christmas procession. The performance is based on a legend of a man who would “prefer to make a deal with the Devil than with the colonizing Spanish.” The dancers, who consider themselves Catholic, often perform at Catholic celebrations such as this one.
Ramona Garcia prays and sings at an evening service at Nuevo Pacto, a collection of mobile homes turned into a Christian church. The church provided essential services to congregants during the COVID-19 pandemic—which hit Latino communities especially hard as people still needed to report to work in the fields or in pack-houses where workers stood shoulder-to-shoulder packaging fruits and vegetables.  
Pastor Tom Rios of Grace Church of the Valley preaches to agriculture workers at a barbecue hosted by Kingsburg Orchards. The Christian owners of the orchard arranged this barbecue and religious service for their more than 4,000 employees, who often need to rely on church services like food banks and child care assistance.
Labor rights icon César Chávez attends an outdoor mass in this archival image. Chávez grew up a devout Catholic—and first took interest in organizing with the encouragement of a Catholic missionary priest whom he met in 1952. Chávez felt it was his religious duty to defend the dignity of farmworkers, who faced exploitative conditions.

In 1962 Chávez established the union known today as the United Farm Workers (UFW), and wove his religious principles into the fabric of the organization, even holding masses for members.  “By doing so,” writes historian Marco G. Prouty, “he endowed the union with a strong sense of collective identity, and he brought a powerful moral and spiritual force into the organization.”
Courtesy of Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University
A congregant holds a prayer book during a service at Nuevo Pacto, a small Christian church surrounded by grape fields where many of its worshippers work. 

Chávez and the UFW rose to national prominence in 1965 with the Delano Grape Strike—when thousands of workers walked out of grape fields to demand a 15-cent hourly raise. Negotiations were contentious, but the UFW ultimately secured the first union contract between growers and a farmworkers’ union in U.S. history.   
Photograph by Brian L. Frank
The desk and office of César Chávez on display at the César E. Chávez National Monument, which is jointly administered by the National Park Service and the National Chávez Center, an arm of the César Chávez Foundation. The organization aims to continue Chávez’s work—raising funds for education and affordable housing for working families.
Porfilio Vargas manages a crew picking stone fruit in the valley. Vargas said he believes that a primary principle of Christianity is the right of every person to have dignified work, including fair wages and safe working conditions.
Catholic teaching emphasizes the importance of caring for the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized, and promoting the common good. Believers like Petra Ramirez devote their lives to serving the poor and disenfranchised. Ramirez has become an icon in her own right in her religious community of Fresno, spreading the word of God through her volunteer work, social work, and activism.
Photographer Brian L. Frank is a native of San Francisco, California, whose work focuses on cultural identity, social inequality, violence, workers rights and the environment. Follow him on Instagram @brianlfrank. 

This is one of eight stories from The Past Is Present project, a collaboration between National Geographic and For Freedoms.

LIMITED TIME OFFER

Discover More, Spend Less
With new subscriber-exclusive stories published daily and complete archive access, your opportunities to explore are endless!