Branigan Cultural Center celebrates Farmworkers Awareness Week

Border Agricultural Workers Project (BAWP) founder and director Carlos Marentes will present “The Historical Impacts of Agricultural,” 11 a.m. Saturday, March 25, at Branigan Cultural Center (BCC), 501 N. Main St. downtown, the City of Las Cruces said in a news release.

March 25-31 is National Farmworkers Awareness Week.

Marentes will discuss the historical impacts in the southwest United States in the agriculture industry, the city said.

Marentes “will correlate his work as an advocate for farmworkers and his efforts to improve the working and living conditions of the migrant and seasonal farm workers in southern New Mexico and far west Texas,” the news release said. “It is work he has focused on since 1977 and led to his founding of Sin Fronteras Organizing Project in 1983.”

Marentes founded BAWP to organize farmworkers, especially chile pickers, in the fields and in their communities on both sides of the United States-Mexico border, the city said. Through BAWP, Marentes has addressed the oppression of farmworkers, climate change and new models of food production and consumption.

BAWP’s Bracero Project is an attempt to “bring justice to the Mexican peasants who worked in U.S. during the Bracero Program, 1942-64, and to use the experience of the that program to push for new more humane and dignified immigration policies,” the news release said.

There is no charge to attend Marentes’ presentation, and registration is not required.

BCC is open 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday. BCC is accessible via RoadRUNNER Transit Route 1 Stop 1.

For more information, call 575-541-2219. Visit lascruces.gov/museums.

Visit www.lascruces.gov/museums and follow Las Cruces Museums on Facebook and Instagram @LCMuseums.