Remembering Patricia Perez
October 4, 2009 — In October we would like to dedicate all of our efforts and triumphs at the AWA to the memory of our sister Patricia Pérez, on the second anniversary of her death.
Sister Patricia succeeded in doing what no one else had ever achieved in Quebec: she organized the first-ever bargaining unit comprising seasonal migrant agriculture workers. That breakthrough came just a week before her death in October 2007 at the age of 52, after a long battle with cancer.
A native of Mexico, sister Patricia fled Mexico to Montreal in 1996 after her social justice activities in her homeland resulted in a masked gunman telling her to leave the country or else. However, Patricia often said she came to Canada for a reason, and that reason was to continue to help her brothers and sisters from Mexico working under the Seasonal Agriculture Workers Program.
Our job is just beginning, but Patricia’s legacy and the seed she planted back then continues today. We continue to follow her footsteps and continue to strive to be just as good as she was in advocating for and helping our brothers and sisters from Mexico. And we continue with that same enthusiasm and courage, and we continue to nurture what she started by always shouting: “¡Si se puede! (Yes, we can do it).”