National Center for Farmworker Health
Annual Commemorative Artwork
Meet the Artist... Arcadio Viveros
Annual Commemorative Artwork
Meet the Artist... Arcadio Viveros
I am a retired health care executive who has devoted my entire professional life improving the health and living conditions of migrant farmworkers and their families. I continue to be involved in the Community and Migrant Farmworker Movement by volunteering in the Board of San Benito Health Foundation, Hollister, CA., where I proudly serve as the Board Vice-President. I have served on the NCFH Board, and the DHHS’ National Advisory Council on Migrant Health working to improve the health and living conditions of our nation’s most vulnerable population. In my retirement, I am fulfilling my lifelong desire for applying my artistic talents in documenting the experiences and suffering of U.S. migrant farmworkers and their families. My artwork usually reflects themes revolving around a farmworker’s life. I think about migrant families as they move from place to place along the migrant stream in search of work, they may wonder where they will find a place to stay - a house, apartment, garage, or simply asking if someone will let them stay in their backyard or in someone’s home. During my time as a farmworker, I remember vividly my parents worrying about those basic human needs and especially about health care access - where would they take their children for health care if there was a health emergency. There were no clinics, no doctor, not even a nurse in most of the places we lived. Thanks to the Migrant Health Movement thousands of communities in the U.S. now have access to a health-home where high-quality health care is being provided to our poor, migrant, and indigent families. I have experienced firsthand the farmworkers’ harsh life since I was 14-years old, doing child labor in the California fields while traveling from the Imperial Valley near the US-Mexican Border to the fertile Central San Joaquin Valley working alongside grown men in the harvesting of fruits and vegetables.
I am pleased to present an art piece that honors the farmworker women,” La Virgen Campesina”, or Farmworker Woman. She is experiencing difficult times as a farmworker, working hard all day, worrying about her children - if they make it safe to and from school. Being the principal family nurturer and spiritual guardian, her days don’t end at punching a timecard at work, but continue, day in and day out, often to the late hours of the night. She is the last one to go to bed and is the first to get up, to pack a lunch, prepare and take the children to school. I wanted to present an allegorical representation of the Farmworker woman, that beyond all her suffering, there is a mystical air about her, she appears graceful, positive, jubilant, happy, thankful, with a true sense of gratitude. Although giving us so much personal sacrifice, and hard work, now she is offering the fruits of her labor, splendidly, so we can enjoy our own life.
I am pleased to present an art piece that honors the farmworker women,” La Virgen Campesina”, or Farmworker Woman. She is experiencing difficult times as a farmworker, working hard all day, worrying about her children - if they make it safe to and from school. Being the principal family nurturer and spiritual guardian, her days don’t end at punching a timecard at work, but continue, day in and day out, often to the late hours of the night. She is the last one to go to bed and is the first to get up, to pack a lunch, prepare and take the children to school. I wanted to present an allegorical representation of the Farmworker woman, that beyond all her suffering, there is a mystical air about her, she appears graceful, positive, jubilant, happy, thankful, with a true sense of gratitude. Although giving us so much personal sacrifice, and hard work, now she is offering the fruits of her labor, splendidly, so we can enjoy our own life.
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"Virgen Campesina" by the artist Arcadio Viveros
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