My name is Ernestina and I am from Michoacán, Mexico. I have been working in the fields since 1993. My father died that year and I came to the US to help my mother because we didn’t have water or light or even anything to eat. I got married in 1996 and I wanted to have a family and have a happy home. But unfortunately, my marriage fell apart because my ex-husband is an alcoholic and he beat me. I had four children with him. My life has been very difficult because I’m responsible for the four children, helping them grow up.

Ann Lopez, who organized a farmworker rights group, introduced me to an attorney, who helped me get a U visa. I now have permission to work in this country.

Two of my youngest children, ages 12 and 7, both have ADHD. I had to work in the fields while I was pregnant with them and was exposed to pesticides, in particular Chlorpyrifos. I hardly know a farm worker family where the women have worked in the field and the children don’t have learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, all of these, because it damages the brain of the unborn child. My two youngest children have severe learning disabilities partly for that reason.

Chlorpyrifos is brain damaging. It’s also an organophosphate and if a woman is exposed to an organophosphate pesticide within a kilometer while she’s pregnant, then her children will have lower intelligence. And then when the children go to the surrounding schools and all of these organophosphates, many of them vaporize, go right into the school and continue damaging the brain. It’s disgraceful and makes me very angry.