About Mily

Mily Treviño-Sauceda is Vice-President & Co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Inc.; and co-founder of the farmworker women’s movement in California since 1988. She is the third of ten children, born in Bellingham, Washington to a migrant farmworker family. At the age of eight she started working in the agricultural fields with her two older brothers and parents, in Idaho; and as a teen and young adult she continued working the fields in California. As a teen she organized youth groups through her church. She has experience as a union farmworker member & organizer with the UFW in 1970s and early 1980s including the California Community Workers Union (CCWU) while working at CRLA. As a single mom she raised her son “Humberto,” also known as “El Hijo de la Comunidad” (Son of the Community). She co-founded “Mujeres Mexicanas” (Mexican Women), in the Coachella Valley. She returned to school in 1991, and earned a Bachelors’ Degree in Chicano Studies and obtained enough credits for a Minor in Women Studies, at CalState Fullerton, 1997. With support of the CRLA Foundation she co-founded Líderes Campesinas, in 1992, a unique grass roots organization that became a statewide movement of campesina leaders advocating on behalf of campesinas. She became the first Executive Director with Líderes Campesinas; and after 12 years she stepped down from directorship in 2009, to go back to school. She was named President of Emeritus and became a board member. She earned a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences: Rural Development and Capacity Building, Women’s Leadership and Oral History at Antioch, Ohio, 2014. Since 2011, she co-founded Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Inc. – a national farmworker women’s alliance representing 15 farmworker organizations and groups. She sits on numerous state and national boards, state and national advisory councils and task forces representing Latinas, the farmworker community & immigrant women in general on health, violence against women, labor & women rights, education, environmental and gender issues. She sits on the board of Rural Development Leadership Network. She is an advisory MAPA member to National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC). Since 2015, she is a (NEJAC) National Environmental Justice Advisory Council Member to EPA. She also sits on the board of California Latina for Reproductive Justice. She is the board Assistant Secretary for the Rural Coalition. She consults for and with various statewide and national organizations that focus on social, environmental, worker justice, reproductive justice, and violence against women issues. She also provides technical assistance and capacity building to beginning farmers and farmers that are socially disadvantaged like Pequeños Agricultores de California –and the National Hmong American Farmers to ensure socially disadvantaged farmers members get training in business and labor regulations. She has received numerous awards, including “100 Heroines of the World” in 1998; Sister of Fire Award in 2003; the Ford Foundation & NYU award “Leadership for a Changing World” in 2004. People Magazine recognized her twice in 2006. She was honored by Líderes Campesinas in California for her 30+ year’s distinguished leadership in 2009, the EEOC Community Service Award in 2011, the Cesar Chavez Legacy Award, March 2015; and honored by Farmworker Justice in Oct 2015; she was honored by Latino Justice, PRLDEF, as a Latina Justice Leader, on Latina History Month, June, 2016. On October 15, 2016, the World Women Summit Foundation (WWSF) recognized her as one of nine laureates given the Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life; and many more.

Lideres Campesinas

The mission of Lideres Campesinas is to strengthen the leadership of farmworker women so they can be agents of social, economic, and political change to ensure their human rights.