Protections For Farmworker Children Matter More Than Ever
Protections For Farmworker Children Matter More Than Ever
By Susan MacLaury, March 23, 2024 – In 2010, Shine Global released the feature-length documentary, The Harvest (La Cosecha), about three young migrant farmworkers – Zulema, Perla and Victor -who traveled across the US with their families harvesting several crops. They lived in substandard housing, worked without minimum wage protections, and routinely missed weeks of school which severely affected their academic performance.
The Harvest was Shine Global’s second film. Given the success of our first – War/Dance – I erroneously assumed that finding the funds to make it would be no problem. I was wrong. It wasn’t until actor/social activist Eva Longoria joined us as an Executive Producer of the film that we were able to complete it. Eva was already supporting the efforts of Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, and was a champion for farmworkers. Eva and her colleagues raised 80% of the film’s funding through generous donors.
She not only helped financially, but also joined us in DC to host a screening of the film for members of Congress where she supported passage of the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment in Agriculture (CARE) Act, authored by then representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA). The bill would have amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), significantly increasing protections for child farm workers by “bringing the age and work hour standards set under FLSA for all other forms of child labor.” Rep. Roybal-Allard brought this bill to committee multiple times over the years but it never made it to the floor for a vote.
Reform was needed then. It is needed now.
Since 2015, US child labor violations have increased 300% and in the last 3 years alone instead of protecting children, 28 states have sought to roll back child labor laws. In response to this, Shine Global has joined more than 50 organizations in the Campaign to End US Child Labor to call for urgent reform to protect children from dangerous exploitation in the workplace.
Last week, Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) has picked up the mantle and introduced the CARE Act of 2024 to increase civil and criminal monetary penalties for violations and provide greater protection for workers of all ages to pesticide exposure. A similar House bill now has 45 co-sponsors. Please reach out to your legislators to let them know your opinion and urge them to protect children working in agriculture.
Shine Global is proud to screen “The Harvest (La Cosecha)” for free online for National Farmworker Awareness Week, March 25-31. Audiences can register at this link to watch the film at any point during the week to learn more about the conditions for farmworker children and why they urgently need to be protected. Shine Global has created accompanying multi-disciplinary curriculum for grades 7-12 and community discussion guides that are free to download from our website: https://shineglobal.org/for-educators
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About Shine Global
Shine Global is a non-profit media company that improves the lives of children by telling powerful stories to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. We produce inspiring films and compelling content about underserved children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, we connect with our audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on Capitol Hill as part of a powerful engagement campaign to encourage social change.
Since our founding in 2005, Shine Global films have won more than 100 major awards, including an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject for Inocente and an Academy Award®-nomination and two Emmys® for War/Dance. Recent films include the documentary-animation hybrid Liyana, the hit documentary The Eagle Huntress, Through Our Eyes: Homefront which is available on HBOMax, and the Ariel Award winner Home Is Somewhere Else, which is currently in festivals.
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- Edie Arnold Is a Loser wins Shine Global’s 2026 Children’s Resilience in Screenwriting Award at Nantucket Film Festival
- One In a Million wins Shine Global’s 2026 Children’s Resilience Award for Documentary at Sheffield DocFest; Stalin Boys wins Award for Short Doc
- Sūnna Wins the Children’s Resilience in Disability Stories Award at ReelAbilities
- Comedy Against the Odds Now Streaming Free on Doc+ for World Autism Awareness Day
- Shine Global Awards Remaining Native the Unstoppable Kids Prize at the 2026 New York International Children’s
Susan MacLaury
In 1992, Lucille Roybal-Allard became the first Mexican-American woman elected to Congress. Last year, she became the first Latina to serve as one of the 12 “cardinals,” or chairs, of a House Appropriations Subcommittee. Congresswoman Roybal-Allard is author of The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE) to address abusive and exploitative child labor practices in agriculture. She is a prominent advocate for children and families as co-chair of the Maternity Care Caucus, vice chair of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, and vice chair of the Task Force on Aging and Families. She is also an original co-author of The Dream Act, which would allow certain U.S.-raised immigrant youth to earn lawful permanent residence and eventual American citizenship. In 2019, she introduced the newest version of this bill: HR 6, The Dream and Promise Act.
Zulema Lopez is a Michigan State university Graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Human Capital and Society from the Human Resources And Labor Relations college at MSU. Throughout her 23 years she has been able to overcome the harsh obstacles she faced as a migrant farm worker and has used her platform to advocate for child labor laws. Zulema participated in the documentary The Harvest (La Cosecha) at age 12, in which her life as a child migrant worker was documented to show the underlying issues of the child labor in the US. In 2018 she was a guest panelist at the 107th Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland where she spoke on the issues of child labor in the US. Most recently in 2019, Zulema returned to her home state of Texas to attend two conferences where she shared her story to help motivate students with a similar background. Zulema continues to be a child labor activist in hopes that there will be change to come.
Norma Flores López grew up as a child of a migrant farmworker family from South Texas. She began working in the fields at the age of 12, where she continued working until she graduated from high school. She has long been an active advocate for migrant farmworker children’s rights and continues to raise awareness on issues affecting the farmworker community. Norma serves on the Board of Directors for the National Consumers League, is the chair of the Child Labor Coalition’s Domestic Issues Committee, and the representative for the United States on the Board of Directors for Global March Against Child Labour. Prior to joining Justice for Migrant Women, Norma was the Governance and Development/Collaboration Manager at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project, a co-founder of The Foundation for Farmworkers, served on the Board of Directors for the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association, and was director of the Children in the Fields Campaign at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs.
Susan executive produced The Harvest (La Cosecha) as well as the Emmy Award®-winning, Academy Award®-nominated documentary War/Dance, the Academy Award® Winner Inocente, 1 Way Up in 3D, The Eagle Huntress, and Liyana. She is also the producer of The Wrong Light and Virtually Free. Susan is in charge of the educational outreach and social advocacy efforts for all of Shine Global’s films. She is dually degreed in social work administration and health education and was associate professor of health education at Kean University from 1994 through 2013.
Roberto Romano was an award winning photographer, filmmaker, and human rights educator. He worked on human rights projects with such organizations as GoodWeave, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The International Labor Organization, Stop the Traffik, The Hunger Project, and The Council on Foreign Relations, among others. He was the Director, Producer, and Director of Photography of The Harvest (La Cosecha). His other film credits include: Dark Side of Chocolate (Director of Photography) about slavery in the West Africa cocoa trade; Stolen Childhoods (Producer, Director, and Director of Photography) about child labor. His powerful photography was also published in many prestigious newspapers and magazines and featured in many galleries and shows.
Shine Global is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media company with the mission to give voice to children and their families by telling stories of their resilience to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. Since founding in 2005, we’ve produced and supported over 15 films about children and families and run educational and engagement campaigns that have a real world impact. Our films include the Oscar-winning short doc
Justice For Migrant Women protects and advances migrant women’s rights through education, public awareness and advocacy. Justice for Migrant Women aims to ensure that all migrant women are guaranteed human and civil rights, including the freedom of mobility, the ability to live and work with dignity, and the right to be free of threats of violence against them and their families, whether they are migrating across borders, around regions or within states. 
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