FAIRFIELD – On Wednesday, October 1st, Solano Community College Associated Students of Solano Community College presented their first Bandana Project in the LR113, located in the Solano Community College Library. The Director of Student Engagement, Dr. Gabriela Ballesteros, discussed the Bandana Project and how it was developed by the Latinx Heritage Committee in the middle of September. They started combining their ideas from staff and faculty alike, Ballesteros brought this event idea from a UC Davis Latina Sorority that she was a part of, and wanted the event to embellish Solano Community College.
The history behind the Bandana Project started under an organization called “Justice for Women,” where their primary goal was raising awareness towards sexual violence that happens towards female migrant farm workers. Justice for Women attempts to engage public involvement through hosting events and sharing information on social media.
The experience of decorating the bandanas is a way of showing solidarity with the farm workers’ conditions that needs to be changed with future policies & increased advocacy, according to Ballesteros. She explained that different institutions and organizations also decorated the bandanas and hung them around to show awareness, which started back in 2007.
Dr. Ballesteros gave an overview of the Bandana Project awareness campaign, addressing the widespread issues of sexual violence against female farmworkers in the United States. The project serves as a healing tool and demonstration of public support with the decorated bandanas displayed in the library. The Bandana Project was created in 2007 by Monica Ramirez who directs Esperanza, the immigrant women’s legal initiative for the Southern Poverty Law Center. The project is led by Justice for Migrant Women, founded by Ramirez in 2014.
Ballesteros gave a presentation on the study behind this project, which was started back in the 1980s, where 90% of farmworker women considered sexual harassment as a major problem. A 2010 survey in California’s Centeral Valley reported that 80% of farmworkers had experienced sexual harassment at work.
Ballesteros explained that this type of violence is “very common that women in the field are often referred to as the green motel, indicating that they do not feel safe” Ballesteros stated.
Per Ballesteros, 32% of farmworkers are women and are often targets of harassment and violence. She went on to say that the bandanas are used as extra layers of clothing to shield themselves from the sun, chemicals, along with unwanted sexual attention.
The project uses white bandanas as a symbol of the exploitation that these women face. Community members, advocates, and allies decorate the bandanas with art and a message of encouragement to show solidarity, empower survivors, and call for action against perpetrators of sexual violence.
This event continued on with Dr. Ballesteros expressing her concerns with this event continuing because “it brings so much awareness to the campus about the history of the Bandana Project”.
