Her name was Maria Isabel Vasquez, a native of Oaxaca, Mexico with a cherubic face and a doting fiancé. Vasquez worked for Merced Farm Labor and was toiling in the fields of a farm east of Stockton May 14th when the temperature shot up to 95 degrees. The nearest water cooler was a 10-minute walk from where she was working tying grape vines, and it is alleged that a strict foreman did not allow them to take a break sufficiently long for Maria to make it to the water source, and back.
And so she continued to work in the hot sun, without water, until she collapsed from heat exhaustion. When she was eventually taken to hospital, her body temperature had soared to 108 degrees and she had already lapsed into a coma.She died two days later. It was only then that medical officials discovered she was pregnant with her fiancé's child.
There are conflicting stories as to who was at fault in the case. Her employer offered the view that Maria was not engaged in strenuous work on the day in question, and did not appear to be stressed immediately before she collapsed. Her fiancé, Merced claims, had refused their offer of a doctor and instead took her to a nearby drug store in an effort to revive her there.
In contrast, Merced was accused of delaying her evacuation to a hospital for treatment.
The State of California passed the most stringent heat laws in the nation three years ago after four farm workers died in the field. Statutes require that growers must provide workers adequate water, shade and rest breaks.
However, the law didn't help Maria, whose funeral was attended by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nor did it prevent the deaths of three farm workers the year after the law was passed. In 2007, state labor inspectors found more than half of the employers they audited were violating the rules.
Merced Farm Labor itself was fined two years ago for failing to train its employees on heat safety, and there was an effort initiated to revoke the company's license in the aftermath of this tragedy.
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"The life of a farm worker isn't important to people," says Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers union. "People just don't care. ... The reality is that the machinery of growers is taken better care of than the lives of farm workers. You wouldn't take a machine out into the field without putting oil in it. How can you take the life of a person and not even give them the basics?"
It is not known if there were any lawsuits stemming from the case. However, as summertime temperatures continue to soar in the wake of global warming, this issue will most surely be carefully watched.