Emma Torres

Emma Torres (born c. 1959) is an American community and migrant rights activist from Arizona. In 1999 she co-founded Campesinos Sin Fronteras (Farmers without Borders), an organization dedicated to supporting immigrants and farm workers in the United States. She has spent over 40 years advocating for immigrant farm workers. In 2023, in recognition for her community involvement Torres was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.

Biography Emma Torres was born into a migrant farmworker family in Guanajato, Mexico. At age 5, she moved to San Luis, Arizona with her family.

In 1994, Torres and other local farmworkers and advocates in San Luis, Arizona organized the first Dia Del Campesino (Day of the Farm Worker) to provide community health support and access to services for workers in Yuma County, Arizona. Yuma County is one of the United States' biggest agricultural regions for winter produce and where more than 40,000 mostly migrant farmworkers work each season. Inspired by the success of this event, five years later in 1999, Torres co-founded Campesinos Sin Fronteras.

Campesinos Sin Fronteras Campesinos Sin Fronteras offers community health support, domestic violence support, health screenings and services for farm workers and migrants who often do not qualify for health insurance in the United States. The organization additionally supports advocacy for migrant workers rights and labor laws. Campesinos Sin Fronteras has become a model program that has inspired other community support organizations for farm workers across the United States. The organization operated two community health offices in San Luis and Somerton, Arizona.

Today, Torres remains the executive director of Campesinos Sin Fronteras. She is a nationally recognized Hispanic leader and immigrant activist. Under Torres' leadership, Campesinos Sin Fronteras has collaborated with the University of Arizona, the National Institute of Health and the United States Department of Health and Human Services to expand their programming for vulnerable populations. and the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization serves more than 12,000 people from the Yuma community each year. After Campesinos Sin Fronteras found that the U.S. Border Patrol was releasing asylum seekers without resources in small towns in Yuma County, the organization stepped in to help, offering community care coordinators and support in communities where no permanent migrant shelters existed.

In 2023, Torres was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame. In 2024, Dia Del Campesino marked its 30th year anniversary event.