Mily Treviño-Sauceda

Mily Treviño-Sauceda (born 1957 or 1958) is an American writer, trade unionist and leader of the National Alliance of Farmworker Women, a nonprofit organization advocating for the safety and rights of women laborers in agriculture. She is celebrated as a founder of the women's farmworker movement in the United States. She was recognized twice by People magazine in 2006, and in 2018, Treviño-Sauceda was co-awarded the Smithsonian Institution's American Ingenuity Award for Social Progress.

Early life and education Treviño-Sauceda was born in Bellingham, Washington to farmworkers who immigrated to the United States from Mexico.

After her family relocated to Idaho, and then the Coachella Valley, Treviño-Sauceda started working in agricultural fields when she was 8 years old, and as a teenager experienced multiple sexual assaults.

Treviño-Sauceda attended California State University, Fullerton, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Chicana/o studies with a minor in Women's studies in 1997. She later was awarded a Master's degree in social science from Antioch University in 2014.

In 1991, when she became pregnant with her son while working during the summer on a field, Treviño-Sauceda said she was discharged as soon as she started to physically appear pregnant, three months into her pregnancy. She said it wasn't until many years later that she realized it was pregnancy discrimination.

In 2011, she co-founded National Alliance of Farmworker Women with Mónica Ramírez, which was the first national grassroots women's farmworker organization.

Treviño-Sauceda has been recognized with a number of awards, including "100 Heroines of the World" in 1998, "Sister of Fire" in 2003, Ford Foundation and New York University's "Leadership for a Changing World" award in 2004, and two Cesar Chavez Legacy Award awards.

In 2020, when the government deemed farm laborers "essential", COVID-19 spread through migrant Mexican communities. Treviño-Sauceda lobbied the Government of California and the California Department of Public Health to provide assistance to the affected people. where she coached girls' soccer in the 1990s.