Email: gaguirre@crpe-ej.org
Gustavo Aguirre (he/him) has over 33 years of organizing experience, getting his start with the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). Aguirre was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and immigrated to California at the age of 19, where he worked under a United Farm Workers’ union contract as a lemon harvester for 16 years. During his tenure at the company he served as a steward and as the leader of the UFW worker committee working on their contract negotiations and administration at his ranch. Aguirre volunteered for many union boycotts and political campaigns including the last federal immigration reform law of 1986 that provided amnesty to undocumented residents. Aguirre helped mobilize farm workers to walk precincts for local and national candidates and pro-union legislators.
Aguirre started working full time with the UFW in 1996 as an organizer. He was quickly was appointed Regional Director in charge of UFW operations in Southern California. In June 2003, he moved to Delano to serve as the Regional Director of the San Joaquin Valley. At the UFW Convention in 2000, Aguirre was elected National Vice President, serving in that position until May 2006. Aguirre had the opportunity to be part of the top UFW leadership team including President Arturo Rodriguez and co-founder Dolores Huerta.
After 25 plus years of involvement with UFW, in June 2006 Aguirre joined the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, as the lead coordinator of a joint campaign with Californians for Pesticide Reform on pesticide protection zones around schools. Aguirre was an instrumental part of this campaign, helping to persuade Tulare, Kern, Stanislaus and Madera counties to approve new pesticide buffer zones around schools.
Aguirre has played a key role in CRPE’s efforts to develop community leaders and build community power in the San Joaquin Valley. Aguirre has been particularly active in the South Kern Communities of Arvin and Greenfield. He has worked with communities on a wide range of issues from superfund site clean-ups to air quality to pesticides to county permitting and revocation processes.
Aguirre sits as chairperson on the Steering Committee for the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative in South Kern. He was on the Board of Directors of Lideres Campesinas from 2009 to 2012 and has helped several organizations undertake strategic and campaign planning processes, such as Californians for Pesticide Reform, Central California Environmental Justice Network, El Quinto Sol de America, Committee for a Better Arvin, Greenfield Walking Group, and Committee for a Better Shafter.