San Benito County Fair welcomes new Farmworker Heros Exhibit for the fairs 100th anniversary

TRES PINOS, Calif. (KION) - The San Benito County Fair is celebrating its 100th anniversary with traditional food rides and animals!

To make the 100th anniversary celebration special, a new addition to the fair was added,
the Farmworker Heros Exhibit.

"Our community is primarily agriculture-based. So we felt that it was important to celebrate all of our agriculture workers, our people that our AG and San Benito County," said Dara Tobias, the CEO of the San Benito County Fair.

The exhibit walks you through the battle farmworkers had to fight for more rights.

Further down the exhibit, it shows the current struggles farmers face like no low wages, harsh working conditions, and no benefits.

"My parents came from Mexico in the fifties and they were field workers in the fifties. And they made it the American dream," said Javier Sanchez who lives in San Benito County.

Javier Sanchez who grew up in San Benito County says he came to the fair after finding out about the exhibit.

He says he used to work in the fields with his family who immigrated from Mexico.

"When I was younger, when I was a kid, my parents used to pick who's my mother and my dad used to pick apricots, so I would help them in the fields as a kid and prunes," said Sanchez.

"We've worked over the years for proper housing, for proper pay, for proper working conditions for our families and our community that's working in the fields and working in our farm farms," said Tobias.

They were able to borrow the exhibit through the Cesar Chavez Foundation specifically on a loan from the San Mateo County Fair.

Like the new exhibit, Araceli and her daughter are new to the fair.

"This is my first year coming here, but I've been in Hollister for a few years now," said Araceli Ramirez.

While others have been coming for over half a century after meeting their love 60 years ago.

"This is where I met him," said Doc Sheilds as she looked at her husband.

If it's your first or 100th time coming, make sure to check out the history of the farm working community exhibit at the San Benito County Fair.

Since the fair was able to borrow it this year, the CEO says they don't know if it will be available in the future but they did say they will try to include it every year at the fair.

The CEO of the fair says they expect over 18,000 people to attend this year.