Yanira Merino
Yanira Merino is a union activist and organizer and the first woman to be the national president for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA).[1]
She was born in Santa Tecla, El Salvador[2] and moved to the United States[1] when she was 14 years old.[3] Her husband was a student activist and murdered by a death squad in El Salvador.[4] During the 1980s, she traveled frequently between Los Angeles and El Salvador on behalf of human rights and women's groups affiliated with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).[2] In 1987, she was abducted as she left a Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador meeting in Los Angeles.[5] The abductors cut her tongue and hands and carved the initials “E” and “M” (for “escuadores de la muerte,”) into her palms. She was beaten and raped and abandoned on a freeway embankment. Days later she was back at work.[2]
In the 1990s, she worked to organize her coworkers in a shrimp processing facility in Los Angeles to address multiple issues: poverty wages, wage theft, discrimination, unsafe conditions, and verbal harassment.[1][3] Her efforts succeeded when the nearly 100 workers voted to join Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) in November 1994. Merino was praised for her "clever tactics."[4] Six months later, LIUNA hired Merino as a full-time organizer.[2]
Musical satirist Charlie King created a song about Yanira Merino reportedly after Pete Seeger sent King a Wall Street Journal article about Merino with a note saying "Woody would have written a song about this."[6] The song was released on the album "I Struck Gold" by Charlie King and Karen Brandow in 2001[7] and performed at the Great Labor Arts Exchange in 2012.[8] Merino was reportedly embarrassed by the Wall Street Journal article that inspired the song.[2]
In 2014, she became the AFL-CIO National Immigration Campaign Manager.[9] She was elected President of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement in 2018.[3]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 "Labor on the move: Yanira Merino elected LCLAA president". Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO. 2018-08-16. Archived from the original on 2019-04-10.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Baxter, Kevin (1996-03-03). "SUNDAY PROFILE : Labor of Love : A Passionate Yanira Merino Refuses to Let Fatigue or Threats Stop Her Push to Empower Workers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- 1 2 3 López, Natalia (2023-11-08). ""Immigrants keep coming, and the fight is not over because the challenges are still monumental"". La Politica Online. Translated by Ruiz, Bibiana. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- 1 2 Zachary, G. Pascal (1995-10-23). "Can unions organize low-paid workers? Watch this woman". Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition. pp. pA1.
- ↑ Kirk, Robin (November–December 1996). "Portrait of an organizer Yanira Merino". NACLA Report on the Americas. 30 (3): 25–26. doi:10.1080/10714839.1996.11722852 – via Academic Search Premier.
- ↑ Steve Deasy (2012-05-19). Charlie King sings his song "Yanira Merino" with Steve Deasy and Bev Grant. Retrieved 2026-09-29 – via YouTube.
- ↑ King, Charlie; et al. (Brandow, Karen), Yanira Merino by Charlie King and Karen Brandow: Listen on Audiomack, retrieved 2026-09-30
- ↑ King, Charlie. "VIDEO". Charlie King Musical Storyteller and Political Satirist. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Yanira Merino Named AFL-CIO Immigration Campaign Manager". Targeted News Service (USA). February 28, 2014. Retrieved 2026-09-29.