On Monday October 21, long time FLOC friend and renowned author, Sandra Cisneros visited the FLOC office in North Carolina. President Velasquez and FLOC staff members took Sandra to visit Santiago, a FLOC member who was injured on the job, and has been fighting for worker’s compensation as well as dealing with mistreatment on the job. During our visit with Santiago, he explained to us that the tobacco harvesting machine had sliced the tip of one of his fingers and that, instead of receiving treatment, he had been told to sit out. He consequently bled for two hours before being taken to the emergency room. Santiago also explained how he has been fighting with FLOC in order to receive proper medical treatment and receive worker’s compensation for his injury, but the crew leader had not taken responsibility in the matter, until our visit this past Sunday. After visiting Santiago we sat down with Sandra to talk about FLOC’s “Respect, Recognition, Raise” campaign as well as the Reynolds Campaign. “I cut my finger while tending to my roses last week and went straight to the emergency room, Santiago cut off part of his finger and had no immediate access to proper medical care” said Sandra. “Now I know that I was supposed to come and visit this worker who had cut the top part of his finger so I could further understand how grave things are for farmworkers in NC.” Sandra has been a long time supporter of FLOC and our campaign to end inequities in the supply chains of big tobacco companies by guaranteeing labor right to workers. Sandra was awarded The Thomas Wolfe Prize at UNC Chapel Hill on Tuesday, and delivered a lecture that she dedicated to Santiago and FLOC. Sandra and President Velasquez are both recipients of the MacArthur Genius award. President Baldemar Velasquez and FLOC would like to thank Sandra Cisneros for visiting us and enlightening our day with her wisdom and high spirits, and for dedicating the lecture to Santiago and FLOC.