Candidate for
Council Member; City of Watsonville; Council District 1

Manuel Bersamin is the son of one of a Filipino immigrant who came to this country in the 1930s to work for low wages as a farm-worker in California. His mother is a Mexican immigrant from Mexcaltitan, Sinaloa, Mexico who came into the United States to work in the canneries of Watsonville, California.

His father, Max Bersamin, suffered under terrible working conditions as he traveled up and down the state in search of farm work as a manual laborer. He worked in the fields for fifty years, from 1930 to 1981.

His mother, Victoria Quintero Bersamin, came to this country as an undocumented immigrant and worked in the fields and canneries in Watsonville for 40 years from 1946 to 1986.

Manuel worked alongside his father in the lettuce fields as a teenager. His father always fought for better wages, clean water, and respect for the work and contributions of the farm workers. The familia lived in poverty.

Manuel's family inspire him to become a good students so that Manuel could get a job outside the fields. He became a good student and did well in school. However, his father and mother still suffered with low wages and very few benefits.

It was only when the Cesar Chavez and the UFW came into help the lettuce workers in the fields of Monterey County in the 1970s that conditions began to improve for Manuel's family.

Manuel's father, Max Bersamin, was very active in the terrible fight between the Teamsters and the UFW in the fields of the Salinas Valley.

Manuel saw the suffering of his father and he made the decision to attend the university to earn his bachelors and masters degrees in order to help his family and to help the farm worker community.

Manuel graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a Batchelor's Degree. He received a master's degree from Stanford University and he has studied for a doctoral degree at the University of Arizona.

Manuel has chosen to work as an educator to help the Latino community and Manuel has worked as a migrant counselor, a university professor, and as a university and college administrator. Manuel has always chosen to work in educational positions to improve the farm-worker community.

Manuel has been fighting for many years to help the children of farm workers admitted to the state's universities.

In 2003, Manuel became a city councilman in Watsonville. Manuel represents District 1, which is the district where he grew up and where most of the city's farm-workers and Mexican immigrants live. This year, 2008, Manuel is running for re-election to the Watsonville City Council. Manuel wants to continue to serve as a city councilman so he can continue to serve the immigrant and farm-worker families.

Manuel Bersamin is passionate about his work as city councilman because he feels that to be a public official is a work that Cesar Chavez would have wanted him to do, to represent the farm worker community and improve the neighborhoods for the sons and daughters of Cesar Chavez's beloved farm-workers.

Now as a city councilman fighting for election, Manuel wants to lead the fight to provide affordable housing, a better quality of life, better and safer neighborhoods, less crime, more educational and internship opportunities, more justice and a voice for the farm-workers and for their children.