Tag: Human Interest

CLEVELAND — Mónica Rámirez has dedicated most her life to helping migrant women, and now she’s being recognized for advocacy work as part of the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame’s class of 2025.

Born and raised in Fremont, Rámirez is the daughter and granddaughter of farmworkers. Rámirez said she began her advocacy work at age 14, later graduating from The Ohio State University in 2003, and becoming the first attorney in the country to specialize in handling cases of sexual violence and gender discrimination against farmworker women.

She eventually made her way back home, and is now the president and CEO of nonprofit Justice for Migrant Women based in Fremont.

“Unfortunately, sexual violence against farmworker women is a crisis in our country,” Rámirez said. “When that first report came out in the 1980s, 90% of the women who had participated said sexual violence was a major workplace problem for them.”

Rámirez said this percentage has remained steady over the last few decades. Still, she said the organization’s reach extends beyond this issue.

The center also provides legal aid, civic training, mental health services and other resources to thousands of other migrants and farmworkers nationwide.

“All together, since 2020, we have distributed more than $10 million in aid,” Rámirez said. “Here in Ohio, we’ve distributed about $2 million in aid. And then we’ve also worked with partners across the country to provide resources to individuals in 34 other states and in Puerto Rico.”

Rámirez launched “The Humans Who Feed Us” – a national project telling the stories of immigrants employed across the food supply chain. (Spectrum News 1/Tanya Velazquez)

Mary Alice Espiritu is the office manager for the Justice for Migrant Women center. She also grew up in northwest Ohio but has strong roots in Texas and Mexico.

“My grandparents are from Mexico … my parents were born in Texas. They decided to finally come to Ohio, to have other opportunities of work, and they settled here in Fremont,” she said.

Espiritu said came to know many other immigrant families of similar backgrounds in the area, now working directly with the community.

She said, while the organization has made significant strides over the last decade, migrant women continue facing several disparities.

“Low wages, the childcare, but also the transportation,” Espiritu said. “And to be able to travel to their workplace or even taking their children to school – since [we’re] in the rural area we don’t have, like the public transportation that there are in bigger cities.”

Working alongside Rámirez, she’s hoping to bridge that gap.

“In the migrant or rural communities, I feel that those resources, resources are even more limited simply because if there’s language barriers, those resources aren’t offered to them, in their language.”

While Rámirez has made her mark in Ohio history, she said the organization’s work is far from over.

“We have to keep telling the stories of everyday people because that is how we’re going to be able to better know people,” Rámirez said. “But also … best protect people in this time of attempting to erase.”