Juanita Velasquez

Colombian labor rights activist who organized the first coffee workers' union in 1940s Colombia

Juanita Velasquez (1921-1970) was a pivotal figure in Colombia's labor movement, leading the country's first successful unionization of coffee workers. Born to a family of coffee pickers in Antioquia, she witnessed brutal working conditions firsthand - children as young as eight working 14-hour days for subsistence wages. After secretly learning to read at a clandestine workers' school, she became a vocal advocate for fair labor practices.

In 1947, she founded the National Coffee Workers Union, organizing across 18 departments despite death threats from landowners. Her 1952 strike led to the historic Acuerdo de las Flores which established minimum wage laws for agricultural workers. Her 1955 memoir Las Manos que Siembran (The Hands that Sow) became a seminal text in Latin American labor studies, detailing the exploitation of indigenous and Afro-Colombian laborers.

Less known is her role in founding the Huilá Education Fund in 1963, providing scholarships to workers' children. Though assassinated by paramilitaries in 1970, her legacy lives on through the Juanita Velasquez Labor Museum in Medellín, which documents Colombia's labor history. Her advocacy directly influenced the 1991 Colombian Constitution's labor protections.