Celene Perez is the Chief of Staff of the Inland Empire Labor Council and she is also one of the leads of the Labor of Love project. This project aims to document and archive the history of labor resistance in the Inland Empire. The goal is to bring a sense of pride in the region since it is often overlooked by other areas in Southern California. Celene is determined to recognize all forms of labor resistance in the IE,
“The history of our region is rooted with our indigenous people, the Cahuilla people, who built the infrastructure of the Inland Empire under forced labor conditions during the Spanish colonization times.”
Our interviewer, Zefferin, describes Celene’s story into labor organizing as a “hero’s journey”. She was raised by two immigrant parents in a predominantly white, 80s Rancho Cucamonga. She joined the Chicano student organization MEChA in high school and attended UC Riverside as a pre-med major, influenced by her cousin who passed away of leukemia at 18. She met Ricardo Cisneros at UCR as a student worker in dining services. She would voice her frustrations to Ricardo over her job,
“I would hear my parents [and] their stories [of] what was going on in the workplace…feeling disrespected and not knowing what I could do about it, right?…A lot of co-workers in dining services reminded me of my parents.”
Ricardo was a major influence in her involvement with labor organizing. She protested alongside Ricardo for in many student actions and even started the UC Riverside chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) with her friend Leanne.
Following her college graduation, Celene was involved in organizing for over 20 years. She was involved in campaigns all across southern California, spanning both industry and area. Formerly having worked in a warehouse herself, she has been active in helping workers inside of the logistics industry. Celene was the former co-director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, helping to grow the capabilities of the center in order to better serve workers.
Celene hopes “Labor of Love” is able to uplift the Inland Empire. She wants to empower leaders we have and show that there is a long history of activists that paved the way for us to be here. Being a leader herself, she reflects that it was a learning process even for her to learn this lost history, but ultimately,it was a labor of love.
