Teen farmworker's death, probed as heat-related, stirs outcry
"Until her death on May 16, Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez was another undocumented farmworker at the bottom rung of California's farm production chain.
On Wednesday, nestled in a white satin coffin, the 17-year-old girl became to farm labor advocates more a symbol of what they say are secretive and abusive conditions in some of the state's orchards and vineyards.
California occupational safety authorities are investigating the girl's death in Lodi as a heat-related fatality. The United Farm Workers Union is calling her treatment an "egregious" violation of safety regulations put into effect three years ago after three farmworkers and a construction worker died of the heat.
"Maria's death should have been prevented," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon."
SUSAN FERRISS in the Sacramento Bee.