Same Crooks, New Location: Alegria 'Sellout' De La Cruz Hired as Director of Litigation for the Los Angeles Disability Rights Legal Center

After receiving a severance package as the Former Sonoma County Equity Officer, De La Cruz has joined the team of her partner in crime, Sylvia Torres-Guillén, DRLC President and CEO

On February 11, 2025, Los Angeles, California based Disability Rights Legal Center (DRLC) published the following press release regarding former Sonoma County Equity Officer and Santa Rosa City Schools Trustee Alegria De La Cruz:

Transformative leader Alegría De La Cruz joins DRLC as Director of Litigation

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11, 2025 — The Disability Rights Legal Center (DRLC) is honored to welcome Alegría De La Cruz as the new head of our Civil Rights Litigation Program. Alegría brings to this role decades of personal and professional experience, as a thoughtful and strategic public servant, a creative legal scholar, and a lifelong advocate raised in the heart of the farmworker justice movement.

Before her education at Yale University and at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, she was introduced to the fight for social justice and equity through her family’s own leadership in the movement for farmworker justice. Born in Delano, California, Alegría has lived and worked across the country and in South East Asia. Her education, career, and personal life have developed her unique perspective, as she has led and learned from both grassroots organizing and board rooms.

“Alegría has a strong commitment to both defending people’s civil rights and cultivating a more equitable and just future,” Sylvia Torres-Guillén, DRLC President and CEO, said. “She represents the deepest core values on which DRLC was built at its founding in 1975, as well as the zeal, prowess, and wisdom that our team brings into our 50th year. We are honored to have Alegría at the forefront of our mission for transformative, lasting change for people with disabilities nationwide.”

Alegría’s deeply rooted commitment to social justice has led her to take on transformative roles at the Dolores Huerta Foundation, to enforce farmworker labor rights at the State of California, Agricultural Labor Relations Board and California Rural Legal Assistance, and to fight environmental injustice at the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. Prior to joining the team at DRLC this month, Alegría served as the founding Director of the Sonoma County Office of Equity, addressing racial disparities in health, wealth, and wellbeing in the County.

“We are incredibly fortunate to welcome Alegría to the team as Director of Litigation,” said Michael McDonough, Chair of DRLC’s Board of Directors. “Alegría’s decades-long commitment to social justice speaks for itself, in the excellence and fierceness that she brings to her work. On behalf of DRLC’s Board of Directors, we are excited to work alongside such an exceptional leader at the helm of our Civil Rights Litigation Program.”

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It appeared that Ms. De La Cruz initially relocated from Salinas, California to Sonoma County because she participated in nefarious business dealings between the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) and the United Farm Workers labor union. As the ALRB Regional Director, De La Cruz worked alongside Sylvia Torres-Guillén, ALRB General Counsel.

Several articles were published by Journalist Katy Grimes and various reporters which indicated that the ALRB & UFW were in cahoots:

“In Cahoots” – The Illegal Relationship Between ALRB Lawyers and the UFW

One of the most significant labor relations fights in the country is currently taking place in California’s Central Valley. The California state agency mandated by law to be an impartial farmworkers’ advocate between employers and unions is “in cahoots” with the United Farm Workers labor union. At issue are the legal tactics and scruples of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

A state superior court judge told an Agricultural Labor Relations Board attorney in 2013 that it appeared they were “in cahoots” with the United Farm Workers labor union. Even an independent investigation has confirmed that this is so.

Since being appointed ALRB General Counsel in 2011 by Gov. Jerry Brown, Sylvia Torres-Guillén has transformed her office from ineffective but impartial workers’ advocate to a hive of United Farm Workers activist attorneys.

That advocacy is against the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which mandates the ALRB to be completely impartial between employers and unions. By openly favoring the UFW, Torres-Guillén and her staff are violating the law.

A study of the ALRB activist lawyers’ professional conduct and social networking shows that some of Torres-Guillén’s attorneys have lifelong relations with the UFW in ways that threaten the board’s credibility and authority.

As far back as August, 2013, California Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Y. Hamilton, Jr., took ALRB Regional Director Silas Shawver to task for working overtime to stop farmworkers from voting on whether or not to decertify the UFW as their collective bargaining representative.

Judge Hamilton accused Shawver of “overreach” of his legal authority in trying to stop the vote. “So the Court is very suspect of, one, the ALRB’s position here,” Hamilton said. “It almost seems like it’s in cahoots” with the UFW. “And the Court finds it very troubling that the ALRB is taking such a position, especially sitting in a prosecutorial role,” he told Shawver, who is a lawyer. “That is a role you should not be taking when you sit as a prosecutor.”

A search of publicly available social media sites and donor records show close personal relationships between ALRB lawyers hired under Torres-Guillén, and the UFW, and UFW-related causes.

Torres-Guillén, in her present position as ALRB General Counsel, was the keynote speaker at the UFW’s 50^th anniversary gala in 2012. Perched before a Cesar Chavez portrait, she pledged to the union that she would “regain their trust.” Speaking at a 2015 forum marking the 40^th anniversary of the ALRB, Torres-Guillén quoted glowingly from Chavez.

One popular photo shows ALRB attorney Jessica Arciniega, ALRB Regional Director Alegria de la Cruz, and ALRB General Counsel Sylvia Torres-Guillén in a celebratory photo with UFW attorney Mario Martinez and a UFW organizer who is giving the thumbs-up. (photo 1)

Arciniega was Facebook friends with UFW Vice President Armando Elenes. She is shown in a photo on the UFW’s Facebook page as a leader of a UFW street protest, carrying the union’s red banner. (Photo 2) Another photo shows Arciniega wearing a UFW nametag. (Photo 3; Arciniega is at right)

The ALRB has two regional directors, both of whom are attorneys: Alegría de la Cruz, who runs the Salinas office; and Silas Shawver, who heads the office in Visalia. Both worked together on the California Rural Legal Assistance. A report filed with the California superior court alleges that Shawver is the godfather of de la Cruz’s child.

Salinas Regional Director Alegría de la Cruz: 3^rd generation UFW

A third-generation UFW supporter, since childhood de la Cruz has been steeped in UFW activism and organizing. She is the granddaughter of the late Jesse de la Cruz, an early female organizer of the UFW a half-century ago. Both her parents “were also well-known and active UFW organizers,” according to a 2013 complaint

before a California superior court by Anthony Raimondo, an attorney for farm laborer Francisco Napoles. “In fact, her parents met on a campaign for the UFW and later married,” Raimondo said. “When speaking of her upbringing, Ms. De la Cruz boasted that her parents ‘were both organizers and raised four kids in the movement. By the time I was old enough to walk and talk, I was doing outreach in front of supermarkets, collecting signatures on petitions.”

A photograph posted online shows de la Cruz as an infant, being held in Cesar Chavez’s lap. (see Photo 4) Her brother appears on another social media page with a large UFW logo tattooed across his back.

In the 2006 CRLA Annual Report, de la Cruz recalled her relations with UFW founder Cesar Chavez when she was a seven-year-old child:

“Tell me who your grandparents are, Alegría,” Chavez would ask her repeatedly, pointedly, as if preparing her for an exam. “My parents, they’re farm workers – and organizers.”

“Your parents, who are your parents?”

“My parents are organizers.”

“What about you, Alegría? What are you going to be?”

“I don’t know,” she’d say, a typical response of any child age 7 or so.

But he wouldn’t let her off that easy.

“I’ll tell you, Alegría. You’re going to be a lawyer. Because the next step to organizing is the law. We need people who understand where we come from to be lawyers, judges, and legislators.”

Alegría de la Cruz did just what Chavez predicted and grew up to become a lawyer. While ALRB Regional Director in Salinas, de la Cruz was Facebook friends with UFW Vice President Armando Elenes. She donated to a Kickstarter.com project to make “Cesar’s Last Fast,” a documentary lionizing UFW founder Cesar Chavez. De la Cruz argued in front of Judge Hamilton to force the UFW contract on Gerawan employees, while a thousand of the workers were outside the courtroom opposing it.

De la Cruz operates a separate Facebook page under the pseudonym Valencia Gael. On that page, she is friends with UFW Vice President Armando Elenes and UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez.

ALRB Visalia Regional Director Silas Shawver’s UFW ties

On his Facebook page, Shawver is friends with UFW National Vice President Armando Elenes, former UFW regional director Gustavo Aguirre, UFW labor organizer Yolanda Chacon, UFW representative Eri Fernandez, UFW external organizer Reyna Madrigal Castellanos, UFW organizer Maria Gallegos Martinez, UFW organizer and campaign coordinator Jennifer Hernandez, UFW organizer Lupe Martinez, and UFW Foundation Executive Director Diana Tellefson.

David Bacon, a former UFW organizer who is now a writer for Al Jazeera and who has covered the Gerawan farmworker controversy for the Qatar-owned propaganda outlet, is also a Facebook friend of Shawver. (The Qatar government and ruling royal family ban labor unions in their country.)

Shawver’s Facebook page says he lives in Mexico City. His Facebook friends are not visible to those who are not among his 710 listed friends.

Photos of Shawver on a former girlfriend’s Flickr page show the ALRB attorney performing acrobatics while wearing a UFW shirt. (Photo 5)

Those photos have become the subject of a YouTube video and animated graphics casting doubt on Shawver’s impartiality as an ALRB regional director and attorney.

Torres-Guillén’s UFW activist hiring strategy

ALRB General Counsel Torres-Guillén’s strategy to hire UFW loyalists in her rapidly expanded staff of lawyers first came to light in 2013. In a situation similar to the better-known Gerawan Farming union decertification controversy, workers at Arnaudo Brothers, a San Joaquin Valley asparagus grower, tried to fight the resurgent UFW after the union had abandoned the farmworkers for nearly three decades.

Francisco Napoles, a field laborer at Arnaudo Brothers, petitioned the state superior court to block the ALRB from forcing a UFW contract on him and his fellow workers. In his court filing, Napoles alleged that “the ALRB has adopted a specific hiring strategy to staff the Regional Offices with individuals who are closely aligned with the UFW, and in some cases, tied closely to each other, for the purpose of creating a closed cadre of individuals who will pursue a pro-UFW agenda.”

He specifically referenced Alegría de la Cruz, whose behavior he described in the complaint as very similar to the behavior subsequently documented about de la Cruz’s comrade regional director in Visalia, Shawver, in his campaign against Gerawan workers.

Napoles’ petition showed information that “longer term [ALRB] staff who have been willing to align themselves with the UFW’s organizational goals have done so to protect their careers, while those who refuse to be beholden to the UFW are marginalized and/or forced out of the agency. As a result, the ALRB has created a culture at the Regional Office where protecting the UFW is considered one and the same as protecting the rights of farm workers.”

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Judge Exposes ALRB General Counsel Conflicted Role In Gerawan Case

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley partially granted Gerawan Farming Company’s request for documents in an unfair labor practice complaint filed by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Frawley’s tentative ruling came out Thursday, prior to a court hearing Friday.

The tentative ruling is a win for Gerawan Farming and its employees. The court says that all communications between the ALRB and the General Counsel concerning the Temporary Restraining Order application authorization must be disclosed.

The ALRB General Counsel submitted a TRO packet to the Ag Labor Board on May 12, 2015, requesting permission to seek injunctive relief against Gerawan in Fresno Superior Court. The complaint against Gerawan was to try to force the farming company to rehire an employee suspended and later fired for insubordination. The ALRB document packet purportedly contained proof of malfeasance by Gerawan in unfairly suspending and discharging Mr. Marquez for engaging in protected pro-union activities.

Gerawan requested a copy of the TRO packet, the Board’s “conditional authorization” and any related communications from the Board under the California Public Records Act. Gerawan renewed its request on a number of occasions. The Board denied the request, claiming privilege, on May 26, 2015.

Judge Frawley’s ruling requires the ALRB to release documents in its request for a temporary restraining order against Gerawan.

ALRB Conflict of Interest

Since the TRO was filed, the ALRB’s General Counsel Sylvia Torres-Guillén and two Regional Directors – Silas Shawver and Alegría de la Cruz – have left the ALRB, or were forced out. All three were key players in the TRO, as well as many of the most contentious issues with Gerawan.

“At issue in this proceeding are records pertaining to the General Counsel’s request to file the TRO petition against Gerawan,” Judge Frawley wrote in his decision. “In particular, Gerawan seeks the “TRO packet” presented to the Board by the General Counsel, the Board’s letter granting “conditional authorization” to file the TRO petition, and documents relating to the “whistleblower claim” regarding the veracity of the declarations submitted to the Board. Although Gerawan is not required to identify the purpose of its request, Gerawan argues that it has a strong interest in these documents because of the “troubling issues” raised regarding the integrity of the ALRB’s investigation and the apparent embroilment of ALRB staff in the underlying dispute.”

“Here, an unfair labor practice case was commenced when Marquez and the United Farm Workers filed charges,” Frawley continued. (See 8 C.C.R. § 20720.) “From that point forward, the General Counsel (Torres-Guillen) assumed the role of ‘prosecutor’ in the case, and therefore could not simultaneously ‘advise’ the Board.”

Gerawan’s attorney wanted the documents supporting the restraining order request because they raised issues about the integrity of the ALRB’s investigation and the potential involvement of the board’s staff in the dispute, as evidenced by the judge’s comments.

The Whistleblower

“Gerawan had become aware of a whistleblower within the ALRB who alleged that the investigation leading up to the request for a temporary restraining order was marred by “vague and misleading” information,” the Fresno Bee reported. “The whistleblower also said that the board’s staff had become involved in the dispute by advising the employee to return to work despite having received a 10-day suspension.”

Gerawan’s attorneys filed a public records act request for documents related to the temporary restraining order. The ALRB denied the records request citing pending litigation.

But the judge didn’t buy their excuse. In his Thursday ruling, the judge said the ALRB failed to meet the burden of showing why the documents were exempt from disclosure. “Disclosing the documents will not, as the ALRB argues, invade the board’s legal privileges,” Frawley wrote in his decision.

There is no “legal privilege” – and no attorney-client privilege or work product privilege – as the ALRB General Counsel cannot be acting as the Board’s attorney in a prosecution before the Board. A judge and prosecutor cannot be in an attorney-client relationship.

“Gerawan and the public have a strong interest in the documents because they may shed light on the integrity of the ALRB’s investigation and the credibility of the ALRB’s evidence against Gerawan,” Judge Frawley wrote.

Silas Shawver, ALRB, wearing UFW t-shirt

The Ringleaders

In the past three years I have written about and exposed General Counsel Silvia Torres Guillen’s close ties to the UFW and labor. She was a key speaker at the 2012 UFW 50 Year Anniversary celebration, promising to revive the UFW through forced contracts on Farmworkers. Only a few months later, in October 2012, the feeble union reappeared and insisted that a collective-bargaining agreement covering Gerawan workers be reactivated. The workers organized themselves and began the process to vote to decertify the labor union. The UFW, down to about 3,300 members from a high of 50,000 in the 1970s, narrowly won an election to represent the company’s workers 24 years ago. But after just one bargaining session and with no contract in place, the union disappeared and wasn’t heard from in more than two decades.

All of the ALRB Regional Directors involved in the Gerawan case had strong UFW and union ties: Alegria De La Cruz, a 3rd generation UFW activist, was hand picked for her ALRB post as Regional Director. Jessica Arciniega was a paid UFW Organizer and later UFW attorney. Silas Shawver was a union organizer for Unite Here. He was photographed wearing a UFW shirt, and had over a dozen social media “friends” who were UFW officials, organizers and activists.

There still is the business of the thousands of uncounted ballots from the Nov. 2013 decertification election in which the Gerawan workers voted to determine whether to keep or decertify the UFW as their labor representative. The ALRB and UFW want those ballots destroyed without ever being counted, and even convinced an ALRB Administrative Law Judge to order the ballots destroyed. These workers don’t want to be forced into a UFW contract that will seize three percent of their wages.

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Ex-ALRB judge called STG deputy a union ‘agent’

Casting further questions about the impartiality of the ALRB Office of General Counsel Sylvia Torres-Guillen, a former ALRB judge has called one of STG’s deputies a “union agent.”

“And with the recent shakeups in the ALRB general counsel’s office that resulted in the sackings and sudden resignations of top lawyers, people are wondering why Arciniega remains on the job,” Katy Grimes writes in Flash Report.

“The lawyer has come a long way since getting her law degree as an ‘apprentice’ of longtime UFW lawyer Barbara Macri-Ortiz, who in fact calls Arciniega ‘my apprentice.’

“In 2003, an Agricultural Labor Relations Board administrative judge identified Jessica Arciniega as ‘UFW staff member’ at its Oxnard office. ALRB administrative law judge Nancy Smith even called her a ‘union agent,’” according to Grimes.

“Instead of going to law school, Arciniega went through the UFW’s legal apprentice program under UFW attorney Barbara Macri-Ortiz. California is one of the few states that allows law students to study as apprentices, rather than going to law school,” Grimes continued in her fact-filled article. “The UFW gave Arciniega her legal education and her law degree. Her mentor, Macri-Ortiz, also apprenticed at the UFW, receiving a law degree signed by UFW leader Cesar Chavez and spending 20 years working for the union. Both Arciniega and Macri-Ortiz were given awards by Women Lawyers of Ventura County in 2010.”

“In 2012, ALRB’s new general counsel, Sylvia Torres-Guillen, hired Arciniega among several union activists to expand the ALRB legal staff to go after farmers. One of the activist lawyers, Silas Shawver, became Regional Director of ALRB office in Visalia. Another, Alegria de la Cruz, was hired as a lawyer in Torres-Guillen’s office. A third was Jessica Arciniega, named Regional Director of the ALRB office in Oxnard.”

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While De La Cruz possibly orgasms when she hears the word ‘equity’, an over-utilized scapegoat, what does the term mean to her? Is she possibly referring to the ‘equitable’ profits she distributes amongst her squad of peers who appear to prey on the marginalized communities they claim to serve?

Proverbs 14:31
Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

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