She was recognized twice by People magazine in 2006, and in 2018, Treviño-Sauceda was co-awarded the Smithsonian Institution's American Ingenuity Award for Social Progress.

Treviño-Sauceda was born in Bellingham, Washington to farmworkers who immigrated to the United States from Mexico.

[2][3] After her family relocated to Idaho, and then the Coachella Valley, Treviño-Sauceda started working in agricultural fields when she was 8 years old, and as a teenager experienced multiple sexual assaults.

[3][4][2][5][1] While working the fields with her brothers in Blythe, California, Treviño-Sauceda and other farmworkers were doused with pesticides.

[5] In the late 1980s, Treviño-Sauceda joined as a member recruitment and orientation coordinator for the nonprofit organization Women Farmworker Leaders in California, originally known as "Mexican Women", supported by the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, to bring awareness and change on human rights issues disproportionately affecting Mexican women in migrant communities in the Coachella Valley.