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To
all farm workers
Farm
worker
Farm
workers are like the birds that migrate from one place to
another in search of survival. They look for seasonal harvest
where they can work to fulfill their needs and those of their
families.
In the El Paso, Texas region harvest season is brief. For
this reason the farm workers of the area have to look for
work in other places.
For my husband being a farm worker is something that he has
always taken pride in. With his effort, he contributes to
put food on the tables of the richest, as well as of the poorest.
The products are sold at very low prices, thus the farm worker’s
salary is much lower than that of people who have other kinds
of jobs.
He leaves home every day at around four in the morning to
look for someone who can take him to the fields. There are
different buses that take farm workers to the fields, and
it is there where the classification starts: if they know
how to work, they take them, otherwise they don’t.
Daily wage is difficult. For eight hours of work they get
paid $38.25, starting at seven in the morning, and ending
at three o’clock. My husband gets home around 4:00 or
4:30 in the afternoon. From the time when he leaves to the
time when he comes back eleven hours have passed.
That’s how the field is. One needs to look for work
in close or far places regardless of time or distance. When
he has to work in places like Hatch, New Mexico or Deming,
New Mexico it takes him two hours to get there. Sometimes
he goes in his car or with other people who are going to the
same place to work. They all share the cost of gas. In these
places he earns a little more as long as he works fast; tired
and oftentimes in his knees.
The best season is the harvest of onion in the months of June,
July, August and September. Even though these are the most
difficult months because of the high temperatures, it is in
these months when one can earn a little more money.
He always has to harvest, regardless of cold, rain, snow or
the burning rays from the sun. Like a soldier gives his life
in the battlefield to defend his country, many farm workers
have left their lives in the furrows of the ground to put
food upon our tables.
Being a farm worker is a lot of suffering. Sometimes they
have to eat spoiled food because they take lunch from their
houses and they carry it with them in the sun to eat it when
they get hungry or when they have time. Sometimes they have
to drink very hot water and hold their necessities for lack
of services. Everything they have to bear because they can’t
work on something else. Even if they are offered school to
learn and to prepare for another kind of job, it is difficult.
Even though they have left their best years in the farms,
and they have watered with tears and sweat the furrows of
the fields, they want to stay there, because the fields are
like the blood that runs through their veins.
Story
by: María del Carmen Valenzuela
Translated by: Minerva Laveaga Duarte
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