Migrant Farm Worker Housing as Shameful as Ever

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Coachella Unincorporated/New America Media, News Report, Joaquín Magón, Posted: Nov 17, 2011

EDITOR’S NOTE: The author of this story, who uses the pen name “Joaquín Magón,” is a youth writer from the east Coachella valley, now living in Salinas and working for the United Farm Workers. He blogs regularly for Coachella Unincorporated, a community health-reporting project of New America Media, supported by The California Endowment.

SALINAS, Calif. -- Alfredo lives in a tool shed. A cramped shed made of tin. He has no running water, electricity, heating… nothing. The world of the farm worker holds this reality—work during the day is harsh and the end of the day is harsh.

An organizer and I walked through this Mixteco community in the outskirts of Salinas amazed as we saw the trash strewn about, the children covered in dirt, the poor excuses for houses people must turn into homes. When I look at archived black and white photos of farm worker housing in the 1930’s and 40’s, it looks the same. Nothing has gotten better.

“It’s not fair that we have to live in this place where it’s always cold,” says Alfredo in Mixteco, one of the many indigenous languages spoken in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. “But it’s the only thing that we can afford with what we are paid. If they paid us better, well, we’d live in another place that was better but here we are.”

Alfredo, who did not want his last name included, works in the strawberry fields and although I haven’t seen him in action, I can tell just by looking at his hands, his eyes, and feeling his sense of ambition, that he works hard. But hard isn’t enough for an undocumented worker who struggles to speak Spanish and has no command of English.

A migrant worker from San Martin, Oaxaca, Alfredo is one of the many indigenous workers who lives in this community in the outskirts of Salinas where lonely horse-less horse ranches house people.

He came to California about a year ago and has been working ever since. Work in the fields, unlike work in the cities, is quickly found and taken up by anyone who wants it. Agricultural work in California knows very little of lay offs, pink slips, or fair wages.

Like many young men his age, Alfredo, 22, came alone to the United States in hopes of sending money back to his family and his community. Being alone allows him to make the harsh sacrifices such as living in a shed, toughing it out, hoping it’s only temporary until the season is up and then he will move south to Oxnard.

To be a farm worker is to make a living out of something that can’t be made a living out of. It’s to get up in the early morning before my paper hits my door and work all day arched over, turning strawberries, picking the red ones, leaving the green ones, in rows that seem to run into the horizon.

“I would like it if they paid us better,” says Alfredo. “The work that we do, well, it’s very difficult and for that we can only come here to this house at the end of the work day. We don’t have anything else.”

Mario lives a minute’s walk from Alfredo. In this area, it’s common for those with a ranch or empty lot to rent out their property to farm workers at a high rate. Mario lives in a horse ranch where there are no horses—the horse corrals are used for people. His home is what looks to be a horse corral boarded up as an excuse for a house. He lives there with his family paying $800 a month for the place. The room is packed with people and they share a bathroom in bad condition.

When it rains, the water leaks, then the dirt turns to mud and mixes with excrement, making it difficult for people to walk through and for the children to play. Like Alfredo, and like the surrounding community, he speaks little Spanish, no English, and commands Mixteco well.

“I’ve been living here for four months,” Mario said. “I feel bad paying so much and living in a place like this. It looks ugly. It doesn’t seem fair to me that I pay so much and live like this.”

But the options are scarce and he would not feel safe living away from the Mixteco community—a community that takes great pride in sticking together and not trusting those who are not part of it.

The farm workers living here are stuck in a similar political limbo as those in the communities in the Eastern Coachella Valley where conditions are harsh to endure but easier to endure than the homeless situation they would find themselves in if the government intervened and shut the places down.

Winter is cold here. Dark clouds loom over Salinas as Mixtecos cook outside their shacks, banding together to talk about their day, to rest, and laugh. Laugh? Humans are amazingly beautiful if they can laugh the way the do in a reality that is so harsh to live.

Even they, I suppose, feel they must take pride in the little they have. They work for the short inch of living space they have and they are not homeless; they are not hungry; they are not begging on the sides of freeway off ramps or at stoplights. They are not taking food stamps or welfare. No, they take pride that they are working, living in their own community, speaking their own language and laughing. Laughing at what? I have no idea but I smile at the thought.

Comments

Anonymous

Posted Nov 17 2011

There are thousand farmers whose names we will never know, but they had been straggling for ever .Mos t of them are the natives of the very grown they work almost free , it were stolen by Europeans who are still so arrogant like we don't know our history and they have enslave the natives of Mexico and north American .

Anonymous

Posted Nov 20 2011

Did you read the whole story? They cant even speak Spanish or English there language is more of a tribal dialect . if you want it better then don't stay in an area because you have "numbers" learn English get documented and to all the people who say ohh its so hard to do it well let me introduce you to my father who came to this country as an undocumented immigrant.
Did he have it hard yes he had it harder than these people he came from the middle east spoke NO English had No family or friends he worked three jobs a dishwasher , picked grapes and dug ditches for irrigation. He lived in an apartment with a bunch guys from Palestine witch is not where my dad is from he dident have 1 person from his home land with him.. My dad saved every penny he could he made it a point to learn English He took a few classes at a community collage he realized that doing what was given to him was not good enough he dident complane he hand delivered job apps to the big utility comps every week or a yr and a half untill the lady said she would give him a shot so he would quit bugging her. he worked there for 26 yrs retired with a home money and was able to return to his homeland . So I am sick and tired of hearing about how bad and unfair it is ! you dont think the world knows this why dont you learn English start the process to get a green card my x wife got one 4 years ago in 6 mo so its not hard or expensive . if you dont like what your doing hen change it. after seeing what my father did any one can do it . these people who complane do so because they are to lazy to make a change or are in trouble with the law so they cant get a work permit . Even if they are in that situation they can all still learn English that alone will open up hundreds of doors for them. Hey its realty the USA is not the super country any more it cant even take care of its own so why should it worry about people who don't want to work to better them self ? No one said its strawberry's or nothing it was just the first offer and they were content with it. if they want better then work harder my dad did

Anonymous

Posted Nov 20 2011

Anonymous

Posted Nov 20 2011

Anonymous

Posted Nov 21 2011

To the anonymous poster who wrote about the immigrant experience of his dad:

Yes, life is hard for many immigrants and your dad should be commended for working hard to create a better life for himself and his family. But there is no difference in this case between your father and the people profiled in this article. The whole point of the article is that despite the horrible living conditions, these people continue to work hard and even keep a smile on their face. Life for immigrants is hard in the U.S., but that does not make it acceptable for people to be living in these sorts of unhealthy and impoverished conditions. It's sad that you would not understand that, being the child of an immigrant yourself.

Anonymous

Posted Nov 23 2011

To the poster that wrote about his father's experiences:

Your argument shows the lack of knowlege you have about an immigrants struggle. Which isn't suprising given the fact that many people remain ignorant of such facts. Nevertheless, it's even more saddening given the fact that those arguments show your ignorance towards the struggles of your own father.

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