Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO

I’d be lying if I told you that it never occurred to me to question the beauty of the countryside that I loved to explore as a young person of color in the South. Many people, like me, can’t help but admire stretches of crisp green plants that interchange with golden fields and eventually give way to pristine farm homes with freshly trimmed lawns. However, there is a deeply entrenched legacy of injustice and inequality that no amount of romanticizing or denial could remove from the reality of life in the country.  But people like to forget and forgetting is costly.

I’d seen third world poverty before when I worked with a nonprofit organization in Honduras in the summer of 2012, but I still felt shocked when I went out to the camps of the trabajadores with whom FLOC organizers work to build community power. It was shocking, I think, because for the first time I was faced with the harsh realization that there is a widespread human trafficking operation of cheap labor thriving in my back yard.

One of the ugliest things I’ve seen in the fields confronted me this past Tuesday night when my companeros y yo visited a worker camp in North Carolina that was surrounded by barbwire fence. For me, it looked like a prison.  It made me think of a cage where the workers are contained until they are needed to work in the fields. There were approximately 60 people living in 5-6 trailers with worn out mattresses backed into a small space, allowing hardly enough room for people to move around.

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“Soy lo que dejaron. Soy toda los sobra de lo que se robaron…mano de obra campesina para tu consumo…el sol que nace y el dia que muere con los mejores atardeceres…Soy America latina, un pueblo sin piernas pero que camina”

The song, “Latinoamerica” by Calle 13 plays in my head as we head out from the office and toward the worker camps. Every time we are out on the road I can’t help but think about all the people that we have spoken to and all the people that we will speak to in the upcoming days. I still can’t decide what it was that compelled me to come to North Carolina to be a part of the FLOC campaign. Whatever it was, I’m grateful for that energy that pulled me all the way from Southern Cali to the Southern U.S.

These past two weeks have flown by and I have already become close friends with three amazing mujeres. It’s important to have a good support system when you are far away from home and embarking on an amazing yet arduous campaign like this. First there’s Julia who has been so welcoming, even sharing her home cooked meals during lunchtime. But perhaps the most important thing she has shared with me is her own experience as a farmworker. I am happy to call her my team leader because even though she is only 17 years old she has so much wisdom. Another awesome friend that I have made is Patsy. You wouldn’t believe she is only 22 years old. She is truly an inspiration for what it means to be a strong woman.  And of course, Julie who is one of the bravest people I know. I definitely would not have had the guts to come on this adventure all on my own.

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