Next time you eat that onion...

[MannyIsGod]

Think about the people that got them to you.

Pay draws foreigners to hard work


Web Posted: 06/03/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Jesse Bogan
Express-News Border Bureau

LAREDO — The laborers picked up the 6-gallon buckets they'd been sitting on since 6:30 a.m. and eased into the onion rows that reached across a South Texas field, one of many ready for harvest.

Web Extra Slide Show: Onion Cutters


The workers were restless, having wasted three hours so lingering moisture could dry from the crop. The snipping of hand clippers and the growl of trucks on a nearby highway soon replaced the sound of their jokes.

They filled burlap sack after burlap sack. Some bent over the crop; others knelt in sandy dirt that heated up like furnace coals as the sun got hotter.

At two buckets of onions per sack, it's one of the hardest ways to earn 70 pennies at a time in the United States.

Few of them spoke English and most were undo ented immigrants from Mexico, which pulls at the root of a controversial opinion expressed last month by Mexican President Vicente Fox.

Fox clarified that he didn't intend to demean any racial group when he said Mexico's immigrants take jobs in the United States that "not even black people" want. But laborers and field managers here believe the comment, though poorly framed, essentially was true.

Undo ented immigrants do work most Americans, whatever their race, won't. It was evident in this onion field a few hours south of San Antonio, on the edge of one of the leading vegetable and fruit producing areas in the country.

A rookie's hands get blisters before the first two sacks are full. If careless, the cutters, which are like large scissors, can chop at knuckles, causing blood to drip on the produce. Even veterans like Trinidad Amaya, 39, a human combine, have scarred hands.

Assigned a pair of rows like the others, Amaya was immediately out in front like a champion swimmer and held the lead, with his skinny 17-year-old son hanging on a few sacks behind.

It took him about 4 seconds per handful. First he smacked the onions together so the dirt flew off. Then he lopped off the roots and the dangling green tails. He'd be looking for another three or four onions before the others landed in the bucket.

Amaya wore a glove on his onion-reaching hand and gripped a $5 set of cutters in the other. A file hung from his belt like a short sword. A straw hat shaded his dark face and neck.

"One has to drink water or the machine overheats," he said during a short break.

A legal U.S. resident with a third-grade education, Amaya has harvested fruit and vegetables in the Rio Grande Valley for many years. He calls McAllen home but has family on both sides of the border. He never has been on a vacation with his wife and five kids.

He said he's never seen a non-Hispanic get closer than a tractor seat away from a produce row. As for Fox's recent faux pas, he observed: "There is a saying in Mexico, that the truth is not a sin, but it makes one uncomfortable."

Amaya was one of the few cutters earning more than the sack counters, such as Julio Gonzalez, 27, a frenetic, outspoken man with a tattoo of the Virgin of Guadalupe across his back who walked the rows, rattling ice in his cup and keeping track of production.

He gave each worker a ticket, to be paid in cash on Saturdays.

Gonzalez — who has a tendency to say, "Welcome to the jungle," or yell the word "onion" in drawn-out Spanish to the workers as if to break the monotony — said about 10 percent of the roughly 250 laborers in this field were legally in the country.

"Does anybody want to do that in the United States?" he asked, pointing to a horizon full of onion fields. "No insurance. No benefits. No A/C. You lose money by taking too many breaks. It's crazy, man.

"Who is going to come do this when they can get (minimum wage) at McDonalds in the A/C?"

Some of the laborers shielded their heads and necks from the piercing sun with rags or burlap sacks. Many wore long sleeve shirts, others black T-shirts and no hat. Dirt was their sunscreen. Air-conditioning was a rest under a wagon.

"The little ones are worth something, too!" Gonzalez yelled after getting a radio call from the field manager. "Don't leave the little ones."

Clothing darkened with sweat as the temperature reached 97 degrees. Exhaustion slowed steps to shuffles. The number of onions grabbed per typical reach dropped from three to two.

Gonzalez, dressed in white shorts and T-shirt, draped a burlap sack over his head like a long hood, picked up two wooden stakes and acted like he was snow skiing through the field. He yelled his mantra —— "Onion!" —— but few laborers looked up.

To many of them, used to heat and hard work, this was a pay raise. One man who jumped trains to get to the border from Honduras said the $200 he earned here in three full days would have taken a few months doing farm work back home.

About 50 of the workers were from a gulfside village in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and slept in bunks on the ranch. They daydreamed of eating shrimp at home two months from now, after the harvest has gone to sauces, salads and hamburgers around the United States.

As long as they don't draw attention to themselves, the U.S. Border Patrol leaves them alone, managers said. One worker who was deported said he came back to the fields the next day.

A Border Patrol spokesman in Washington said the agency isn't responsible for workplace enforcement, but rather protects the border from undo ented entrants.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is responsible for catching undo ented immigrants within the country, arrested 161,000 of them in 2004. Half of them were criminals, said Cark Rusnok, a Dallas-based agency spokesman.

"We are going to spend the majority of our resources going after those people that can do us most harm," he said.

A San Antonio-based representative of the United Farm Workers, Rebecca Flores, estimated that 80 percent of agricultural field workers in the United States are undo ented.

"It is just a pecking order in terms of what (employers) can get out of cheap labor," Flores said. "The immigrant who has no rights and has no protection is the one who will take those jobs."

Work permits for immigrants frequently are granted to agricultural producers who show the U.S. Labor Department that Americans don't want the job, said Roman Ramos, a paralegal at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc., in a department that provides legal services to migrant and seasonal farm workers.

He said a rancher near Laredo requires laborers to live on the property and be available 24 hours day, a schedule a local citizen with a car and family most likely wouldn't want.

"The problem here is that the conditions that employers put on the workers are sometimes not acceptable to U.S. workers and the job offer will be denied," Ramos said.

Back at the onion harvest, those working legally have some of the thinnest wallets in the country. Jose Luis Hernandez, 37, a part-time mechanic originally from Mexico City who lives in Zapata, cut onions with his wife and six of his nine children.

"This is the kind of work that almost nobody wants to do," he said under a straw hat. "It's bad pay and very hard, but I make more when they come and help me."

As a team, Hernandez said, his family can cut 250 sacks, or $175 worth, in half a day — they rarely work longer than that.

"My family is very close knit," he said. "When they aren't in school, what they earn goes into the house."

A newcomer that day cut 38 sacks —— less than minimum wage —— while the intrepid Amaya, who says the only thing he thinks about while he's working is more sacks, cut between 150 and 200.

He loves the job because, he said, "You work a little and you earn a little money." But he doesn't work a little. From here he'll harvest watermelons and then travel to New Mexico for more melons, maybe onions, too.

He has cut thousands of onions, but doesn't know how to say the word in English. That doesn't matter. It's the 70 cents per sack he wants —— and gets —— over and over.

[Flea]

Wow

[Clandestino]

i can't believe the uproar that fox caused when he said that.

[MannyIsGod]

i can't believe the uproar that fox caused when he said that.

He just framed it really stupidly. What he was saying is true, no one wants these jobs. But by saying "even blacks" he was saying that the blacks were the lowest group.

Whatever.

Either way, that work is ing HARD. I remember Summers in California with family members in the fields. I would just wander around looking for animals and eating strawberries while the rest of my family picked away.

I once had one of those horns they sell at parades, and the running joke became that I was in charge of warning them if I saw "La Migra" by blowing it. Never once did have any problems with Border Patrol, though.

At least there it wasn't very hot. I can't imagine doing this work in 100 degree heat and not passing out.

[CosmicCowboy]

I saw something pretty wild about 25 years ago...the landowner near Carizzo Springs had rootplowed and cleared about 20 acres of brush in the fall...plowed it to catch the winter rains, and then planted cantaloupes in the spring...it was a dry spring and the rats came to raid the cantaloupes and the rattlesnakes followed them...thousands of them...every morning before starting the harvest the pickers wearing rubber boots and carrying machetes would line up and walk the field from end to end killing the rattlesnakes before they started so they could pick...definitely no place for lightweights...

[Clandestino]

too funny about the horn!

my cousin picked cotton for a couple days.. he came back black and never did it again.

regardless, many lower income americans don't even want the dishwashing jobs, much less these jobs.

[ObiwanGinobili]

The way fox put it was kinda dumb but it was very true... I understand wantign to stop terrorists or convicted criminals from entering our country.. but I hate how hard they crack down on migrant workers and the like.
Man, what if my family had never got here? wher ewould I have been born? or my husbands family for that matter.. they left Mexico as political enemies back in the day, heck if the border gaurd had been able to stop Popo Vlademero from coming over her he would've been shot dead... I wouldn;t have a husband.

[Useruser666]

I saw something pretty wild about 25 years ago...the landowner near Carizzo Springs had rootplowed and cleared about 20 acres of brush in the fall...plowed it to catch the winter rains, and then planted cantaloupes in the spring...it was a dry spring and the rats came to raid the cantaloupes and the rattlesnakes followed them...thousands of them...every morning before starting the harvest the pickers wearing rubber boots and carrying machetes would line up and walk the field from end to end killing the rattlesnakes before they started so they could pick...definitely no place for lightweights...

But do they get to keep the rattlesnales they kill? That would be a perk!

[ObiwanGinobili]

But do they get to keep the rattlesnales they kill? That would be a perk!

dude, roasted rattlesnake taste righteous.

[MannyIsGod]

They really don't crack down on these guys. But, thats a problem on its own because it leaves open a way for terrorists to get into this country.

I'd rather they find a way to do ent these people and allow them to come over and do what they need to do.

[CosmicCowboy]

I'd rather they find a way to do ent these people and allow them to come over and do what they need to do.

Manny...you shock me sometimes.

That is SUCH a common sense REPUBLICAN solution...Bush was pilloried by the democrats for saying the same thing...

[MannyIsGod]

Manny...you shock me sometimes.

That is SUCH a common sense REPUBLICAN solution...Bush was pilloried by the democrats for saying the same thing...

I'm not a democrat, but here is what both sides are doing at the moment:

The proposal would require the Department of Homeland Security to maintain an employment eligibility system that would allow employers to verify electronically the citizenship status of their workers. And it would increase penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Earlier this month, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., unveiled legislation that includes a guest worker program, help for states to pay for the incarceration of illegal immigrant criminals, a more extensive database of U.S. jobs available to guest workers and higher fines on companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3200259

They both have guest worker programs, but the main difference is that the McCain/Kennedy plan gives them priority when apply for green cards.

[Useruser666]

The next time I eat a raw onion, I will think of this story and my eyes will water......

[CosmicCowboy]

The next time I eat a raw onion, I will think of this story and my eyes will water......

[SWC Bonfire]

It wasn't that long ago that most of Texas:

1.) Didn't have A/C
2.) Labored agriculturally.

Everyone should have a job doing farm labor. I know a lot of people that it lit a fire under. You'd be surprized how motivated a person is to get an education knowing what alternative is in store for them.

And the next time you eat an onion (or any agricultural product) that doesn't cost $2.50 a piece, think of the guys who not only picked it, but also who busted their ass to make the payments on the land and equipment required to grow it. And don't get too far from the roots of Texas, they're part of what makes Texas different from every other state.

[CosmicCowboy]

It wasn't that long ago that most of Texas:

1.) Didn't have A/C
2.) Labored agriculturally.

Everyone should have a job doing farm labor. I know a lot of people that it lit a fire under. You'd be surprized how motivated a person is to get an education knowing what alternative is in store for them.

And the next time you eat an onion (or any agricultural product) that doesn't cost $2.50 a piece, think of the guys who not only picked it, but also who busted their ass to make the payments on the land and equipment required to grow it. And don't get too far from the roots of Texas, they're part of what makes Texas different from every other state.

good post.

I grew up working on a ranch dawn till dark a lot of weekends...moving irrigation pipe, working cattle, building/repairing fences etc...people that have never done it don't have any idea just how much work it is...

[Shelly]

The next time I eat a raw onion, I will think of this story and my eyes will water......

If you put onions in the refrigerator, your eyes won't water as much when you cut an onion.

Stainless steel helps revmove the smell of onion from your hands.

Love,
Heloise

[gophergeorge]

good post.

I grew up working on a ranch dawn till dark a lot of weekends...moving irrigation pipe, working cattle, building/repairing fences etc...people that have never done it don't have any idea just how much work it is...

Here Here!!!

I spent many a day picking rocks out of fields.... "walking beans", cleaning out the pig ... the worst was bailing hay though.... that really sucked.

[desflood]

It's funny... I remember my first job. Started working at 14 in this little leaky garage for a convenience store, sorting recycleables. Sort cans and bottles, glass and plastic, by beer or soda company, put them all in separate sacks or boxes, haul them in and out of the garage. Did that until I was 18. Good hard physical work (and stinky and sticky as ). My spoiled brat classmates always said to me, "God, I don't know how you do that," and I always told them, "Hey, be happy you're not a migrant worker!" If only they knew!

[ObiwanGinobili]

My husband bailed hay before and after school and most every weekend till dark.... it definatly motivated him to stay in school and take advantage of the (crappy) oppurtunity's offered.. like the VICA program.. he ended being president for the whole state of Texas.
But man.. that ty farmers tan he picked up is still on him 8years later.

[CosmicCowboy]

my first real "paycheck" was when I was fourteen...I worked a pigeon shoot out at national gun club...They don't have them anymore because of the animal rights activists...I should have kept that pay stub...144 hours in one week...up at two in the morning wading ankle/knee deep through pigeon in the coops catching pigeons in the dark with a flashlight...stocking the pigeons at the arena...then loading concessions, icing beer etc...then loading skeet ranges and pulling skeet till dark, then cleaning up, picking up trash, picking up fire ant covered dead pigeons, sweeping/cleaning the stands and then crashing in a sleeping bag about midnight...I remember getting that first paycheck and remembering being pissed when I saw how much they held out in taxes...

[SWC Bonfire]

...I remember getting that first paycheck and remembering being pissed when I saw how much they held out in taxes...

"Who the is OASDI and why are they taking all my money!"

[CosmicCowboy]

My husband bailed hay before and after school and most every weekend till dark.... it definatly motivated him to stay in school and take advantage of the (crappy) oppurtunity's offered.. like the VICA program.. he ended being president for the whole state of Texas.
But man.. that ty farmers tan he picked up is still on him 8years later.

We irrigated about 200 acres of coastal when I was a kid and got 5-6 cuttings a year...from about 11-12 on I vividly remember working with the hired hands loading the hay on the trailer in the field by hand and then stocking it in the barn...they got a nickel a bale and I didn't get paid...The bales weighed as much as I did (about 85#) and had grassburs in them...I was a real mess by the end of the day...

[TNT21]

Definitely hard work! I worked for 3 summers helping my grandparents working in the fields. From 4 am till 9 pm, it was very tough work, but I think it helped me become who I am today. I don't feel sorry for the people who work at McDonalds at all, they have it good, but they just don't know it. I clearly remember one summer of busting my balls and at the end of the summer all I wanted were the new pair of DRobs new shoes (the ones that you could pump on the side by the ankle), but they costed $150. I went ahead and bought them and my dad freaked out!! At the time I was working to buy my school clothes and the rest of the money I would just give to my parents (10-12 grade of highschool). But I clearly remember my dad having a fit about the $150 dollar shoes that I had to have. I was like, look, I busted my ass all summer long from 4 in the morning to 9 at night and all I want is a good pair of shoes, but he still didn't see it my way. I was like it, I deserve these shoes, and they went on to last me for a couple of years, so it was definately a good investment.

[SWC Bonfire]

Good Stories.

I remember an article by Baxter Black once; it included an "Agricultural Survivability Test". One of the questions was:

I became involved in agriculture because:

A. I inherited a large estate and the joy of being connected to the land from my esteemed grandfather.

B. My daddy chained me to a tractor when I was 10.