For over a month now I have spent my days driving across the state to visit H-2A workers at their housing. By my own estimation I have been able to speak individually with over 300 farmworkers. These workers are primarily men from ages 18-68 who hail from various states in Mexico and work primarily in el tabaco [tobacco], camote [sweet potato], as well as pepino [cucumber], sandia [watermelon], cangrejo [crab], and more. I want to express my gratitude to the health providers, organizers, farmworkers, and organizations who have introduced me to farmworkers and supported me in various ways with special appreciation for Leticia Zavala from El Futuro Es Nuestro [It’s Our Future, IOF], Jovanny from Episcopal Farmworker Ministry (EFM) , Iza from Casa Azul de Wilson, as well as others.
In my conversations with farmworkers I have done a lot of listening. Without exception the folks I talk to refer to “los hijos [the children]” or “la familia [the family]” as to why they are here. The H-2A workers I have met work harder than anyone I have ever met and they do so with determination to send their children to school, to repair their homes, and to support their extended families. I have so much admiration for these farmworkers. However, I cannot help but question a system that makes it only possible for someone to support their family by separating them from home for 6-7 months every year. The H-2A system, which supposedly represents a “humane” or “efficient” way of providing much needed labor for the US agricultural industry, is a violent system.
When I think about the dehumanization of farmworkers under the H-2A program I become very angry. I see the current program as one that systematically removes people from their homes in Mexico and works them until they are injured, dying, or dead. I have hear stories of people being hit by trucks in the field and being unable to walk, of farmworkers fingernails peeling off as they dig for camote [sweet potato], of el monstruo verde [green tobacco sickness] which causes mareo [dizziness] and throwing up and makes you think “que te vas a morir [you are going to die].” Not to mention the chronic back and knee pains that workers endure and the detrimental effects on mental health of being so far removed from home and so alienated in North Carolina. Under this system the individual is stripped of their autonomy over their body as they are made into a commodity. Their value under capitalism is nothing more than the amount of crates they are able to fill with blueberries.
One argument that people may make is that “Well they chose to come here. If they wanted they could just go home.” This assertion is based on a reductive understanding of agency. How much of a choice is it to come to the US for work if not doing so would mean that your family in Mexico doesn’t have enough to eat? In a tragically ironic way H-2A workers are making the calculus that exposing themselves to heatstroke, chemicals, and more in the North Carolina fields is actually a safer decision for them and their families than the alternative. It must also be pointed out that the US has created conditions of poverty for the communities who now find themselves migrating to the US. Take the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) policies that make it illegal for Mexico to impose tariffs on US corn. These disastrous policies motivated by neoliberal economic policy mean that US corporate corn which is heavily subsidized by the U.S. Government has flooded the Mexican market, effectively putting hundreds of thousands of Mexican corn farmers, many of them indigenous, out of work. This is not an accident.
The disregard for the humanity of the farmworkers I have grown to know has left me feeling not only angry but at times cynical. However, I am reminded of Mariame Kaba’s words, “Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.” I do have hope. And not just in an abstract way that helps me wake up every day. I have been inspired by the organizing efforts of El Futuro Es Nuestro (IOF) and the dedication its members show to growing farmworker power in the state and the strong personal relationships between farm workers of different camps that create solidarity. I am very inspired by my intern peers who are working in legal aid, migrant education, health clinics, and more. Each and every one of them is passionate about farmworker rights and protecting our communities from the violence and abuses of capitalism and the state. I am also inspired by the personal relationships I have witnessed between H-2A workers at camps and how folks are able to maintain a sense of community and even levity despite the inhumane conditions they are exposed to. I am thinking about countless moments of joy - making fun of a friend’s state for its cultural food, playing soccer under the sunset, and more.
Love and solidarity,
Addis