This month was incredible for me. It helped me open my eyes and realize what the life of people who came as "Hired" was like. The conditions in which they live could be better; for example, they don't have privacy or air conditioning, sometimes they don't have transportation, and sometimes they don't have a washing machine or dryer. These are basic things in every person's life, but sometimes they don't have them. In an occasion , your employers sometimes violate your rights as workers. For example, a man I spoke to tell me that as soon as they finished spraying the pesticide on the tobacco, his boss made them go to the files even though they should n't have done so because they had just sprayed the pesticide . For me, they are the strongest people in this world. They live in these conditions. It doesn't seem fair to me that they live in those conditions since they do an excellent job for this country, and thanks to the agricultural workers of this country, it is the country it is now.
For me, the first two weeks of work were intense because when we started doing outreach, I realized the conditions where they live; I learned the great sacrifice they make to give a better life to their families who are in their native countries waiting to be able to see them at the end of the year. From the first day I started doing outreach, I identified a lot with them because my dad came to North Carolina as a contratado when I was a child. I never knew how he lived, and he always told my family and me that he was fine, so we shouldn't worry about him because he was fine. Now I understood that he only told us so we wouldn't worry about him because the reality was very different. Like my dad and many others, they make a great sacrifice to come to this country and work to give us a better future regardless of their living conditions because they do everything for their family.
I want to thank the agricultural workers for all the effort they make. I would love to be able to help them more with the things they need and help them exercise their rights as workers and as human beings. I want to continue learning from them.
Written by Ana Zavala, ITF student