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America the land of the free
where people live the american dream
For some, the dream is easy living but for others, a long hard road
filled with sacrifice, migration and
hardwork in order to put food on the table
The Great depression struck the U.S. in 1929 and
lasted until the end of the nineteen forties
millions of people all across america experienced the most dreadful economic
downfall in American history
many mexican american families
looked to migrating north in order to find field work
these are the accounts of two sisters and their experiences growing up as
mexican american migrant workers
When we started working on the fields, go so early, we used to pick
cherries
cucumbers
onions. What else, what else, what else....
blueberries
would go from one town to another one
sometimes from one state to another state and we were just moving around
Patsy: We would sleep on the side like ditches at night when we were traveling. My dad would put blankets and we would sleep there. And people would walk at night, men would walk by but they never bothered us.
Sometimes he would run out of money for food and there would be some woods. There's a lot of woods in Michigan. We would drive into the woods, build a little fire and cook some potatoes on that fire.
apart from making the long, tiresome trip
distance is not the only obstacle they faced
it was common for migrant workers to encounter segregation discrimination and
racism when traveling up north in the United States
My dad like could...he could go to town and he could go into the restaurant. They would let him in because he had blue eyes and was white, guero
But his friends wouldn't. When they went by, he made like "I don't know you!"
But because he could say beer. He could say a few English words, so he just asked for beer and that was it.
They would let him in and his friends would look
but they didn't let them go in. But they did let my dad because he was guero.
Carmen: And if they went in, they told them to get out
Or they'd go sit down somewhere to eat and they threw them out. They wouldn't even serve them. They wouldn't even go to them to order because we were Mexicans.
My mother was dark, you know, so we stayed in the car
Living was not easy especially with the extreme working conditions imposed on them by american farmers
Carmen: When we got to where we were going, we already had...my dad always had the same farmers where we would go
And they would put us in chicken coops.
They threw the chickens out and put us in there
When they knew that we were going, they threw the chickens out
Made us mattresses full of hay
so we could sleep on there.
And cots made out of wood
I mean, not cots...beds, made out of just of wood
Patsy: I don't know how my mom and dad did it, but
We all slept in the same, always in the same places
When I was growing up, I remember I didn't have any shoes
and when I would come would go with my grandmother
My parents weren't going yet to Michigan and I would come
and the first thing I did, I ran inside and my little brothers and sisters
they were laying down because they were younger than I was. Some of them were little.
And I would look under the bed because I wanted to see if they had shoes
And before i say anything I went and picked up the bed spread and looked under the bed
to see if my little brothers had shoes
My mom started bring us in the morning tacos
We'd go to work with a cup of coffee in our stomach and that was it
And they would take the tacos later on about 10, 11
My mom would get there with the tacos
Oh those tacos were so good!
Especially when it was cold. Those tacos were the best food you could ever ate
Patsy: We worked hard! Carmen: And we did it bending down.
Carmen: Most of the time, I used a small hoe. Patsy: They didn't let us use those long hoes.
Patsy: We had to use the little short one
Carmen: Then they started using the long ones
and I never wanted a long one
because I wanted a little one because I would go faster with the little one. So they gave me a little one. And there I go...
Patsy: We used to pick cherries too in this little place, it was like an island
We would climb on the ladders
and put our bucket here
and pick the cherries and put them in the bucket.
Every time you fill a bucket, you went down and put it where it was supposed to be put and then we'd go up again
pick more cherries and fill the bucket.
getting an education was not always an option when usually the entire family
have to work the fields
if you're old enough to go to school you were old enough to work Carmen: I didn't even finish elementary because I wanted to work
Patsy: I just got to the 9th grade and my habit that I had was reading and my dad would tell me when we used to go to Michigan and buy books.
And my dad would tell me, "Why are you always reading! You're always reading!
Get up from there and do something! Don't be reading" He would get mad at me because I read, but that's my thing, reading.
And when my brothers were very little, very young
there was inspectors going to the fields. The law started.
My dad was so mad. They took us out of school.
I remember dad taking me out of school and then, I mean
they just let you go
They didn't worry about you going to school or not
The teachers didn't complain. He went and got us out of school
Ooh, and we were so happy because we didn't have to go to school no more!
These migrant women
are just two of millions like them who are still living today and would not be here
if they did not go through exploitation,
hard work, discrimination, as well as being deprived of an education
it seems as though stories like these always slip through the cracks of american history
and are left untold
mexican american migrant workers are not considered mexican enough
or were not considered american enough
in the words of the Edward James Olmos in the movie, "Selena," you have to know about Oprah and Cristina
Let's consider them today as a part of our cultural history!