Entry# 4 The Migrant Farm Worker of Today

Imagine you are 8 or 9 years old waking up on an early Saturday morning, what are you going to do? Will you lounge in your pajamas, with a bowl of Lucky Charms in your lap watching the Road Runner out smart Wiley for the thousandth time? Or are you climbing in the back of a pick-up truck rubbing the sleep from your eyes and thinking, my feet still hurt from yesterday?

Many people today do not realize that crops are still picked by migrant farm workers that follow the harvest from state to state. These workers are not just individuals, these are families who are economically forced to follow the harvest down the coast from Washington state through the south and up to Wisconsin picking whatever crop is in season.

The most shocking realization is that a large population of migrant workers are children who are not protected by child labor laws. There are 400,000 migrant child farm workers in America. These children toil in the fields up to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for an average pay of $64 a week. Unfortunately, many families can not afford for these children to go to school because they need them to work. In result, the generational cycle continues and more children continue to suffer.

As a granddaughter of migrant farm workers, this issue pulls at my heart because what my grandparents fought for alongside Cesar Chavez is still continuing and not just affecting adults, but the babies of America.

Please help bring awareness to this issue and join M.E.Ch.A. de GCC on March 26th at 6pm for a special viewing of this film and learn more about the work Cesar Chavez did for migrant farm workers and what we can do to help these children.