Farmworkers play a large role in U.S. society - Cornell Farmworker Program Summer 2012 Internship

I will not have another meal again without stopping to think about where it came from. This summer, I interned through the Cornell Farmworker Program (CFP) for 9 weeks. Every time someone asked me last semester, “What are you doing this summer?” and I’ve responded with “I’m working for the Cornell Farmworker Program,” I often got blank stares, awkward silences, confused or uninterested looks, and sometimes even chuckles. I think they thought that I would be out in the fields, planting crops, milking cows, or picking berries. But my experience was so much more than that. As an intern through CFP, I worked with 7 other students to address farmworker needs and improve the living and working conditions of these workers and their families.

Why should we care about farmworkers?
Farm labor is one of the most dangerous occupations in the U.S. Workers are at an increased risk for injury and illness, and they face low pay for long hours, poor housing and working conditions, exposure to pesticides, discrimination, and a decline of mental health. They make significant contributions to U.S. agriculture by cultivating foods that many of us are eating every day, but are unaware both of where it comes from and the intense physical demands and dangers the laborers inevitably face.

Aside from the unsafe environment of their work, most farmworkers live in fear of the migration authorities. The majority are undocumented immigrants from México, Guatemala, and other Central American countries who have come here to find jobs to support their families back at home. There is better economic opportunity here. I have been exposed to and become more aware of the xenophobic sentiments of many Americans (through the Mexican movies I watch, the "Latinos in the U.S." course I took last semester, and my own conversations with these farmworkers). They are human beings, but have been dismissed and ignored by our society. It’s horrible to see that racialist attitudes are still rampant in this day and age. The term “Mexican”, for example, had become synonymous with “fence-hopper”, “illegal immigrant”, and “criminal", and though not as pervasively used as before, is still being perpetuated in some contexts, including the political arena. Fortunately, we find that more and more people (particularly the younger generations) are transitioning away from conservative, insensitive attitudes about our country's immigrants.

Cornell Farmworker Program Internship
I was lucky to be a part of a diverse team; there were 8 of us, but all from different levels of education, nationalities, backgrounds, and experiences. I’m so glad to have been able to work with the 7 others for the past eight weeks on this project of improving the farmworker condition throughout New York state.

As interns through CFP, we:

• completed many readings on the farmworker condition
• provided ESL instruction on farms
• conducted interviews in Spanish to assess the workers' needs (my favorite)
• transcribed and translated these interviews
• began to analyze and code the data
• lead Focus Groups to gain insight on their working conditions and improve workplace relations between them and their employers (the farmers)
• conducted Emergency Planning Workshops to inform them of their rights as workers in the U.S.
• complete weekly journal entries reflecting on our internship activities to track our learning progress

I chose to become an intern through CFP because of my initial experiences on the farm with Friends of Farmworkers (FoF) the last couple of semesters. The farmworkers’ knowledge of little to no English decreases their means for self-advocacy and involvement in the broader community. FoF addresses this issue by training volunteers to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) on local farms for an hour each week throughout Tompkins County and the state.

“Hace más de dos años desde que he visto a mi hija.” One worker once told me that he hadn’t seen his own daughter in over 2 years. Can you imagine that? Living in a country where the language and surroundings are unfamiliar, only being able to inconsistently contact your family from over 3,000 miles away by telephone, not knowing when you can return home after “saving up enough money” (which is being eaten up by taxes, paying back loans you borrowed from family/friends to get here, buying food and other necessities, etc.), not being there to see your own child grow up, and constantly living in fear of being caught by migration officials and sent back to your country where economic opportunities are not as readily available? Can you imagine this? These realizations, my sensitivity toward disadvantaged Latino communities, and my desire to promote social justice, bridge the socioeconomic inequity gap, and improve the health and education of these workers are what drove me to become a summer intern through the Cornell Farmworker Program.