ILL HARVEST
WHY BEING A FARMWORKER IS A HEALTH RISK
Both the nature of the work and flaws in the support system cause injuries and illness.
By David Bacon
Capital and Main, 12/9/22
https://capitalandmain.com/why-being-a-farmworker-is-a-health-risk
https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2022/12/why-being-farmworker-is-health-risk.html
A sign in the dirt of a cabbage field warns of the dangers of the pesticides used on the crops. All photos by David Bacon
In the summer of 2008 Andres Cruz got a call from a crew of Triqui workers picking peas near Greenfield, a farmworker town in California’s Salinas Valley. They told him they were on strike, and because he’s a leader in their community, they asked him for help. Twenty-five pickers had been fired, they said.
«They told me the labor contractor fired them because they were working on a piece rate and weren’t picking fast enough,» recalls Cruz, who himself works as a broccoli cutter. Pickers have to use their thumbnails to cut the pod from the vine. «Their nails were tearing off because of this. They tried to wrap up their hands and keep working, but they couldn’t work as fast, and the foreman wouldn’t listen to them.»
Triquis are Indigenous people from small villages in the hills of Oaxaca, Mexico, speaking a language that predates European colonization by centuries. Thousands have migrated to the U.S. in search of work, and they have a prominent presence in Greenfield. Almost all work in the fields, and their families in Mexico depend for survival on remittances sent back from their wages.
Andres Cruz with his wife Catalina and their son.
Their work stoppage was powerful enough to win reinstatement for those terminated. But the pressure of families in Mexico who need remittances, and the low wages paid for farm work, was a potent combination. Even when the pickers learned about their legal rights to medical treatment and some degree of compensation, the need to keep working overrode their ability to exercise those rights.
Multiple studies document the high rate of illness and injury for field laborers. According to Farmworker Justice, a Washington advocacy group, «Agricultural injuries and illnesses take many forms from falls, cuts, and lifting injuries to chemical exposures, vehicle and machinery accidents, and even chronic pain associated with repetitive movement. … These conditions disproportionately affect migrant and seasonal farmworkers … .»
The U.S. Department of Labor says that in 2020 589 farmworkers died at work. Official sources have historically undercounted workplace illness and injuries, however. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that there were 32,100 illnesses and injuries among U.S. farmworkers in 2011. But it left out workers employed by labor contractors (in California 55% of the farmworker workforce) and didn’t account for nonreported cases. When health economists at the University of California, Davis reexamined the data, «the estimated number of job-related injuries and illnesses experienced by agricultural workers … rises to 143,436,» their study concluded.
TWO YEARS OF HEAT AND COVID IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Photographs by David Bacon
October 1, 2022 to February 10, 2023
Leo & Dottie Kolligian Library
University of California Merced
5200 N. Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343
MORE THAN A WALL / MAS QUE UN MURO
More Than a Wall / Mas que Un Muro explores the many aspects of the border region through photographs taken by David Bacon over a period of 30 years. These photographs trace the changes in the border wall itself, and the social movements in border communities, factories and fields. This bilingual book provides a reality check, to allow us to see the border region as its people, with their own history of movements for rights and equality, and develop an alternative vision in which the border can be a region where people can live and work in solidarity with each other. – Gaspar Rivera-Salgado
David Bacon has given us, through his beautiful portraits, the plight of the American migrant worker, and the fierce spirit of those who provide and bring to us comfort and sustenance. — Lila Downs
Price: $35 plus postage and handling
To order, click here:
https://david-bacon-photography.square.site/product/more-than-a-wall-mas-que-un-muro/1?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false
«The «border» is just a line. It’s the people who matter – their relationships with or without or across that line. The book helps us feel the impact of the border on people living there, and helps us figure out how we talk to each other about it. The germ of the discussion are these wonderful and eye-opening pictures, and the voices that help us understand what these pictures mean.» – JoAnn Intili, director, The Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund
IN THE FIELDS OF THE NORTH/EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE
Photographs by David Bacon
La Quinta Museum
77885 Avenida Montezuma
La Quinta, CA 92253
January 8, 2023 – April 16, 2023
Global Museum
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA
October 8 – December 3, 2023
Online Interviews and Presentations
Red Lens Episode 6: David Bacon on US-Mexico border photography
Brad Segal: On episode 6 of Red Lens, I talk with David Bacon.
David Bacon is a California-based writer and documentary photographer. A former union organizer, today he documents labor, the global economy, war and migration, and the struggle for human rights. We talk about David’s new book, ‘More than a Wall / Mas que un muro’ which includes 30 years of his photography and oral histories from communities & struggles in the U.S.-Mexico border region.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/71834023?fbclid=IwAR0BRhHYbrYU3BoeoAMFKU_zdHs5Xirmmt1LzQtfwf1yD8p9EYLXKhzzbDELetters and Politics – Three Decades of Photographing The Border & Border Communities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvs6SyXsM-4
Host Mitch Jeserich interviews David Bacon, a photojournalist, author, broadcaster and former labor organizer. He has reported on immigrant and labor issues for decades. His latest book, More Than A Wall, is a collection of his photographs of the border and border communities spanning three decades.
The Right to Remain
http://www.franknews.us/interviews/415/the-right-to-remain
Beware of Pity
http://www.franknews.us/interviews/525/beware-of-pity
En Español
Ruben Luengas – #EnContacto
Hablamos con David Bacon de los migrantes y la situación de México frente a los Estados Unidos por ser el principal país de llegada a la frontera de ese país.
https://rubenluengas.com/2021/03/video-mexico-estados-unidos-migracion-y-suenos-rotos-encontacto/
David Bacon comparte su mirada del trabajo agrícola de migrantes mexicanos en el Museo Archivo de la Fotografia
http://www.cultura.cdmx.gob.mx/comunicacion/nota/0038-18
A video about the Social Justice Photography of David Bacon:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14TvAj5nS08ENzWhw3Oxra4LMNKJCLF4z/view
