In class we discussed the chapter of race and
ethnicity. Many Mexican Americans work low-wage jobs just like immigrants. They
are the ones that are doing the hard labor working in factories and in farms. They
take the jobs that no one wants to do such as picking vegetation or working
long hours in a factory.
In my experience I have witnessed hard labor in my
family. Both of my parents have worked in a factory packaging gum. One of my
aunts also currently works at the Wrigley gum factory. This job requires many
hours of standing and people end up with back problems for this. Farming requires
a lot of physical labor. They also do a lot of the labor using large motor
skills. In vegetation picking the workers have to be crouched down to continue
picking vegetation at a certain pace. A lot of my cousins in Mexico have
recently been contracted to work at the farms. They are between the ages of 17
and 23 which I believe is quite young to be working such tedious labor. My
cousins work outside in the hot scorching sun picking vegetation or doing farm
work. Their contract is quite long from late March until early December. So they
are about 9 months away from home. I know they are allowed a vacation period of
about a month or so. My cousins had to leave their parents, siblings, and leave
their country just to make the money they can’t back at home. I know one
distant cousin who is very sad about leaving home and he is older than most of
the workers. He constantly misses his family and speaks of how much he hates
the work.
In my opinion factory and farm work is an
emotionally hard job. It is crazy to know that my own cousins are going through
such hard labor only to make ends meet for their families. I believe the reason
immigrants and Mexican Americans take these jobs is because they are dreamers
and strive for better even if it means physical distress. It is not fair the
amount of money they get paid for the amount of work they put in. Farm workers
and low wage jobs should receive the same benefits as other jobs. There are
many dangerous risks taken for the work immigrants do. There’s pesticide
exposure and other problems associated with farm and factory work. We should
not take our food for granted since the people picking it struggle to do so.
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