[Jim's Web Nook | Photos | California 2002 | Labor Camp]

Farmworkers' Labor Camp in Gonzalez (2002 October)

So, how did we get here? It's a long story (even when i tell the short version) ... suffice it to say that we (that is, a group of students from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, with me tagging along) were invited to visit this labor camp in Gonzalez in connection with the the youth group of the Citizenship Project in nearby Salinas, CA. We helped distribute donated clothes, toys, and other gifts to the farmworkers and their families, who welcomed us into their homes and treated us to delicious piping hot homemade tamales.

	There were actually several groups of folks here at the same time, and we all introduced ourselves. It was very windy. Middle row, center: a representative from the Citizenship Project Middle row, right: Marina, president of the Citizenship Project's youth group. Front row, right: a teacher at a high school in the East Bay (apparently a rather posh suburb of San Fran) Back row: Students from the same East Bay high school. They were here on their fall break to visit the camp and work in the fields with the farmworkers.
	The camp did not lack for the sounds of laughter and children playing. On the other side of the chainlink fence is a field where cabbage will be grown and harvested.
	Some of the high school students quickly found common ground with the younger girls in the camp.
	A certain amount of chaos is practically required at this sort of event if you have Latino sensibilities....
	Felicia (right) and Nina (center) converse in Spanish with a farmworker; if my memory serves, he is from Oaxaca in southern Mexico.
	Salinas valley at sunset

[Jim's Web Nook | Photos | California 2002 | Labor Camp]