IM M IGRATION, from page 5
critical would spend just one hour doing
what we do to understand how
indispensable we are.”
workers from Mexico to the central
California valley and the Northwest to
perform what was called “stoop labor.”
PCUN’s Ramirez said that now, as
then, farmworkers must overcome huge
barriers to become successful.
“Farmworkers are America’s most
important workers because we’re the
ones that put food on the table, but yet
we’re not afforded the same rights,”
Ramirez said. “We don’t have collective
bargaining rights, paid vacation, paid
holidays, seniority.
“Christmastime is coming, and we’re
going to have Christmas dinner, and we’re
not going to think about where the food
came from and who picked it. It’s out of
sight, out of mind,” he said. “We have
lived comfortably because farmworkers
are paying the price.”
Reyes Pacheco giggled when recalling
non-Latinos who joined laborers in the
fields. Many lasted as little as a half-hour,
she said.
“You can make good money, actually,
doing farm work,” Moss said. “It’s just a
matter if a typical American worker will
do that manual labor.”
While migrant farmworkers are a
population that tends to stay out of the
spotlight - and farmers are hardly eager
to talk about using undocumented labor -
it’s possible the ICE crackdown has
contributed to a shrinking farmworker
labor pool and crop losses in Oregon.
Reyes Pacheco said six or seven
workers who usually make the wreaths
aren’t around this year.
“With the strawberries, before, there
were 90 (workers), but this year, there
were only 40,” she said. “A lot of berries
were lost.”
Low unemployment and a strong
economy may also be factors. Reyes
Pacheco doesn’t pretend to have the
answers, but she knows work can set you
free.
“I don’t know why Mexicans work so
hard, or why people don’t like us. I just
wish some of those people who are so
'
•
Page 11
News
Street Roots • Nov. 10-16, 2017
utside a tiny town called Gales Creek,
down a gravel road tucked behind tall
stalks of corn, a few dozen people
gathered under a structure that recalled a
Mesoamerican palapa - an open-air,
thatched-roof shelter.
They were there for an event,
organized by Forest Grove-based Adelante
Mujeres, featuring “meet the farmer”
chats with immigrants who work in
agriculture. Margarita Reyes Pacheco was
one of them.
“She’s been the biggest producer of
all,” Liliana Morgan said about Reyes
Pacheco. Morgan is a sales distributor
and marketing coordinator for Adelante
Mujeres.
The event was about food and
agriculture. But it also hinted at a
growing “sanctuary” movement with deep
roots in Oregon. In 1987, Oregon became
the first state to pass laws barring state
and local agencies from asking about an
individual’s immigration status or
disclosing information to federal officials,
except in some circumstances.
“Part of the role of Adelante Mujeres
is to function as interpreters - not
specifically language, but experience,
realities,” said Bridget Cooke, co-founder
and executive director of the social
service nonprofit. “Because talking about
immigration status is so taboo, so risky,
because immigrants are pushed
underground, therefore we miss these
incredible stories of courage, ambition,
desire, hope that human drive and spirit
bring.”
Cooke said the recent Immigration
and Customs Enforcement crackdowns
contribute to “toxic stress” for many
immigrants, documented or not.
“It’s as if we use immigration as a tug
of war,” Cooke said. “What if we had an
honest conversation about this?”
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Did you serve in the
Armed Forces
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band are experiencing
or at
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risk of
becoming
homeless?
Transition
Projects
Please call 855.425.5544
or visit 650 NW Irving Street
A Rambling Thought
by Aileen McPherson
Who decided the words, “In God we Trust?”
Should be on our country’s currency?
I hear so many people exclaim, We live in a Christian Nation, a
God Fearing Nation, however, I read the Bible and I know from this
book that this God said Thou shalt have NO other gods before me
and make NO graven images before me.
Yet these words are on our currency. Now, does this not mean that
by doing that, you are placing money higher than God? Or maybe,
the true God worshiped is money.
Don’t get me wrong, I use currency, cash, debit, barter, trade, and
I’ve used credit, but I never Loved money or made it my life goal to
accumulate wealth.
Because if you’re not in debt by having all the newest things and
blings, you’re not good enough, not a good person, not prosperous,
not happy, and that is all I seem to see and hear anymore.
I have never understood this form of lustful avarice, a gluttony,
consuming everything at any cost.
What happened to living comfortably?
Great Smoking Mirror
by Bryant King
riYWirfi ymop vo[no y H ho ' i
Through the smoke
I see looking back
Another reflection of me.
Mirror of my inner-self
Who are you
If I am me?
Mirror of my outer-self
What do others see?
Is it truth in my
Human vanity?
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Si