Immigrants on the farm, in pictures
We’ve reported a great deal about how Mexican and Central American men and women are making life on many New York and Vermont dairy farms possible. These immigrants live shadow lives in right in our communities. They’re rarely seen or heard from, yet they produce much of the milk and cheese that our part of the country is known for – and relies on for its economy.
The Vermont Folklife Center did a terrific photographic and oral history of immigrant dairy workers in Addison County last year. It’s recently been posted as an online exhibit.
You should really check it out. Here’s a quote from an anonymous farmer that goes with the picture above.
Farming is a business that needs to be run 365 days out of the year and Americans don’t want to work Christmas, weekends, and I understand that. So we’ve gone to a work force that we can depend on and rely on.
The Obama Administration has promised to bring immigration reform back to the table at the beginning of 2010. There’ll be a lot of hot air from all sides of the debate.
This exhibit trains our eye on the people who will be affected – the immigrants themselves, their spouses and children, the farmers who employ them, the farmhands who work with them, and the communities who rely heavily on immigrant labor, whether they know it or not.
