What a terrific reflection and report of a special place. Oddly enough Salinas holds a personal memory for me from days of WWII and the nearby Fort Ord. I recall visiting an aunt who lived in Salinas and she took us to see Fort Ord where the Army had a big training op going on. When I saw the tanks and the soldiers and heard all the talk about the war, I knew we were in it more than knee deep. The other thing was the lettuce! Everywhere fields of lettuce and lettuce falling off trucks which my aunt would stop, pick up and take home. She had an orange tree growing in her front yard and as this kid from Ohio farmland, I was gobsmacked to see oranges at somebody's house on a tree. Now I have grapefruit, lime, kumquat and guava trees, a huge peach tree and a big olive tree and I am in Mexico. Maybe I need to get an orange tree or at least a lemon tree. We'll see. Thanks, Kert and I look forward to your next report. Toasting you this morning on the 101! Love how the Californians refer to the 5 and the 405 as if they were living entities. Onward, Sir!
This is AWESOME, Gary! Thank you. I can walk outside right now and snag both lemons and grapefruits from some trees out there. BUT, with record above average temps even in this dessert place means the fruit isn’t very edible. Besides, they are high up and I don’t have a ladder (LOL!).
After having travelled again the 101, the 10, and crossing over the 5 yesterday on a day excursion, I too was reminded that they each are living entities—cars mimicking the flow of blood as they course, flow freely, and clog at certain points.
Phil Ochs's song "Bracero" (from the 1960s) deals closely with the exploitative relationship between California farmers and Mexican workers in a very understandable way.
OMG! David, I had no idea who Phil Ochs even was let alone this amazing song. Just listened to it for the very first time. Learned it was produced in 1966 likely during the time in our country when social justice was escalating and Cesar Chavez was gaining influence. Yet, it could be written still today. POWERFUL, I so appreciate you including this for my benefit.
You are so welcome, Kert. Phil is massively underappreciated considering the documentary like clarity of his music as it chronicled the turbulent 1960s.
I’m adding him to my playlist. The music of that period is crucial to the moral development of our country. And I agree, most of those artists are not recognized for the change agents they truly were. Of course there are the more well-known ones: Dylan, Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Peter/Paul/Mary. ALL SO GREAT! And I really am excited to now get to know better Phil Ochs. (I’m a little ashamed I didn’t know him prior to your shout out).
PS Kert. I forgot to give you a high-five for the immigrant report, getting caught up in place rather than people. It's people that enhance place and it's people who destroy place. The lesson for us from the immigrant families, all over the US and especially on farms, is that they enrich and enhance. We would do well to learn more how to do that if we want a future. Thanks, again, friend.
The rhetoric surrounding immigration has been deplorable (a word intentionally used). With the potential of a new, young, woman president, maybe she’s uniquely placed to attempt a new narrative. I already love her messaging re: Gaza and Israel.
But, I also fear the fear-based rhetoric has been so in-grained that “that” particular political party will forever use it as an anchor around the throat of America.
In east Tennessee, our unprecedented heat and drought has caused the clay underneath my lawn to crack apart and that doesn't usually happen for another month. Be sure to get back North before the San Andreas fault dries out and California becomes an island.
I agree, thank you so much for writing the truth about migrant farm workers and the back breaking work they accomplish. They deserve decent pay and a decent pathway to citizenship.
Wow Kert, this was a beautiful and powerful piece. I am 1,000,000% right there with you. I grew up in San Diego and all I could see was the beautiful family oriented culture and hard working ethic of Mexican people. Not to mention California was there land first.
My youth group did weekly runs to Tijuana to help the poor families who lived on the city dump and a few orphanages. Later I lived in Ensenada for a year trying to write an earlier version of my current book.
I’m so glad you had those experiences and for your testimony of how blatantly untrue the anti immigrant rhetoric is.
While in NYC I helped create the New Sanctuary Movement which is still protecting people from ICE in church basements and lobbying cities to become Sanctuary Cities where law enforcement will not ask immigration status if they pull you over for a bad brake light. Allowing people to live with a little less fear in the nation they feed by working with men like your Dad…people that make our country better.
My Grandpa was a farmer, anyone who works the land is doing God’s work, keeping the rest of us alive.
Jeffery!!! This comment has me flying! Thank you for such a profound reflection. But I stand before you humbled for all you have done to actually make their way much better in our cruel country. I want to thank you for that level if compassionate action. You’ve got stories there!
You worked beside good people on your family farm, I’d say that’s as much and probably more than I ever did. And your family provided a lot of good work for the community.
The problem with the racist rhetoric against people who’ve crossed a border to help their families is that it’s not actual reality. Reality is farmers and other small businesses who are thrilled to have workers. Americans love when Mexicans open a restaurant and share their delicious culture with us. In reality we’re all peacefully and mutually beneficially coexisting. It’s just racist a-holes who use xenophobia, the fear of a fake boogeyman to gain more power. Follow me and I’ll protect you from the boogeyman. That’s all it is and we have to educate and just call out that non-reality power grab and go back to beautifully being a community together.
💯% my friend! It is THIS narrative, the true narrative, that must become the dominant narrative. It is crazy to me that as the Right spews their hateful and fear-based rhetoric, it is rarely countered with this more accurate truth. You articulate it very well, Jeffrey. Thank you.
Yes and this idea makes a brief appearance in Chapter one if you remember. It’s amazing the reality gets obscured by the whipping up of a lather of fear.
I will write much more about it when I get to the “Power” chapter which maybe three or later. Chapter two is very pregnant and almost ready to go.
It is great to hear a personal experience and everything you say rings true. I hope others who hold fears and unreasonable assumptions hear stories like this.
If the magic market fairy really worked “farmers” would have to pay a premium over any other job that did not require a high school degree to attract a workforce any where near as hardworking. I have a lot of respect for the farmer who lives on the land, cares for it, spends his days on it, and treats seasonal workers as you dad did.
Excellent, excellent post! You are so right, of course! And another connection - my older son and my new grandson live in Yakima. I hope to some day, too!
What a terrific reflection and report of a special place. Oddly enough Salinas holds a personal memory for me from days of WWII and the nearby Fort Ord. I recall visiting an aunt who lived in Salinas and she took us to see Fort Ord where the Army had a big training op going on. When I saw the tanks and the soldiers and heard all the talk about the war, I knew we were in it more than knee deep. The other thing was the lettuce! Everywhere fields of lettuce and lettuce falling off trucks which my aunt would stop, pick up and take home. She had an orange tree growing in her front yard and as this kid from Ohio farmland, I was gobsmacked to see oranges at somebody's house on a tree. Now I have grapefruit, lime, kumquat and guava trees, a huge peach tree and a big olive tree and I am in Mexico. Maybe I need to get an orange tree or at least a lemon tree. We'll see. Thanks, Kert and I look forward to your next report. Toasting you this morning on the 101! Love how the Californians refer to the 5 and the 405 as if they were living entities. Onward, Sir!
This is AWESOME, Gary! Thank you. I can walk outside right now and snag both lemons and grapefruits from some trees out there. BUT, with record above average temps even in this dessert place means the fruit isn’t very edible. Besides, they are high up and I don’t have a ladder (LOL!).
After having travelled again the 101, the 10, and crossing over the 5 yesterday on a day excursion, I too was reminded that they each are living entities—cars mimicking the flow of blood as they course, flow freely, and clog at certain points.
Yes, and need continuing maintenance!
Phil Ochs's song "Bracero" (from the 1960s) deals closely with the exploitative relationship between California farmers and Mexican workers in a very understandable way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNmn7jdbQwA
Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) (Audio) - YouTube
OMG! David, I had no idea who Phil Ochs even was let alone this amazing song. Just listened to it for the very first time. Learned it was produced in 1966 likely during the time in our country when social justice was escalating and Cesar Chavez was gaining influence. Yet, it could be written still today. POWERFUL, I so appreciate you including this for my benefit.
You are so welcome, Kert. Phil is massively underappreciated considering the documentary like clarity of his music as it chronicled the turbulent 1960s.
I’m adding him to my playlist. The music of that period is crucial to the moral development of our country. And I agree, most of those artists are not recognized for the change agents they truly were. Of course there are the more well-known ones: Dylan, Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Peter/Paul/Mary. ALL SO GREAT! And I really am excited to now get to know better Phil Ochs. (I’m a little ashamed I didn’t know him prior to your shout out).
PS Kert. I forgot to give you a high-five for the immigrant report, getting caught up in place rather than people. It's people that enhance place and it's people who destroy place. The lesson for us from the immigrant families, all over the US and especially on farms, is that they enrich and enhance. We would do well to learn more how to do that if we want a future. Thanks, again, friend.
The rhetoric surrounding immigration has been deplorable (a word intentionally used). With the potential of a new, young, woman president, maybe she’s uniquely placed to attempt a new narrative. I already love her messaging re: Gaza and Israel.
But, I also fear the fear-based rhetoric has been so in-grained that “that” particular political party will forever use it as an anchor around the throat of America.
In east Tennessee, our unprecedented heat and drought has caused the clay underneath my lawn to crack apart and that doesn't usually happen for another month. Be sure to get back North before the San Andreas fault dries out and California becomes an island.
LOL!!! Promise!
I need to be able to get back home. My garden needs tending.
Thank God you write the real truth about migrant farm workers! If only the ignorant would listen and learn! Daniel
Wow! You made my day Daniel, thank you.
I agree, thank you so much for writing the truth about migrant farm workers and the back breaking work they accomplish. They deserve decent pay and a decent pathway to citizenship.
It can and should be done. It’s the only moral pathway forward. I should not be an election-year political issue. Thanks Lola!
Unbelievable article Kert. Thank you for the time you invested in this.
Hi praise coming from a man and writer I deeply respect and admire. Thank you!
Wow Kert, this was a beautiful and powerful piece. I am 1,000,000% right there with you. I grew up in San Diego and all I could see was the beautiful family oriented culture and hard working ethic of Mexican people. Not to mention California was there land first.
My youth group did weekly runs to Tijuana to help the poor families who lived on the city dump and a few orphanages. Later I lived in Ensenada for a year trying to write an earlier version of my current book.
I’m so glad you had those experiences and for your testimony of how blatantly untrue the anti immigrant rhetoric is.
While in NYC I helped create the New Sanctuary Movement which is still protecting people from ICE in church basements and lobbying cities to become Sanctuary Cities where law enforcement will not ask immigration status if they pull you over for a bad brake light. Allowing people to live with a little less fear in the nation they feed by working with men like your Dad…people that make our country better.
My Grandpa was a farmer, anyone who works the land is doing God’s work, keeping the rest of us alive.
Thanks for what you’ve written.
Jeffery!!! This comment has me flying! Thank you for such a profound reflection. But I stand before you humbled for all you have done to actually make their way much better in our cruel country. I want to thank you for that level if compassionate action. You’ve got stories there!
You worked beside good people on your family farm, I’d say that’s as much and probably more than I ever did. And your family provided a lot of good work for the community.
The problem with the racist rhetoric against people who’ve crossed a border to help their families is that it’s not actual reality. Reality is farmers and other small businesses who are thrilled to have workers. Americans love when Mexicans open a restaurant and share their delicious culture with us. In reality we’re all peacefully and mutually beneficially coexisting. It’s just racist a-holes who use xenophobia, the fear of a fake boogeyman to gain more power. Follow me and I’ll protect you from the boogeyman. That’s all it is and we have to educate and just call out that non-reality power grab and go back to beautifully being a community together.
💯% my friend! It is THIS narrative, the true narrative, that must become the dominant narrative. It is crazy to me that as the Right spews their hateful and fear-based rhetoric, it is rarely countered with this more accurate truth. You articulate it very well, Jeffrey. Thank you.
Yes and this idea makes a brief appearance in Chapter one if you remember. It’s amazing the reality gets obscured by the whipping up of a lather of fear.
I will write much more about it when I get to the “Power” chapter which maybe three or later. Chapter two is very pregnant and almost ready to go.
It is great to hear a personal experience and everything you say rings true. I hope others who hold fears and unreasonable assumptions hear stories like this.
If the magic market fairy really worked “farmers” would have to pay a premium over any other job that did not require a high school degree to attract a workforce any where near as hardworking. I have a lot of respect for the farmer who lives on the land, cares for it, spends his days on it, and treats seasonal workers as you dad did.
Thank you Richard! I quite agree—and thank you for the incredibly kind words. My dad did EXACTLY that! You would have really enjoyed meeting him.
Excellent, excellent post! You are so right, of course! And another connection - my older son and my new grandson live in Yakima. I hope to some day, too!
Every day we can be reminded of how small the world could be when kindred spirits find each other. Yakima…of all places. Imagine that!