Emily Helm
WST 3015
February 29, 2012
Campus Engagement Reflection
Last Monday, YAYA hosted an event
to educate students about the campaigns and conditions of farmworkers in
Central Florida. Representatives from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a
community-based organization of immigrants working throughout Florida, spoke
about the labor-intensive environment in which they work, poor housing
conditions, and lack of respect from farmers. One man, who is a leader in the
CIW, spoke while the other translated for him.
Language, a barrier in that both
his words and my questions were interpreted, simultaneously became a way for
our ideas to connect. The words he used were familiar to me as part of an
activism discourse. He spoke of solidarity and justice, fair food and improved
housing conditions. He spoke about concepts that I read about in textbooks, but
applied them to his own life, showing how I am implicated.
I also realized that, despite a
language barrier, I was able to pinpoint his persuasive rhetoric. To make an
emotional appeal he talked about how the enforcement of minimum wage improved
his life in more ways than by just increasing his pay. The workers now have
punch cards, as farmers don’t want to pay them for the four hours they used to
spend waiting for work to begin. They are picked up later for work, which
enables him to eat breakfast with his family and take his children to school.
When describing how his wages have
not increased since the 1980s, he asked how much a coke cost to buy in 1980,
which was roughly 25 cents. With the 50 cents he earned per pail of tomatoes
picked in 1980 he could buy two cokes. Now, with that same 50 cents, he can buy
one half of a coke, sometimes less depending on the vending machine. I thought
that was a really accessible example to communicate why an increase in wages is
so vital.
They
talked about the fair food action they’re planning on March 5-10th.
They will hold a six-day hunger strike outside of the Publix headquarters in
Lakeland to protest Publix’s refusal to raise their prices by one cent per pail
of tomatoes. This idea literally hit me close to home, as I live five minutes
from Publix headquarters and know countless people who work for or with Publix
at an executive level. This really made me realize how close to this movement I
am, as well as how implicated my entire community is in the oppression of
farmworkers. So now I guess I’ve finally made Spring Break plans…
I
think I’m choosing to participate in solidarity in their hunger strike (I won’t
be fasting for the duration) in part out of guilt—I have received scholarships
from Publix, I’m zoned for George Jenkins High School, I used to babysit for
their CFO—but mainly because I want to communicate with the farmworkers. I can
read endless theory and texts about Marxism, grassroots movements, and worker’s
rights, but I’m realizing that I will never understand any aspect of my
ever-more complicated world without communication that leads to relationship
building, that leads (hopefully) to mutual understanding.
Word Count: 515
