Narciso Santiago helps Sergio Mesa load his luggage into Tom Witten’s truck on Monday morning, October 17, 2011 at Witten’s Farm near Beverly, Ohio. Both men are seasonal workers helping hand pick sweet corn, tomatoes and various other vegetables on the third generation family farm along the Muskingum River. Mesa will return to his hometown of Panindicuaro, Michoacan, Mexico for the winter months, helping run a business there selling baskets to tourists, which he and his family weave.
It’s dinnertime. Sergio Mesa, 33, prepares his food- nothing fancy- hard-boiled eggs, tortillas, and some diced jalapeno to top it off. He sits in a bare kitchen and dines alone, but he’s happy. In less than two weeks, he’ll be at home in Michoacán, Mexico surrounded by family.
Mesa is one of six migrant workers left after the fall harvest on Witten’s Farm, located on state route 60, just east of Beverly, Ohio. Managed by Tom Witten, the third generation family owned farm sells its sweet corn, tomatoes, various other vegetables and flowers at roadside stands in 19 locations around southeast Ohio and western West Virginia.
“All of our products are hand harvested,” Witten proudly says of his vegetables and the men he hires to pick them. “Our consumers eat with their eyes first and these guys will polish the ding tomato and make it shine.”
Along with Mesa, the last workers left at the end of the season are Narciso Santiago of Vera Cruz, Mexico and Jose Torres, Orlando Polanco, Rafael Regalado and Alfredo Mendoza, all of Santa Ana, El Salvador. Mesa and Santiago will return to Mexico for the winter, while the four men from El Salvador will stay on and help prepare the greenhouses for the winter and spring growing season.
“Originally we got into [hiring migrant laborers] in about 1993 due to basically the lack of local folks wanting to do the work,” says Witten. Witten uses the Federal H-2A nonimmigrant work visa program to bring in labor safely and dependably. Under this type of visa, foreign workers are generally authorized for one-year periods, with a three-year maximum stay. After three years, workers must spend at least three months outside the United States before reapplying for the visa.
According to Witten, his employees usually go back to their home countries about once a year and usually travel by airplane.
“We want our guys to see their families,” says Witten. “We don’t want them traveling with coyotes… because that stuff is so expensive and so dangerous.”
During peak production in the summer, the farm houses 16 men in a recently built duplex on the property and additional laborers in two other units. They pick during the night to avoid the heat of the day, cook out for lunch and play soccer in the adjacent fields. By mid-October, the hubbub of summer has long since gone. The guys have settled into a quieter routine cleaning the greenhouses and doing odd jobs before watching a novella (soap opera) or soccer match on Spanish language television.
In Spanish, Mesa says that he can’t wait to get home to see his family. He plans to rest for a week, spending time with his wife and two daughters before getting back to work. He and his family run a basket making business, selling to the tourists who frequently visit his hometown. This last season on the farm was his second and he would like to come back for a third because the money is so much better than what he can make at home in Mexico. For Torres, Polanco, Regalado and Mendoza, the prospect of earning more money for their families back in El Salvador is enough to keep them working in Ohio through the winter even if that means missing Christmas with their families.
“These guys do not want to miss work. They’re here to earn.” says Witten. “I hate to call it unskilled labor, because it’s not unskilled if you would see them work.”
Witten is aware that his employees aren’t readily accepted as a part of the community and is frustrated by misconceptions about migrant labor. He is glad, however, that his guys don’t have the fear of being deported at any minute, which so many undocumented laborers live with everyday.
“Any time there’s any kind of robbery or theft in our local town, the cops stop; question us,” says Witten. “We’ve never had a guy arrested, but that doesn’t keep the authorities from questioning everybody… There’s a vilification of them and myself.”
To Witten, the notion that foreign labor is taking American jobs seems to come out of thin air.
“I’m not getting a big pull of guys wanting to work,” says Witten of local labor. “It’s not happening that way.”
Back at the dinner table, Mesa takes a picture of his two daughters out of his wallet. Daniela is ten and Lupita is seven.
On Monday, October 17, he flew back to Mexico to see them and the rest of his family. They will soon weave baskets together and prepare for the holiday season’s festivals. If everything works out with his visa, he’ll be back again in the spring to earn more for his family and help hand pick some of Southeast Ohio’s quality local produce.
These are words and pictures from a story I’ve been following about a group of migrant farm workers on a family farm about an hour northeast of Athens near Beverly, Ohio. I hope to return to the farm again this winter and definitely in the spring to see the farm in full production with around 25 guys from Mexico and El Salvador living and working on the farm. Big thanks to Tom Witten, Rafael Regalado, Jose Torres, Narciso Santiago, Alfredo Mendoza, Sergio Mesa, Orlando Polanco for all their time and openness. …And for putting up with my broken Spanish.
Cheers,
Pat
