Maria’s Story
Laura Elizabeth Pohl
Maria came to Florida para salir adelante—to get ahead.
She arrived as a teenager in the mid-1990s, escaping a life of
poverty on her family’s Oaxacan corn patch.
Maria and her husband envisioned a future for their family that was out of reach in Oaxaca, one of the poorest states
in Mexico. In south Florida, she worked seven days a week
filling bins with squash, tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers.
Neither of them enjoyed working in the Florida fields, but
without papers it’s all they could do. “That’s why we came
here—to work,” said Maria, now 34 years old. “In the factories or restaurants they ask for papers, but in the fields no.”
Labor-intensive agricultural commodities, primarily fruits, vegetables, and horticultural products, account for 35 percent of the
value of all U.S. crops.
Although their lives were not easy, for years they felt they
were moving ahead. But in 2008, the country plunged into a
deep recession and agricultural work in Florida grew scarce.
“For the past few years, we are working only to survive,”
Maria said. To supplement their income, the couple would
travel north to plant tomatoes during the Florida off-season.
In 2010, Maria couldn’t go because she was pregnant, so her
husband went to Ohio alone. The family has not been together since.
Traveling by bus on his way back to Florida, Maria’s husband was stopped by immigration officials and deported to
Mexico. “He wants to return, but it’s very difficult,” she said.
“They charge $4,000 to $5,000 to cross the border. This is
money I don’t have.”
Maria’s husband is now in Mexico working to raise the
money to return to the United States, but to earn what it
costs is difficult for a laborer without a formal education or
marketable skills.
Maria thought about going back to Mexico. For her U.S.born children, Mexico is an unknown and unappealing destination; they’re American in every sense of the word. Despite Maria’s full-time job, the loss of her husband’s income
means that Maria’s daughters, who are citizens, depend on
2 Briefing Paper, December 2011
federal nutrition programs. Maria herself relies on support
from civil society organizations like the Farm Worker Association of Florida. She continues to work in the bean fields.
For the sake of her children, she’s going to stay in the United
States and hope for the best.
The Agricultural Workforce
John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath described the harsh working conditions of migrant farm workers from the Midwest. More than 70 years later, agricultural work in the United States is still often harsh and wages
are low. But the composition of the farm labor force has
changed. There are no more Okies. Instead, fa ɴ