This was created before 2004. Links may be outdated
Home > Exhibits > Introduction
Field Work
Photo by Cris Sanchez
Thousands of farm workers labor under oppressive working conditions. They must constantly migrate from job to job and work long hours in the fields, often in back-breaking positions, in the dust, heat and cold. While laboring in the fields, farm workers are usually provided with poor drinking water and unhealthy sanitation facilities. Farm workers are also exposed to dangerous pesticides that are sprayed on the crops they harvest.
Despite recent social reforms, living and working conditions for many migratory farm laborers have not changed much since the 1930s. Today, the average life expectancy of a migrant worker is only 49 years.
Young onion workers, 1960s.
Celery fields, undated (Both photos courtesy of El Malcriado)