Holmes

Structure of Farm Work and Labor Hierarchy

• The structure of farm work involves a complex segregation, referred to as "conjugated oppression," where ethnicity and class intersect to produce a unique form of oppression.
• On the Tanaka farm, the primary fault lines of power fall along categories of race, class, and citizenship.

Labor Hierarchy on the Farm

• The farm labor involves several hundred workers occupying distinct positions, from owner to receptionist, field manager to tractor driver, and berry checker to berry picker.
• The hierarchy is often described in vertical metaphors, with responsibilities, anxieties, privileges, and experiences of time differing from top to bottom.

Skagit Valley and Migrant Farm Workers

• The Skagit Valley is an important site for transnational circuits of Mexican farm laborers, including indigenous Triqui and Mixtec people from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
• Thousands of migrant workers come to the valley for the tulip-cutting and apple- and berry-picking seasons, living in squatter shacks or company-owned labor camps.

Living Conditions in Labor Camps

• Labor camps consist of rusted tin-roofed tool sheds or small chicken coops, with plywood walls, no insulation, and holes and cracks that let wind blow through.
• The ground around the camps is often deep mud or a dust storm waiting to be triggered.

Seminar on Migrant Labor

• The seminar involves a visit to a farm and labor camp, with presentations and live interviews with people from all aspects of migrant labor.
• Attendees include white, middle-class adults, along with a handful of mestizo and indigenous Mexican farmworkers.

Marcelina's Story

• Marcelina, a migrant worker, shares her experiences of migrating and picking, speaking in Spanish, her second language.
• She mentions struggling to make ends meet, having no room in the labor camp as a single woman, and feeling stuck with no way to survive.