Nuestras Raíces (Our Roots)

Fri, 02/09/2018 - 19:53 -- rosamag

Location

Mecca, California
United States

Do you think about it?

As you’re picking up your fruits

It seems so easy… we don’t think about the roots

Countless hours under the scorching sun

As pesticides are flying down like missiles at war

It all seems so harmless because, who are they anyway?

Just a couple of farmworkers who don’t deserve to see the light of day

Or so they say

Many of them immigrants, stripped of their identity

Given the title “aliens”

They want their labor, but not their humanity

Because who are they anyway?

Or so they say

 

Minimum wages?

That’s enough to get them to stay

But not progress through this freedom of decay

Backs are breaking

As they’re picking your perfectly packaged strawberries

But you don’t think about it

You don’t think about the families

Proud and strong

To have left their motherland

Only to be told they don’t belong

Because who are they anyway?

Or so they say

 

Above all

They chose to stay

Because hopes and dreams

Fill their hearts with visions like beams of the sun

Because they sacrifice for their children

A better future is all they ask

Because we are campesinos unidos, ready to take on the task! 

This poem is about: 
My family
My community

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