by Joe Gonzalez

Created on: September 21, 2009   Last Updated: September 22, 2009

Winter of 1979 my family and I travelled to Grand Haven, Michigan to work in a warehouse that packed mixed fruit, blueberries, and rhubarb. We were migrant farmworkers. We were a family of seven. That included my mom and dad. Dad had taken us out of school nice and early. We needed to work to survive. We made the long drive from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas to Michigan in a small caravan led by a labor contractor. I can still remember his black Monte Carlo flying down the interstate. We had gotten lost in Houston because we took a wrong turn and the contractor came back to lead us back to the line of vehicles heading north.

I was 16, my sisters were 14, and 7 and my brothers were 8 and 9. The oldest ones would be "passed" as 18 and 17 in order for us to work. The rest would later end up harvesting blueberries in the coolest summer of our existences. In South Texas the summer temperatures are usually in the 100's. If you are lucky, you will see them in the cool 95 to 97 degrees.

We were a relatively young family. We were eager to work and earn money. What else can you do when you have to feed a family?

In the time from early March to Early May Mom worked in the warehouses. Dad and I worked in the blueberry fields pruning the bushes. It was cold and fun work. I had not seen snow since I was two years old in my native Rotan, Texas. We wore heavy snow boots. Lunch was always an adventure because we would watch out for snow storms.

The labor camp accommodations were great. It looked like Army barracks. It had a good roof and best of all heat! Anything is better than the old house we lived in back in South Texas. Our roof was old and the walls were battered by time. It was hot in the summer and cold in the period we call winter. Winter in our neck of the woods might be a cold spell in December or January. Our climate is subtropical.

We were doing great. Our pay was getting us ahead. I still have a grocery receipt from that time period. We managed to avoid food stamps and were proud that we did not use them. In Texas we used them because we need to.

July we hit the fields to harvest the blueberries. I worked aboard one of the labor contractor's trucks stacking the boxes of blueberries. It was easy and fun work. Harvesting blueberries is easy! You let your fingers do the walking and place the fruit in the bucket tied to your waste. The fruit then is transfered to small boxes that are then placed in a bigger box. The small boxes are the size of a small plant

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