Linda Li '11 and Ana Jackson '11 do not intend to save the world in 10 days. Instead, the co-leaders of the new Alternative Spring Break trip to Immokalee, Fla., want to connect with the often-exploited immigrant workers who pick fruit in the nation's top tomato-producing town. Ana and Linda are certain that while their classmates are partying in Key West, they will be having a different kind of "unique experience."
How did you come to lead an ASB trip?
Linda: I did the ASB in West Virginia last year, which is how I got into this whole thing in the first place. I had a great time on that trip. The most interesting experience was definitely talking with the locals, which got me interested in anthropology work.
Ana: And I was taking anthropology courses. Last year I started out pre-med, and went to Ecuador with Medlife over the summer. Plus my mother's from Colombia, so I was interested in immigration. But actually applying for ASB was kind of a last-minute thing, to be honest.
L: I don't know why I did it, but I just blitzed Ana the weekend before the applications were due and said, "Hey, want to do this?"
A: I didn't even really know what an ASB was. But we were both pre-med, so we thought we could do something great with healthcare. But then we decided to ... not.
Why did you choose to go to Immokalee?
A: There's a really interesting undocumented immigrant worker situation in Immokalee -- they've had a few cases of slavery that the FBI has prosecuted. Also, 90 percent of the tomatoes in the U.S. come from this one town, but people are living in poverty, not making minimum wage. So we learned a lot about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a group of Haitian, South African, Guatemalan and Mexican undocumented workers. They're being exploited -- they're undocumented, so they're easily exploited. And there's always going to be a group that's exploited as long as our system is the way it is, with labor laws not applying to the agricultural system.
L: You don't realize it -- what you're eating, where it's coming from, who's picking the fruits, what kind of conditions the workers are living in.
A: They don't get paid by the hour -- most of the time it depends on how much they pick. They have to pick two tons of tomatoes or citrus fruit to make just $50 in a day. There's competition among the workers for the best spot in the field, they're exposed to pesticides, their hands are stained, they have a lot of health problems from working. It's not just strenuous labor, the chemicals actually make it dangerous.
L: And this happens all over the States, wherever there's fruit picking, food industry in general. So raising awareness is really important.
What will you be doing while you're there?
A: Well first the Coalition is going to take us on a tour of the town -- we're going to look at a former slavery ring. Then one day we're going to wake up at 4 a.m. and go out to one of the parking lots where the buses come to pick up the workers -- just for the experience, we're not actually going to try to get work.
L: We're helping out with the Guadalupe Soup Kitchen for a few days -- preparing meals, serving food, cleaning up. The other one is Jumpstart Literacy Program, tutoring the migrant workers' kids and their mothers, tutoring them in English.
A: And we're living in a homeless shelter while we're there. We'll be volunteering at the shelter when we're not volunteering at other organizations.
What are your goals for the trip?
A: Going into it, we definitely know that we're not going to save the world. We can't make this huge contribution in 10 days. For me, I just want to connect with the workers and their families, to show them that we care about them and want to help. We want to take advantage of being able to learn about the situation firsthand, and then somehow apply that to our lives.
L: I think the students get a lot more than what we give, but at the same time, that's the whole point of the program, for us to learn. Hopefully we'll use what we've learned to contribute in the future.
A: We're thinking about possibly starting some organization for local workers when we return to Dartmouth. And I think that's what Tucker really wants from this trip. The point is to learn about the issues we're interested in and to try to apply them.
L: So a lot of it is investment in the students, hoping they get something out of the trip.
A: It is kind of a selfish thing in a way. A migrant worker makes about $10,000 annually, sometimes less. So our budget is about equal to one person's wages for a year. Hopefully it's worth it and some of our students will do something related to these issues in the future.
Any thoughts on not being able to rage with the rest of us while spending Spring Break in Florida?
A: It is kind of ironic. With exams coming up, I'm starting to feel the stress and am sort of like, "Ahh, I wish I could have a spring break to myself."
L: Yeah, me too. But we are going to the beach for a day. It is spring break after all.
A: True. It's also really cool, as a group --
L: We're bonding!
A: Yeah, we are, and we haven't even gotten there yet. Once we're there and we're living in this one room, all together, sleeping on cots and waking up at four in the morning to go wait for a bus and talk to Guatemalan farm workers -- that's an experience. Anyone can say they went to the beach and had tequila and sat there all day in the sun. But this will be a unique experience.
