Think the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery? Think again.
POSITION: Tomato picker, in the town of Immokalee, Florida, regarded as the “tomato capital of America.” Perks: Room and board (sort of).
Job Description: Working 10 to 12 hours a day picking tomatoes. Work very fast for 10 hours and you can make about $50 a day.
Meals: You get two meals a day—eggs, beans, rice, tortillas, and sometimes some meat. That’ll cost you $50 a week.
Lodging: Home is the back of a box truck in a garbage-strewn backyard. You have to share it with a couple of other people. There’s no toilet, so you’ll do your business in a bucket in the corner of the truck. The room costs you $20 a week. The “shower” is a hose in the yard. (Cold water only.) Each shower you take costs $5.
Days Off: You don’t get days off. If you don’t go to work, even if you’re sick, you’ll be beaten. If you try to run away, you’ll be beaten and locked in the truck, or chained to a pole in the yard.
Getting Paid: Some weeks you’ll receive some of your pay, sometimes you won’t get anything. And remember, everything costs money—the room, the showers, the meals, and more—so within a few months you may actually owe the boss money. Seriously. If you work for years, you may end up owing tens of thousands of dollars. You will actually be worse off than a slave.
TRUE STORY: The conditions described above were the actual conditions endured by 12 Mexican and Guatemalan men for two and a half years. They were all offered work by the Navarettes, a family in Immokalee, with promises of room and board and riches, and ended up living in squalor and earning nothing but debts. In 2007 they finally escaped, and six members of the Navarette family were arrested. Brothers Geovanni and Cesar Navarette received the stiffest sentences, each getting 12 years in prison. The worst part of the story: Authorities believe that there may be thousands of people living in similar conditions in south Florida. (And they may have picked the tomatoes that are sitting in your refrigerator right now.)
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” —Hemingway