1
100
3
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https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/5d5b3d240d53b72ebf287f1e235e1787.mp3
f598c750a76ede886e9c3ca18bfcc729
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/9022fb8133dc9d3739916fea1cad4050.pdf
33f8108e4f724960ed57b50e7e97752f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Jared Muha Collection
Subject
Lake Apopka (Fla.)
Agriculture--Florida
Migrant labor
Apopka (Fla.)
Description
A collection of oral history interviews conducted by Jared Muha.
Creator
Muha, Jared
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Curator
Cravero, Geoffrey
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank"> RICHES MI</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Sister Gail Grimes
Alternative Title
Oral History, Grimes
Subject
Lake Apopka (Fla.)
Apopka (Fla.)
Agriculture--Florida
Description
An oral history interview of Sister Gail Grimes, a Roman Catholic sister from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who moved to Apopka, Florida, in January of 1975 to serve the farmworker, low-income and immigrant communities. This interview was conducted by Jared Muha in Apopka on October 10, 2014. Some of the topics covered include moving to Apopka, working for the Hope CommUnity Center, the working conditions of Central Florida farmworkers, Apopka farms in the 1970s, relations between farmworkers and crew leaders, migration to Florida, early types of industry, the development of muck farms, shifting racial dynamics on Apopka farms, a history of racism in Central Florida, finding work after the shutdown of Lake Apopka, and the legacy of black farmworkers in Florida history.
Table Of Contents
<br />0:00:00 Hope CommUnity Center <br />0:04:30 Working conditions <br />0:12:48 Apopka farms in the 1970s <br />0:19:03 Relations between farmworkers and crew leaders <br />0:24:21 Migration to Florida and the development of muck farms <br />0:27:47 Shifting racial dynamics and pesticide exposure <br />0:37:04 Shutdown of Lake Apopka <br />0:43:13 The legacy of black farmworkers and <em>Dowdell v. City of Apopka</em> <br />0:49:51 Segregation <br />0:52:41 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Sister Gail Grimes. Interview conducted by Jared Muha in Apopka, Florida, on October 10, 2014.
Type
Sound
Source
Grimes, Gail. Interviewed by Jared Muha, October 10, 2015. Audio record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" target="_blank"> QuickTime</a>.
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html" target="_blank"> Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/collections/show/53" target="_blank"> Apopka Collection</a>, Orange County Collection, RICHES.
Has Format
Digital transcript of original 53-minute, and 27-second oral history: Grimes, Gail. Interviewed by Jared Muha. Audio record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Coverage
Farmworker Association of Florida, Apopka, Florida
Hope CommUnity Center, Apopka, Florida
Lake Apopka, Florida
Creator
Grimes, Gail
Muha, Jared
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>
Contributor
Cravero, Geoffrey
Date Created
2014
-10
-10
Date Copyrighted
2014
-10
-10
Format
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Extent
48.9 MB
239 KB
Medium
53-minute and 27-second audio recording
26-page digital transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Economics Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Sister Gail Grimes and Jared Muha, transcribed by Geoffrey Cravero, and published by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>.
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Accrual Method
Item Creation
Curator
Cravero, Geoffrey
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank"> RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
Damron, David. "<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2014-04-14/news/os-apopka-nuns-back-demings-20140414_1_nuns-val-demings-sister-gail-grimes" target="_blank">Apopka nuns donate to Demings campaign</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, April 24, 2014. Accessed October 3, 2016. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2014-04-14/news/os-apopka-nuns-back-demings-20140414_1_nuns-val-demings-sister-gail-grimes.
"<a href="https://hopecommunitycenterapopka.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/newsletter_fall_final_web_version.pdf" target="_blank">Hundreds Enjoyed Festive Retirement Celebration to Honor Sister Gail Grimes</a>." <em>Hope CommUnity Center</em>, 2014 Fall Edition. Accessed October 4, 2016. https://hopecommunitycenterapopka.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/newsletter_fall_final_web_version.pdf.
Santich, Kate. "<a href="http://smfws.com/art07032006c.htm" target="_blank">Nuns' efforts aid Apopka farmworkers</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, July 3, 2006. Accessed October 4, 2016. http://smfws.com/art07032006c.htm.
Santich, Kate. "<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2006-07-03/news/MSISTERS03_1_sisters-reality-tv-hard-work" target="_blank">Hope And Hard Work: Nuns' efforts aid Apopka farmworkers</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, July 3, 2006. Accessed October 4, 2016.
Slongwhite, Dale Finley, and Jeannie Economos. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/857802909" target="_blank"><em>Fed Up: The High Costs of Cheap Food</em></a>. 2014.
Giagnoni, Silvia. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/715188868" target="_blank"><em>Fields of Resistance The Struggle of Florida's Farmworkers for Justice</em></a>. Chicago, Ill: Haymarket Books, 2011.
A. Duda & Sons
African Americans
agricultural labor
agriculture
alligators
Ann Kendrick
Apopka
Apopka City Council
bass
bass fishing
Bonita Springs
boycotts
Cape Canaveral
carrot houses
carrots
Cesar Chavez
César Estrada Chávez
citrus
City of Apopka
Crealdé School of Art
discrimination
Dowdell v. City of Apopka
E & J Gallo Winery
farms
Farmworker Association of Florida
farmworkers
ferneries
fernery
Gail Grimes
gators
Germans
Haitians
Hispanics
Hope CommUnity Center
Immokalee
Jared Muha
juice plants
kale
KKK
Ku Klux Klan
laborers
Lake Apopka
Lake County
Latinas
Latinos
lettuce
lupus
Mexican Americans
Mexicans
muck farms
Museum of the Apopkans
nonprofits
nuns
nurseries
nursery
Office for Farmworker Ministry
orange county
orange groves
oranges
pesticide exposure
pesticides
Peter Schreyer
Pierson
Plymouth
Plymouth Citrus Products Cooperative, Inc.
Polk County
POW
POWs
Prisoner of War
Prisoners of War
race relations
racial conflict
racism
radish
radishes
religious sisters
Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholicism
Roman Catholics
segregation
service learning
SLE
soldiers
Stomping Ground
systemic lupus erythematosus
The Last Harvest
turpentine
Vietnam War
wages
Walt Disney World Resort
William Donald Borders
Willis V. McCall
Willis Virgil McCall
Winter Garden
Winter Garden City Council
Winter Park
World War II
WWII
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/3da2cef58471c6e942834f73448816cb.mp3
4e82a1f35c2e960aedcffe0ff393d822
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/c082f79011d3bb6dc365c694170b623e.pdf
cd9bc9537642de3a8bd248b0ed3a2661
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Jared Muha Collection
Subject
Lake Apopka (Fla.)
Agriculture--Florida
Migrant labor
Apopka (Fla.)
Description
A collection of oral history interviews conducted by Jared Muha.
Creator
Muha, Jared
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Curator
Cravero, Geoffrey
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank"> RICHES MI</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral Memoirs of Jeannie Economos
Alternative Title
Oral History, Economos
Subject
Lake Apopka (Fla.)
Apopka (Fla.)
Migrant labor
Agriculture--Florida
Description
An oral history interview of Jeannie Economos, the Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator at the Farmworker Association of Florida (FAF), who also worked as Lake Apopka Project Coordinator for the FAF, as well as for non-profit organizations such as the Audubon Society and Save the Manatee Club. The interview was conducted by Jared Muha at the FAF in Apopka on December 10, 2014. Topics discussed in the interview include a summary of her career, the Lake Apopka Project versus the Lake Apopka Restoration Act of 1996, the Farmworker Association of Florida, pesticide health and safety, common environmental challenges facing farmworkers, the necessity of farmworkers, the evolution of farmworkers, African-American farmworkers in Apopka, the shutdown of Lake Apopka, effects of the shutdown on African-American farmworkers, the influx of Hispanic farmworkers, and the future of farm labor in the United States.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction<br /> 0:01:16 Lake Apopka Project and the Lake Apopka Restoration Act of 1996<br /> 0:02:52 Farmworker Association of Florida<br /> 0:04:57 Pesticide health and safety<br /> 0:06:01 Common environmental challenges facing farmworkers<br /> 0:08:48 Necessity and evolution of the FAF<br /> 0:13:15 Ethnic makeup and race relations among farmworkers in Apopka<br /> 0:24:47 Shutdown of Lake Apopka<br /> 0:32:18 Replacing African-American workers with Hispanic workers<br /> 0:38:32 Remembering farmworkers<br /> 0:46:45 The future of farm labor<br /> 0:50:59 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Jeannie Economos. Interview conducted by Jared Muha in Apopka, Florida, on December 10, 2014.
Type
Sound
Source
Economos, Jeannie. Interviewed by Jared Muha, December 10, 2014. Audio record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" target="_blank"> QuickTime</a>.
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/collections/show/53" target="_blank">Apopka Collection</a>, Orange County Collection, RICHES.
Has Format
Digital transcript of original 54-minute and 55-second oral history: Economos, Jeannie. Interviewed by Jared Muha. Audio record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Coverage
Farmworker Association of Florida, Apopka, Florida
Hawthorne Village, Apopka, Florida
Lake Apopka, Florida
Creator
Economos, Jeannie
Muha, Jared
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Contributor
Cravero, Geoffrey
Date Created
2014-12-10
Date Copyrighted
2014-12-10
Format
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Extent
50.2 MB
Medium
54-minute and 55-second audio recording
24-page digital transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Civics/ Government Teacher
Economics Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Jeannie Economos and Jared Muha, and transcribed by Geoffrey Cravero.
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Accrual Method
Donation
Curator
Cravero, Geoffrey
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank"> RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
Palm, Matthew P. "<a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-last-harvest-crealde-school-20140819-story.html" target="_blank">Crealde School's 'Last Harvest' exhibit in Winter Garden</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, August 20, 2014. Accessed June 13, 2016. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-last-harvest-crealde-school-20140819-story.html.
Ailworth, Erin. "<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2007-01-18/news/MHAWTHORNE18_1_lonnie-jackson-hawthorne-south-apopka" target="_blank">Displaced from Hawthorne Village, families struggle to weave new lives</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, January 18, 2007. Accessed June 13, 2016. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2007-01-18/news/MHAWTHORNE18_1_lonnie-jackson-hawthorne-south-apopka.
Wilson, Becky. "<a href="http://www.gainesvilleiguana.org/2015/articles/linda-lee-a-voice-for-lake-apopka-farmworkers/" target="_blank">Linda Lee: A Voice for Lake Apopka Farmworkers</a>." <em>The Gainesville Iguana</em>, October 15, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2016.
Slongwhite, Dale Finley, and Jeannie Economos. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/857802909" target="_blank"><em>Fed Up: The High Costs of Cheap Food</em></a>. 2014.
Comas, Martin E. "<a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-apopka-farmworkers-lupus-20150918-story.html" target="_blank">Sick Apopka farmworkers hope for major study of their illnesses</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, September 19, 2015. Accessed May 25 ,2016. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-apopka-farmworkers-lupus-20150918-story.html.
Giagnoni, Silvia. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/715188868" target="_blank"><em>Fields of Resistance The Struggle of Florida's Farmworkers for Justice</em></a>. Chicago, Ill: Haymarket Books, 2011.
Rothenberg, Daniel. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38475492" target="_blank"><em>With These Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today</em></a>. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co, 1998.
McCauley, Linda A., Michael R. Lasarev, Gregory Higgins, Joan Rothlein, Juan Muniz, Caren Ebbert, and Jackie Phillips. "<a href="http://resolver.flvc.org/ucf?sid=google&auinit=LA&aulast=McCauley&atitle=Work+characteristics+and+pesticide+exposures+among+migrant+agricultural+families:+a+community-based+research+approach.&id=pmid:11401767" target="_blank">Work Characteristics and Pesticide Exposures among Migrant Agricultural Families: A Community-Based Research Approach</a>." <em>Environmental Health Perspectives</em>, Vol. 109, No. 5. (May, 2001): 533-538.
Das, Rupali, Andrea Steege, Sherry Baron, John Beckman, and Robert Harrison. "<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/107735201800339272" target="_blank">Pesticide-related Illness among Migrant Farm Workers in the United States</a>." <em>International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health</em>, Vol. 7, Issue 4 (2001): 303-312.
Transcript
Muha
This is Jared Muha on December 10th, 2014, with Jeannie Economos at the Farmworker Association of Florida. So, Jeannie, uh, do you wanna start by, uh, telling us who you are and a little bit about yourself?
Economos
Sure, my name is Jeannie Economos. I, um, am the Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator here at the Farmworker Association of Florida. I’ve been in this position since 2007. Um, I came back to work at the Farmworker Association in 2006, um, and in 2006, I was working on immigration issues, um, but prior to that, from, um, 1996 until 2001, I worked at the farmworker association as the Lake Apopka Project Coordinator, um, and prior to that, um, I’ve spent the last—since—well, the last 30 years, um, working for non-profit organizations on everything from the Audubon Society and Save the Manatee Club, um, to the farmworker association and the botanical gardens, but my passion is environmental justice and social justice, and I—and I worked on Indian rights issues, uh, for a while also, as a volunteer.
Muha
Great, thank you.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
Um, I—I heard you mention the Lake Apopka w—w—can you say that one more time? The Lake Apopka Project?
Economos
Well, um, it—we didn’t have an official name, but, um, when I began in 1996—um, that was before the farms closed on Lake Apopka—when the State of Florida passed the, uh, Lake Apopka Restoration Act of 1996, which was, um, the, um—the legislation that gave the [St. Johns River] Water Management District the authority to buy out the farms on the north shore of Lake Apopka. So the farmworker association began work on trying to address the issues of the farmworkers related to this proposed buyout. Initially, we actually tried to stop the State [of Florida] from—before the legislation was passed, we tried to stop the state from buying the farmland, and tried to, um, get a coalition of groups together to, uh, support sustainable agriculture instead. That didn’t work. Um, the state bought out the farms, um, and so, from ‘96 to ‘98, we tried to get programs for the farmworkers, um, and then after the farms closed, we were doing, um, disaster control—trying to get housing and food for people—before we learned about the serious contamination and health issues. Um, so—um, so—yeah—so I was the Lake Apopka Project Coordinator from ’96 to 2001.
Muha
Great, thank you.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
Okay, um, so I’d like to start by just asking about, um, farmworker association much more broadly.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
Um, so can you just tell us broadly what the Farmworker Association of Florida is and what it does?
Economos
Well, it would take a long time to tell you everything that we do. Um, we were founded in 1983, uh, incorporated in 1986, expanded statewide in 1992. Um, we do a lot of things. I guess our two main focuses over the past, um, 30 years, um, have been immigrants’ rights and, um, pesticide health and safety. Um, we do lots of other things, too, which would take a long time to say, including things like wage theft, disaster, um, education and response, um, civic participation, um, housing. We did housing for a while, but, basically, I think the best way to describe our organization is that we are very grassroots. Um, our Board of Directors are[sic] almost all current or former farmworkers. The head of the organization is a former farmworker. We have leadership committees of farmworkers in each of the areas where we have an office, and we’re—we really feel that we are run by the grassroots. We are not top-down, we’re bottom-up. Um, even though we work on, uh, individual, local, state, regional, national, and international issues, we’re really driven by our base, which is—are—which are the farmworkers in each of the areas, and I think that’s the beauty of our organization. That’s why—one of the things that I feel so strongly about is that we are a really, um, you know—we—we—we offer services to farmworkers, like we help people fill out food stamp applications and unemployment. So we do help people on an individual level, but we’re not a service organization. Our—our—our goals are to change policy and empower farmworkers to become agents of social change.
Muha
Oh[?].
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
And—and you mentioned earlier that your role has been in pesticide health and safety.
Economos
Yes, yes.
Muha
Mmhmm.
Economos
Um, and so that entails a lot…
Muha
[clears throat].
Economos
Of different things. Um, it—we—we have a training for farmworkers to train them about pesticide health and safety, um, and we train a minimum of 500 farmworkers every year in Florida, um, and that—we have five offices in the state, so that’s about a hundred workers in each area. Um, we also train healthcare providers on how to identify, treat, diagnose, and report pesticide-related illnesses. We file complaints when there are violations of regulations in the workplace, um, and we work on pesticide policy issues. We try and[sic] change pesticide policy at the state level and at the national level, and—and we work internationally too with Pesticide Action Network. Um, so I could go on, but that’s [laughs]—gives you a little overview of it.
Muha
Great. Well, thank you.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
Um, so—and—and I know this—this might be a challenging one to—to do briefly, but do it in whatever length you’d like. Um, so can you speak to, um, you know, environmental harms that farmworkers are—are commonly exposed, uh, to and—and—and why that’s important?
Economos
Um, a lot of farmworker organizations—well, first of all, there aren’t many farmworker organizations, but the ones that do exist, um, are often times focused on wages, um, because farmworkers are low on the totem pole. They get very poor wages, um, and some of them are focused on other kinds [sic]—kinds of abuse, like labor camps and things like that, um, but, uh, um, pesticides are really harmful to farmworkers’ health, and scientific studies over the past seven to eight years have increasingly showed[sic] that pesticide exposure can harm the second generation and the third generation of farmworkers, and they can also have—in the past, um, farmworker organizations were focused on acute effects of pesticide exposure, like, um, you know, farmworkers in the field vomiting or—or passing out or whatever from pesticides, but we know more and more now about long term effects of pesticide exposure, um, and farmworkers standards. Um, they’re, um—they are, um, under the [Agricultural] Worker Protection Standard of the Environmental Protection Agency, and those standards are lower—less than the OSHA regulations that protect workers from chemicals[sic] exposures in other kinds of industries. So, um, it’s vitally important, because these people are making money for the owners of the industry. Whether they’re a small grower or a large grower, industry could not operate without the workers, and yet, the workers are risking their health and their lives and that of their families by being exposed to pesticides on a regular basis, and we should all care because we’re all human, but we should also all care because it affects our food and our environment, and what happens to the least of us happens to the—to all of us. So it’s, uh, critically important, um, and I could go on, but I won’t [laughs].
are the invisible ones. They are, um, treated like workhorses, not like people, um, andthey are not afforded the same protections—health and safety protections—that other workers are protected under OSHA1 standards. Um, they’re, um—they are, um,under the [Agricultural]Worker Protection Standard of the Environmental Protection Agency,and those standards are lower—less than the OSHA regulations that protect workers from chemicals[sic]exposures in other kinds of industries. So, um, it’s vitally important,because these people are making money for the owners of the industry. Whether they’re a small grower or a large grower, industry could not operate without the workers,and yet, the workers are risking their health and their lives and that of their families by being exposed to pesticides on a regular basis, and we should all care because we’re all human, but we should also all care because it affects our food and our environment, and what happens to the least of us happens to the—to all of us. So it’s, uh, critically important, um, and I could go on, but I won’t [laughs].
Muha
Good, thank you.
Um, so why do you think there’s a need for an organization like Farmworkers Association of Florida?
Economos
Um, well,let me just give you a little example. We do pesticide trainings, as I mentioned earlier, and we have five offices in the state, so we tend to work with farmworkers in the counties in the areas where we have offices. A few years ago,we ended—started going to different areas, like Wimauma and Wahneta and Winter Haven, where there’s farmworker populations—migrants—and there is no farmworker organization there as a support for them, and when we have gone and done pesticide trainings in those areas,we’ve seen a huge difference. The level of education of the—of—or—or knowledge—not education—the level of knowledge of the workers of their rights and about pesticide exposure is much less, and we have gone and done trainings in areas where there was no farmworker organization presence,and the people have begged us—after an hour and a half or two hour training, they’ve begged us not to leave. They’ve begged us to come back, and, to me, that says it all, because even if we don’t touch farmworkers directly—for example, here in the Apopka area—even if we don’t touch them directly, what we are doing here, by osmosis, gets out into the broader community, and it raises people’s level of understanding of their rights, it raises their understanding of the risks in their workplace, um, and people know that they can come here for things like help with wage theft and things like that.So, um, not only do I feel that, you know—I see what—what we do here every day, but also, having gone to these other areas and seen the difference in the level of, um, information that the people have. It’s really been a stark contrast. So that to me justis—says it all.
Muha
Well, thank you.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
So you mentioned that, um, Farmworkers Association was founded in—in 1983. Uh, can you speak to—and I know you’ve—you’ve been involved since the ‘90s—but can you speak to how you think it’s changed since its founding?
Economos
Yeah, um…
Muha
[clears throat].
Economos
I mean, we have expanded, um, statewide. I think one of the biggest things—I mean, we—lots of things have changed, but I think one of the biggest things that, um, I’ve seen change is our, um, deeper connection to, understanding of, and action on a global level—an international level. So, um, while we continue to be very grassroots, we work in coalition with groups like Pesticide Action Network International, La Via Campesina, uh, Domestic Fair Trade Association, and other organizations like that, um, that, um, make us, um, connect what we’re doing at the local level to much bigger, broader global, um, trends, policies, um, actions, um, multinational corporations and how they’re affecting things at the local level. So I think we’re much more involved in that, and I think that helps, uh, eh, reinforce what we’re doing locally, but also, um, moves us to a different level where we can, eh, rather than just trying to get a—a particular nursery or farm to pay their workers better or to, you know, um, stop using or—or exposing their workers, we’re looking at it on a much more global level. That it’s systemic—not just systemic in the United States, but systemic globally, because of transnational corporations and how they’re affecting governments, and, you know, international trade agreements. So I think that that’s really significant and that helps inform the work that we do locally by having that big, broad national perspective and working in coalitions, uh, nationally and internationally.
Muha
Okay, great. Thank you. Um, so having spoken now for, uh, about 13 and half minutes, um, I haven’t yet, uh, heard about, um, farmworkers’ role in—in black community—and bl—black farmworkers. So I’d like to ask about that if you don’t mind.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
Um, so what has been your role, um, in the lives of former black farmworkers in Apopka?
Economos
Well, um, we, eh—we used to have, um, an African-American, um, organizer with the farmworker association, um, and for two reasons—one, we no longer had funding for the Lake Apopka Project, um, and also, the African-American
organizer that we had became very sick. We don’t have an African-American organizer in our organization right now, um, but because I’ve been working with the farmworker community on Lake Apopka since 1996, even though I was gone for a few years and came back, um, you know, I—and since Lake Apopka is my passion, I have become the African-American farmworker organizer for the farmworker association, and, um, th—uh, the people know me and we have a long-term relationship and the African Americans in this community, um, know that—they trust me I hope—I think. I like to believe that they do, um, and, um—and they know that, um, I really care about them on an individual level, but I care about the cause too.
Maybe I should start by saying that, um, when the farms on Lake Apopka were operating, um, there were, um, mostly Haitian, Hispanic, and African-American farmworkers. I know I might be jumping ahead on your questions, but, um—but, um—and, uh—when—by the time the farms closed in 1998, the majority of farmworkers on Lake Apopka, at that time, were Hispanic. Uh, the Haitians that worked on Lake Apopka were mostly migrants that would come up from South Florida, harvest corn, and then travel the seasons. Um, there were some Haitians that were more permanent, or seasonal residents here, but a lot of the Haitians that worked on the farms were migrant. Um, a lot of the Hispanics were seasonal, so they were here eight, nine, ten months out of the year. Some of them were here permanently all year-round, because Lake Apopka had such a long growing season, okay? Um, the African- American community was older, uh, in general, um, on Lake Apopka and smaller, um, in—in—in—in terms of numbers, um, and because a lot of them were older, a lot of them worked in the packing houses. Um, even though some of them still worked out in the fields, a lot of the older women worked in the packing houses, so they could sit during the day and help grade—you know, grade the—the product as it came through.
Um, so when the farms closed on Lake Apopka, a lot of the Hispanics were absorbed—were younger, uh, in general. This is, you know, a generalization. Um, a lot of them were either able to move to other areas to work or they were absorbed in other kinds of industries, like the nursery industry or construction or laying sod, but the African Americans, because they were older, um, because they didn’t know anything else but farm work, um, they pretty much, um, got left behind, and so, um, when I came back, um, after being gone for several years, um, I wanted to make sure that the Lake Apopka story didn’t get lost, and so I began working with mostly the African-American farmworker community to keep the Lake Apopka story alive. Most of the Hispanics, um, again, were not, um, um, as interested in continuing the Lake Apop—there were a few. Um, uh, a couple of them moved away, um, but the African Americans really feel like their story needs to be told, because today, if you talk to people about farmworkers, you know—there’s other farmworker organization that seem to be all focused on Hispanic farmworkers. If you talked—if you talk to people about farmworkers, they think, Oh, Hispanics, Mexicans, okay? Well the African Americans feel upset about that, okay? Because they say, “Wait a minute. We’re farmworkers. We were farmworkers here before the Hispanics were here,” and this is not to be, you know—to—to, uh—to pit—to pit the races against each other by any means. It’s just that that that history needs to be captured and not lost, and I know that the farm—the African-American farmworkers that I work with feel very strongly about that, um. Because I feel like I work for them, I feel very strongly about that, um, and because what I have read, not that I’m the most well-read person in the world, but, um, I haven’t seen anything in Florida history. I’ve seen like—like, um, peripheral references in other books, like you’ll read books about, you know, uh, discrimination against blacks in Florida…
Muha
[clears throat].
Economos
And there might be a reference to, um, oh, um, “It—it happened in an orange grove,” or, oh, um, “and he was an orange picker,” but I have not seen anything that has really talked about, specifically, the role of African-American farmworkers in Florida history. I haven’t seen it anywhere. I don’t know. Did I answer your question? I kind of…
Muha
Absolutely.
Economos
Okay.
Muha
Not a problem. Well, so you said a few things that I—I want to pick up on later, if you don’t mind, um—or expand on later, um, and I’ll—I’ll ask about that, um, but I—I would like to, um—to—to return to—to your role, um, within black farmworker communities, um, and then I’ll—I’ll—I’ll come back to—to s—a few things you mentioned, uh, about memorialization of—of, um, black farm labor in Florida and, um, some perspectives and what have you. Um, so, um, you mentioned that you’re currently the person that acts as like, um, a liaison between the farmworker association and—and former black farmworkers. Um, so I’d like to know—I mean, it—is—is that—well, so—so is your work then centered around, um, their lives as it pertains to employment or their role in the community? Or, like, what—what do—what do you do, um, with them?
Economos
Well first of all, I wouldn’t use the word “liaison.”
Muha
Oh.
Economos
Because, um, we actually—it can—we have, um, what we call “leadership committees,” and so, um, because our—our office in Apopka has a Hispanic, a Haitian…
Muha
[clears throat].
Economos
And a[sic] African-American leadership committee, s o I call the—the African Americans that I work with mostly, um, are key people—are leadership committee. So they’re actually part of the organization.
Muha
Okay.
Economos
Um, so, um, um, yeah, so I—I would put it in—in those kinds of terms. Um, uh—initially, um—well, we have tried everything over the years, in terms of the Lake Apopka farmworkers, um, and initially, it was not just African Americans, it was all the farmworkers. I—you know, we—we talked about trying to get class-action lawsuits to address the health issues of the farmworkers. That didn’t work. Um, we tried to get, um, funding, uh, from the National Institutes of Health to do, um, a[sic] scientific studies where we can actually test the blood of farmworkers, and that wasn’t just His—uh, African-American, but all Lake Apopka farmworkers—to look at, uh, levels of pesticides in their body to see if, you know—to—to identify that as a problem. That didn’t work. We’ve tried—we did a health survey, um, actually Geraldine [Matthew], an African-American farmworker who was a staff member here, did a survey in 2005 of about 150 mostly African-American farmworkers, ‘cause they were still here. That didn’t get any traction. So basically, what my position in—in—has evolved into, I guess, since everything else has not gotten anywhere, is to keep the legacy alive…
Economos
And to tell their stories.
Muha
[inaudible].
Economos
Because I feel like that’s what they want, that’s what I want to see happen, that’s what they deserve.
Muha
Mmhmm.
Economos
So that’s kind of what my role has evolved into. Um, the book, Fed Up [: The High Costs of Cheap Food], that was published as way to keep those stories alive. Talking to you [laughs] is a way to do that too. Um, the quilts is[sic] a way to try and do that. Um, you know, um, hopefully, we’re gonna have an iTunes film, um, so those are some things that we’ve done, but kind of an answer to your question, um— most of the people that I work with are too old and too sick. They’re—I shouldn’t say “too old,” because Geraldine [Matthew] and Linda [Lee] are my age, you know, and I’m still working, but most of the people I work with are on disability [benefits].
Muha
Mmhmm.
Economos
They’re not even—some of them are over 65, but a lot of them aren’t over 65, but they’re sick. So they—so it’s not in terms of trying to get anybody any jobs because they can’t work, and that says a lot to me, um, but, um—so it’s not in terms of getting jobs. um, it’s mostly to keep the legacy alive, but at the same time, you know, they’ve become friends. I’m close to ‘em. It’s personal, you know? So I do things like take food to Geraldine when she’s on dialysis and she doesn’t have anything to eat and she has nobody to help her, or I’ll—Um, so it’s a, you know—it’s a commitment, and it’s become personal. I care about ‘em.
Linda has a problem with her—this county trying to—code enforcement trying to cite her house because of her roof. So we’re trying to help her, uh, get the right paperwork to get her roof fixed. So, um, I mean,it ends up, um, you know, for our community, and that’s what it’s all about is really feeling like a community, and that’s how you build trust, you know? Um, they call me on the weekends to see how I’m doing. I call them, you know? Its, uh—um, we took a field trip to St.Augustine because they had a—an exhibit on 500 years of African-American history in the United States. We were gonna take a field trip this weekend to the Harry T. Moore museum.2 Um, so it’s a, you know—it’s a commitment, and it’s become personal. I care about ‘em.
Muha
Thank you. Appreciate that.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
[clears throat] So—and, again, I—I do—a lot of what you said I do want to ask about later. Um, but, um, just to—so I’m clear, um, most farmworkers, uh, or former farmworkers from your observation, if I understand correctly, um, you know, after—after the shutdown of Lake Apopka, what did they do?I mean,from your observation, it seems like you’re saying most of them didn’t return to—to any jobs or…
Economos
Well, so that’s a long story too.Right after the farms closed it’s a—I’ll try to do this short—um, th—there was a thing called the Jobs and Education Partnership and they set up this outreach thing for—I think it lasted a year and a half maybe—to try and do retraining of farmworkers, to try and offer them classes, to try and get them other jobs. Um, it was real mess. It was for all f—not just for African Americans. I mean, like—like part of it was English classes for Hispanics. Um, it was pretty unsuccessful. Some farmworkers, like Linda Lee’s sister,Margie, got a job at a nursery. This was before the [Great] Recession happened in the, you know—a few years ago.3 This was at the boom of building and construction and nurseries and stuff, So some of them did get other jobs for a period of time, but most of the African Americans—again, most of the Hispanics and Haitians were absorbed, so, um, they eventually settled out into something—most of them—a lot of them.
Muha
Mmhmm.
Economos
Most of the African Americans got left behind.Geraldine always talks about how, um, “I don’t know what happened, but after the farms closed, people started getting[phone rings]sick and started dying.”
[phone rings]
Economos
And I know from I own experience, sometimes, you know, when you’re, you know…
[phone rings]
Economos
If you’re not active, you know, you—you start to get depressed and you, you know—and people had this—they had to go to work every day and they probably didn’t have time to even think about their healthcare, but a—after the farms closed, a lot of people did start getting sick. A lot of them were sick beforehand, um, like Linda Lee had, you know, a kidney transplant beforehand. Some of them were absorbed for a little while in other jobs, but most of them were older and not in the best of health and didn’t last very long.
Muha
Hm.
Economos
Um, but some of them were already on disability.
Muha
Mmhmm.
Economos
Um, so, um, I don’t know of many that got jobs in farm work. Um, Magaline[sp] was smart. She got out early, before the farms closed, and got a job as a janitor in a school, and worked there up until about a year ago, um, but the ones that stayed in farm work, most of them, um, didn’t know anything else, um, didn’t really get plugged into anything else in terms of a job and/or, you know, were sick and really couldn’t—couldn’t get out there in the world, but had serious health problems. So, yeah.
Muha
Thank you. Um, so, okay—so what I’d like to ask, um—right. Okay, so I’d like to ask, um—and this might be a—a difficult question to—to answer, but, I mean, so, since the—the shutdown of m—most Lake Apopka farms, w—what has been the most dramatic change that you’ve noticed in the lives of—of the former farmworkers who are black?
Economos
Um, I think—well, uh, I think that there’s been a little bit of—there’s been a little bit of dissolution of community. So, um—for example, um, the African-American community in this area are [sic] not what you would traditionally think of, because they are very settled here. Um, there might be two or three or four generations. A lot of them might have come here—their parents or grandparents might have come here in the ’30s and ‘40s. Well, probably I should say ‘40s, because that’s when the farms started on Lake Apopka, okay? And so, w—they—whereas the Hispanics came later, like in the ‘60s and then again a wave in the ‘80s, um, the African Americans were here much longer. Um, there was some public housing, subsidized housing, USDA4 housing for farmworkers. It was called Hawthorne Village. When the farms closed on Lake Apopka—you could only live there if you had so much of your income from farm work. That included nurseries, okay? When the farms closed on Lake Apopka, the African Americans that lived in Hawthorne Village, like Louisee [sp] and other people, uh, Angela Tanner, they were no longer working in farms, so they couldn’t, um, record that…
Muha
[clears throat].
Economos
“I get this much money from farm work.” They couldn’t live there anymore. They had to go find someplace else to live. Some of them had to go find rental housing, and it wasn’t subsidized, so it was too much money for ‘em. Um, some of them had to go live with family members. Then they finally closed down Hawthorne Village completely. They tore it down, ‘cause [sic] it was in bad shape. Those African-American f—farm—former farmworkers ended up having to go to Lake City, so, some—so, it—it did affect some of the—a little bit—there’s still quite a bit of community cohesion, okay? ‘Cause [sic] some people like Linda and Geraldine and Betty and Irma are, you know—own their own homes, okay? But it did separate some families because of that. So some families had to leave the area, um, because of the housing issues. Some of the younger ones—because there was no more work here—did have to leave and find work other places. So it did affect the community, in that sense, and then, it also affected the community because I think when people weren’t working, again, you have issues of, you know, people being depressed because they can’t work, financial problems because they’re not working. Um, some people were sick, but they just kept working, and then they had to try to get on disability, and if they were under 60, they had to wait two or three years. Oh, it was terrible. Some of them had to wait—uh, you know, in the meantime, while you’re waiting to get on disability, even though you’re on, you know—you have all kinds of health problems. Um, how do you survive in the meantime, you know? You’re not old enough to get Social Security, you know, you’re not well enough to work, so you’re in this limbo. How—so it did cause a lot of financial problems for people. Like I said, when the farms first closed on Lake Apopka, we weren’t thinking about health then. We were just thinking about trying to get people, you know, housing and jobs and food and furniture and a place, you know, uh—just real immediate needs.
Muha
Yeah.
Economos
Um, so, yeah, but long term, I think, uh, the health issue is the biggest—biggest thing.
Muha
Okay, thank you.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
Appreciate that.
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
Um, okay, and so—so—and—okay. So next one I’d like to ask—I mean, you mentioned a couple times a difference between, um
[phone rings]
Muha
How the shutdown affected…
[phone rings]
Muha
Hispanic farmworkers and how it affected black farmworkers in—in Florida. So I’d like to ask
[phone rings]
Muha
A little bit about, I guess, a shift that occurred, um, on farms in—in Florida and—and specifically in Apopka, um, and—and what you mentioned, you said that there were, uh, waves of—of Hispanic immigrants in the ‘60s and ‘80s, as…
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
As you perceived it.
Economos
Right. Mmhmm, mmhmm.
Muha
Um, so the thing[?] that I’d like to ask—so why do you—why do you think that—that that shift took place, eh, eh, from—in our opinion. Um, was it growers’ preferencing [sic] Hispanic farmworkers? What do you think…
Economos
Well, I think…
Muha
The reason…
Economos
It was several things. Um, one is I think the Civil Rights Act—the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 was one influence, because, um, after that, um, blacks had more opportunities to, um, get out of farm work and get into other kinds of jobs, um, and the younger generation of, uh, African Americans—this next generation—wasn’t, um, subject to the same Jim Crow—not that it didn’t still happen, especially in Apopka, um—but, legally, it wasn’t supposed to happen. So the second generation, um—whereas for example—I’m jumping around—but, like, um, Linda’s parents—Linda’s grandparents were farmworkers, Linda’s parents were farmworkers, and she was a farmworker. Well, her kids didn’t have to be farmworkers. They were born after the Civil Rights Act was passed, okay? Same thing with Geraldine, same thing with Betty, you know? Their next generation, um, didn’t have to—they had more options than, um, the previous generation. So the Civil Rights Act was one thing.
The end of the Bracero Program was another thing, okay? Um, so when the Bracero Program ended, um—well, that was mostly in—that was here too, but the end of the Bracero Program, um—which brought, um, Hispanics into the United States—okay, it ended, but then the growers had an opportunity to go and get, uh, thr—without the Bracero Program to go and get cheaper labor from, you know, Mexico and bring them here to work, okay? And then, I think conditions in Mexico, um—people, you know—workers coming from Mexico, I think, um, you know, the—well, in the ‘90s, NAFTA5 made a big difference too. There was an influx of, um, farmworkers from Mexico after NAFTA, but in the ‘60s and the ‘80s, it was conditions in Mexico, it was the end of the Bracero Program, but I think it was just, you know, demographic changes. A lot of African-American farmworkers were getting older and moving out, and Linda will tell you a story about how, you know, it was mostly African-American farmworkers. She remembers one day going out to the orange groves. They would get up every morning, go to the orange groves, pick oranges, and then take the bus—you know, the crew bus back home. She said one day, they went out to the grove and there was a—as she says, a Mexican f—family there that had slept there all night long, okay? Well, the African-American farmworkers were upset, because the Hispanics that were there—and this is, you know—this is how the industry ends up causing racial divide. The Hispanics that were there all night long could pick earlier in the morning. They could stay and pick later at night, and when you’re being paid by the piece, you know, you’re not getting paid by the hour, they were able to make more money, okay?
So, um, you know, people from Mexico saw econom—economic opportunity here and they started coming here, and they kind of, you know—the—the—it—there became that clash of—and the Hispanics would work cheaper, and—and sometimes they would work faster, and part of that was because a lot—some of the African Americans were beginning to know what their rights were, um, and some of them would stand up for their rights. Whereas, the—a lot of time the Hispanics didn’t know they even had any rights, and they would put up with more abuse, and that’s—again, that’s kind of a generalization, you know? Um, but, um, G— Geral—Geraldine would s—says sometimes, you know, “Oh, I felt sorry for the Hispanics, because they would come here—s—some stuff that we wouldn’t put up with, you know, they would come and they would—they would take it.” So I think there’s [sic] lots of different factors, but I think those are some of them.
Muha
Mmhmm.
Economos
Yeah.
Muha
And then, from your observation, uh, what do you think the perception on that question of—of black farmworkers is? What do you think—do you think they would say the same?
Economos
Well that’s—like I said, a lot of that’s stuff that I’ve heard. In terms of the Civil Rights Act, that’s my perception and th—things I’ve read too, um, but in terms of some of the other things, I mean, I—I hear that directly from them, you know? That they—they have said that. That, you know—that, um, the Hispanic workers would work longer hours, they would put up with more abuse, um, sometimes they would work faster. Again, if you have—especially after the 1960s, um, if you have an aging African-American population, they might not harvest as fast. Whereas, the Hispanics coming in are younger, um, you know, and they would work faster. If you see the—and now it’s not even Mexicans as much as it is Gua—uh, you know, Guatemalans and Salvadorans. the training that we here—had here last night for the farmworker women, they were all young and they were from Guatemala, um, and they were all—I would say—20s, um, early 30s. They were young and they were all farmworkers. So, you know, I think that had a—is a factor too.
Muha
[clears throat].
Muha
Great, um, and—and then, um—following that question, um, in your experiences with former farmworkers in Apopka today, I mean, what—what stands out, uh, to you about their perspec—perspectives on farm labor? Um, given that most of them are now former farmworkers. Most of their children aren’t farmworkers. Um, what do you notice about their perspectives?
Economos
Well, I think they’re all very proud of it. Um, there are some, like Mary Tinsley, who will say, uh, “Oh, I—I used to pick oranges when I was a teenager and I never, ever wanted to do it again, so I decided to go to college and never do it again,” you know, um, but, um, her mom is proud of the work she did, you know? Betty Woods, who died last year, um, said that she loved it. She loved being a farmworker. Geraldine—she’ll say, “We fed the world.” Um, I love Geraldine. She’s so powerful, um, and they’re—they’re proud of what they did, um, and they should be. They deserve to be proud of what they did, um, and, um—and I think the ones that I—I work with, of course, probably have a higher consciousness about all of these issues, because they have been working on this, and, you know, um…
[phone rings]
Economos And have been connected with the farmworker association. We, you know, do do consciousness raising stuff, but even…
[phone rings]
Economos
When we go down to Indiantown, and the farmworkers there—the African Americans there—I think they’re proud of what they’ve done…
[phone rings]
Economos
And their contribution. Um, some of them love it. Geraldine’s really proud that she was the fastest corn packer [laughs], you know, and it was kind of competitive. Um, Linda’s proud that her father was a crew leader and he was a good crew leader…
Muha
Mmhmm.
Economos
And he treated his people well and—and, um, they have all kinds of stories. You could listen to them for hours and days and months and never get all the stories that they have, and it’s a very rich, uh, history, which is why I think it’s so important to capture that, because it’s just very, very rich, both in terms of good and bad. Um, you know, it’s—we—we talk about the discrimination against the blacks in Florida, the country, um, but…
[phone rings]
Economos
What was it like to be black and a farmworker? Kind of the—the…
[phone rings]
Economos
And I hate to put it like this, but how society looks at it is like the…
[phone rings]
Economos
Lowest rung on the totem pole in terms of, you know, the type of job that you do. Um…
[phone rings]
Economos
So I think that that’s a really super rich history, and, um…
[phone rings]
Economos
They have stories talking about being on the mule train and them laughing and…
[phone rings]
Economos
And singing slave songs to get them through the day, um, and it’s just very, very, uh, rich, cultural history, um, and they talk about their interactions with the Hispanics and the Haitians, um, and some of it’s good and some of it’s bad, you know? Um, and—and, uh, um, so, yeah—I forgot what the original question was [laughs].
Muha
No, you did great. Well, the original question was about farm—farmworker perspecti—or black farmworker perspectives…
Economos
Oh, yeah.
Muha
Today and what stands out to you.
Economos
Yeah, yeah.
Muha
So if there’s anything else you wanted to add…
Economos
Um, well, I—I, a—again, what stands out to me, because of the people I work with is that they feel very strongly that they want to be remembered. Yeah.
Muha
Well, I wanted to ask you about that because, uh, throughout this—this interview, a few times you’ve mentioned the importance of, um—of history and—and being remembered, um, so—so, yeah, I mean, and—and you’ve mentioned, uh, the quilt, which—which was Linda’s project…
Economos
Hm, yeah.
Muha
Um…
Economos
Well, every—it—Linda did the most of it…
Muha
Okay.
Economos
It was everybo—I don’t want to—yeah.
Muha
Okay.
Economos
Yeah, it was everybody’s pro—it was a project of the farmworker association. Linda was the one that really did most of the quilt squares, but everybody was involved…
Muha
Great.
Economos
So…
Muha
Well, if I understand, she was l—like the—I—I don’t—I…
Economos
[laughs].
Muha
Perhaps the leader of it? Or…
Economos
She and Sara [Downs]—Sara.
Muha
Okay.
Economos
Together were—yeah. If it weren’t for—they—they were the two that really drove it forward. So, yeah.
Muha Okay.
Economos
Yeah.
Muha
Well, so…
Economos
Mmhmm.
Muha
But I—I wanted to ask you, I mean, you know, it seems i—if I—if I understand correct[sic] I, uh—I mean, has—do you think the history of—of black farm labor has been remembered in Apopka?
Economos No, I don’t. I don’t. I—no. If you go to the, uh, uh, Museum of the Apopkans over here, um, there’s almost nothing in there about African Americans at all, much less African-American farmworkers. They finally did—actually, I need to—they finally did invite us to bring the quilts there during, uh, Black History Month. That was nice of ‘em, um, finally, um, but, um, uh, there’s almost nothing about bla—the, um—if you go to Winter Garden—because I don’t want it to sound like it’s just Apopka, ‘cause[sic] it’s the whole—Lake Apopka is really big, so there’s farmworkers f—that worked on Lake Apopka that were from Zellwood and Eustis and Mount Dora and Astatula and, um, Winter Garden. Winter Garden—there’s a big African-American community there. Linda’s sister lived in Winter Garden. Um, I used to go ride my bike in Winter Garden, and they have a big mural on the side of one of the main buildings in Winter Garden of citrus, and it’s a white guy picking oranges, um, and I’m like, No. [laughs] It probably wasn’t a white guy picking oranges, and, um, you know, and you go to Winter Garden and there’s almost nothing about, um—I think it’s a little bit better over the last couple of years. Um, Winter Garden just had “The Last Harvest[: A History and Tribute to the Life and Work of the Farmworkers on Lake Apopka”] exhibit there and I didn’t even get to go see it, um, but, uh, it’s virtually—no. It’s—it‘s—it’s hidden. It’s deliberate. If you go to, um, Oakland Nature Preserve, um, that was started by Friends of Lake Apopka, there is nothing there about farmworkers at all. If you go to Magnolia Park and the boat ramp and you see the sign there about the history of Lake Apopka, there is nothing there about farmworkers or African Americans in the community. So, no, I think it’s not there and I think it’s deliberate. Yeah.
Muha
And—and you’ve noticed that you—you—you think it’s important to the farmworkers in Apopka and—and those who worked on Lake Apopka that they be remembered.
Economos
Absolutely, and—and they have talked about—I mean, the quilts are great, and the book is great, and we’re—I think everybody’s happy to have both of those things, um, have happened, but, um, I think—some of them have told me that they would like to see a memorial in the city of—that—that—sanctioned by—because the book and the quilt and “The Last Harvest”—that was the farmworker association doing that. Nobody outside—I mean, Dale [Finley Slongwhite] is outside the fa—you know, but nobody outside the farmworker association. What are they doing? It’s all been driven by, you know, the farmworker association. Who else out there has made a concerted effort…
Muha
Mmhmm.
Economos
To do anything to remember the farmworker association? You are, but, I mean, who else is really doing anything to recognize farmworkers at all here—much less African-American farmworkers in this community? So no, I don’t think it’s remembered, um, and I think it’s deliberate.
Muha
Well, thank you, um, and then, as—as my last question, I—I wanted to ask you, um, if you had any thoughts on, uh, the future of farm labor in—in Florida, and perhaps, uh, more broadly in the United States or the South.
Economos That’s a really good question, because, um—that’s a really big question, because, um, you know, there’s continuing competition from globalization, um, the recession has affected the…
Muha
[clears throat].
Economos
Nursery industry in Florida, um, imports of tomatoes from Mexico has a—affected the tomato industry in Florida, the drought is affecting the nut industry in California, as well as other kinds of crops. Um, so lots of different factors are affecting, um, agriculture in the United States. Um, subsidies for commodity crops, like, um, corn, soy, and wheat are affecting—they, eh—it just blows my mind that they call fruits and vegetables “specialty crops.” That just is mind-boggling to me, you know? tomatoes are a specialty crop. Corn is not a specialty crop. Gen—genetically-modified corn is not a specialty crop, but, you know, your healthy carrots are. Um, so specialty crops are at risk, um, because of the huge agribusiness farms. Um, so I think that there is a real danger of, um—or threat to agriculture in the United States. The global, you know—forces of globalization around the world, um—I do take hope from the food movement, um, where a lot of, um, people are, um, wanting healthy, organic, local, sustainable food, even though it might not be fair trade food, um, for workers, but a lot of, um, small, independent farms are starting up at a very small scale, but poor people can’t afford to buy that. I can’t afford [laughs] to buy that, um, produce. Um, so you’re still going to have your big grocery store chains, you’re still going to have, um, you know, your, um, need for cheap food. So I do think it’s a really big concern where—and I think farmers know that. The writing is on the wall for some of them.
Um, tomatoes, you know, the—tomatoes are a big issue in Florida. Um, the tomato industry in Florida wants to continue growing tomatoes the way they’re growing them, which is picking them early and—and, um, then treating them with methyl bromide to ripen them, whereas Mexico is growing vine-ripe tomatoes and that they’re shipping here, and people want those more. So, um, if agriculture, um, diminishes—and we’ve already seen that on a small scale in Apopka. The recession, um, put a lot of farmworkers out of work in Florida. Um, nurseries went under. Miguel estimated about 50 percent of the nurseries. I don’t know if that’s accurate or not, but quite a few nurseries, um, closed, which put a lot of workers out of work. Immigration policies have affected agriculture. A lot of workers, um, are afraid to travel, um, the seasons like they used to, because of immigration policies in other states, um, like Georgia and Alabama that might be really horrible. Um, immigration policies have affected migration into the United States, which has affected how many people come here to be farmworkers. So, um, there’s lots of different forces at play here, and, uh, I’m not real[sic] good at forecasting the future, but I think we have some real issues that—that are gonna come up, um, and I think we’re gonna end up seeing a lot more imported food and a loss—lot less work for farmworkers. So…
Muha
Good, okay. Well, um, as far as my questions, that’s all. Um, was there anything you wanted to add or say before I stop the recording?
Economos
Um, I just want to say that I think—I think there’s a real place and a real need in Florida history to document the role of African-American farmworkers. I mean, I—I kind of said that already several times, but, um, I want to say it kind of in a different way now, because I think it’s important to put African-American farmworkers—not just to remember that they were here and they had lives, but to really look at that in terms of the economic development of Florida. That—you know, we hear about, um, [Henry] Flagler and the railroad and other people in, you know, uh, uh, major, uh—who I can’t think of right now—major people in Florida history who, you know, created the development of Florida, but none of that could happen, okay? A lot of that was based on—a lot of the economy in Florida was driven by agriculture, okay? And the railroad and all these other things—where part of it was to move agricultural products, part of it was to bring people down here to start orange groves and vegetable fields, and none of that could have happened without African-American farmworkers, and I think it’s really crucial not only to remember the lives of the farmworkers here, but to put them in some kind of really profound historical context, um, in the—in Florida’s history, you know?
Even, um, Patrick [D.] Smith, who wrote that book, Angel City [: A Novel], okay? The main characters in that book where white farmworkers that came down from Tennessee or Kentucky or something like that, um, and the peripheral characters in the book were African American, okay? I—it’s really vitally important to see how—there’s even more about, um, the Indians—the native Indians in Florida and what happened to them then there are[sic] about African Americans historically in Florida as part of the development and what caused the economy to grow in the state, and I also think—one more thing I think is crucially important is to—to demonstrate or to understand that African-American farmworkers, in Florida and other parts of the South, have a direct line to slavery, and I think that that thread needs to be pulled through, um, because the conditions that farmworkers experienced and continue to experience, but, again, it was—e—e—even before Lake Apopka, you go back into the ‘20s and ‘30s and ‘40s before Lake Apopka, you know, that—it was still the legacy of slavery. So I think somehow that thread needs to be woven through all of this, um, because I don’t think you can look at—at—at it in a—in a vacuum without bringing—bringing that in, and how the conditions on the farms were related to, um—how con—plantation conditions and slavery in the United States. So…
Muha
Okay. Well, thank you so much. Um, this…
Economos
Thank you.
Muha
Has been—oh, absolutely [laughs]. This has been Jared Muha with Jeannie Economos of the Farmworker Association [of Florida] on December 10th, 2014.
agribusiness farms
agricultural labor
Agricultural Worker Protection Standard
agriculture
Angel City: A Novel
Angela Tanner
Apopka
Astatula
Audubon Society
AWPS
Betty Woods
Bracero Program
bromomethane
carrots
Central Americans
citrus
Civil Rights Act of 1964
commodity crops
corn
Dale Finley Slongwhite
DI
disability benefits
disability income insurance
disability insurance
disaster education
disaster responses
Domestic Fair Trade Association
economic development
educational programs
environmental advocacy
environmental justice
Environmental Protection Agency
EPA
Eustis
fair trade
Farmworker Association of Florida
farmworkers
farmworkers' rights
Fed Up: The High Costs of Cheap Food
FOLA
food movements
Friends of Lake Apopka
Geraldine Matthew
Geraldine Shannon
globalization
Great Recession
Guatemalans
Haitians
Harry and Harriette Moore Memorial Park
Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex
Hawthorne Village
Henry Flagler
Henry Morrison Flagler
Hispanic Americans
Hispanics
immigrants
immigrants’ rights
immigration
income protection
Indiantown
Jared Muha
Jobs and Education Partnership
La Via Campesina
Lake Apopka
Lake Apopka Farmworker Memorial Quilts Project
Lake Apopka Project
Lake Apopka Restoration Act of 1996
Lake City
Latin Americans
Latinas
Latinos
Linda Lee
Magnolia Park
Mary Tinsley
methyl bromide
Mexican Americans
Mexicans
Mexico
migrant farms
migrant farmworkers
migrant labor
migrant laborers
migrant workers
Mount Dora
Museum of the Apopkans
NAFTA
National Institutes Of Health
NIH
non-profit
North American Free Trade Agreement
not-for[profit
nurseries
nursery
nuts
Oakland Nature Preserve
OASDI
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance
oranges
OSHA
Patrick D. Smith
Pesticide Action Network International
pesticide exposure
pesticide health and safety
Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator
pesticides
public housing
race relations
railroads
railways
retraining
Salvadorans
Sara Downs
Save the Manatee Club
slavery
slaves
Social Security
Social Security Disability Insurance
soy
specialty crops
SSD
SSDI
St. Augustine
St. Johns River Water Management District
The Last Harvest: A History and Tribute to the Life and Work of the Farmworkers on Lake Apopka
tomato
tomato industry
tomatoes
U.S. Department of Agriculture
unfree labor
USDA
wage theft
Wahneta
wheat
Wimauma
Winter Garden
Winter Haven
Worker Protection Standard
Zellwood
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/aaf3e9e626e5f3a4b798bb5dfd7ca844.mp3
de2411b77ffa9c7a87d48d8bc30e0846
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/f7a66760aadfa6cd11872500514be8e2.pdf
ccc52a4bda6f188e3deed01c2b5e7b6f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Jared Muha Collection
Subject
Lake Apopka (Fla.)
Agriculture--Florida
Migrant labor
Apopka (Fla.)
Description
A collection of oral history interviews conducted by Jared Muha.
Creator
Muha, Jared
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank"> RICHES</a>
Curator
Cravero, Geoffrey
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank"> RICHES MI</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Geraldean Matthew
Alternative Title
Oral History, Matthew
Subject
Apopka, Lake (Fla.)
Apopka (Fla.)
Migrant labor
Agriculture--Florida
Race relations--United States
Environmental justice--United States
Description
An oral history interview of Geraldean Matthew, a third-generation farmworker and advocate for environmental justice and migrant farmworkers’ rights. The interview was conducted by Jared Muha in Apopka, Florida, on October 30, 2014. Some of the topics covered include a summary of Matthew’s life, leaving home at age 13, her relationships with her mother and father, her slave heritage, her grandparents, segregation, traveling to the North, tramp trucks and maggot workers, life in labor camps, the replacement of African-American workers with Hispanic workers and the relationship between the two races, educational programs and retraining of the replaced workers, the effects of unemployment and underemployment on African-American families, working for environmental justice and farmworker’s rights, her contribution to <em>Fed Up: The High Costs of Cheap Food</em>, a book about sexual misconduct by crew leaders, modern farms in Florida and the treatment of Hispanic workers today. Matthew passed away in 2016.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction <br />0:04:47 Parents and leaving home at age 13 <br />0:09:04 Grandparents <br />0:11:32 Segregation and discrimination <br />0:17:25 Labor camps <br />0:22:31 Hispanic replacements for African American workers <br />0:31:11 Educational programs, retraining, and unemployment <br />0:38:27 Environmental justice and labor rights <br />0:42:08 Her Children’s Experiences as Farmworkers <br />0:42:53 <em>Fed Up: The High Costs of Cheap Food</em> by Dale Finley Slongwhite <br />0:47:11 Sexual abuse by crew leaders <br />0:49:35 RECORDING CUTS OFF <br />0:49:35 Modern farm labor and Hispanic workers <br />0:51:28 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Geraldean Matthew. Interview conducted by Jared Muha in Apopka, Florida, on October 30, 2014.
Type
Sound
Source
Matthew, Geraldean. Interviewed by Jared Muha, October 30, 2014. Audio record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" target="_blank"> QuickTime</a>.
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/collections/show/219">Jared Muha Collection</a>, Apopka Collection, Orange County Collection, RICHES.
Has Format
Digital transcript of original 51-minute and 42-second oral history: Matthew, Geraldean. Interviewed by Jared Muha. Audio record available. <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>, Orlando, Florida.
Coverage
Apopka, Florida
Belle Glade, Florida
Lake Apopka, Apopka, Florida
Creator
Matthew, Geraldean
Muha, Jared
Publisher
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>
Date Created
2014-10-30
Date Copyrighted
2014-10-30
Format
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Extent
47.3 MB
254 KB
Medium
51-minute and 42-second audio recording
31-page digital transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Geraldean Matthew and Jared Muha and published by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>.
Rights Holder
<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a>
Accrual Method
Item Creation
Curator
Cravero, Geoffrey
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
Balogh, Christopher. "<a href="http://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/apopka-farmworkers-say-pesticide-exposure-caused-illnesses/Content?oid=2248681" target="_blank">Apopka farmworkers say pesticide exposure caused illnesses</a>." <em>Orlando Weekly</em>, June 1, 2011. Accessed July 11, 2016. http://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/apopka-farmworkers-say-pesticide-exposure-caused-illnesses/Content?oid=2248681.
Slongwhite, Dale Finley, and Jeannie Economos. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/857802909" target="_blank"><em>Fed Up: The High Costs of Cheap Food</em></a>. 2014.
Comas, Martin E. "<a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-apopka-farmworkers-lupus-20150918-story.html" target="_blank">Sick Apopka farmworkers hope for major study of their illnesses</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, September 19, 2015. Accessed May 25 ,2016. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-apopka-farmworkers-lupus-20150918-story.html.
Giagnoni, Silvia. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/715188868" target="_blank"><em>Fields of Resistance The Struggle of Florida's Farmworkers for Justice</em></a>. Chicago, Ill: Haymarket Books, 2011.
Rothenberg, Daniel. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38475492" target="_blank"><em>With These Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today</em></a>. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1998.
McCauley, Linda A., Michael R. Lasarev, Gregory Higgins, Joan Rothlein, Juan Muniz, Caren Ebbert, and Jackie Phillips. "<a href="http://resolver.flvc.org/ucf?sid=google&auinit=LA&aulast=McCauley&atitle=Work+characteristics+and+pesticide+exposures+among+migrant+agricultural+families:+a+community-based+research+approach.&id=pmid:11401767" target="_blank">Work Characteristics and Pesticide Exposures among Migrant Agricultural Families: A Community-Based Research Approach</a>." <em>Environmental Health Perspectives</em>, Vol. 109, No. 5 (May, 2001): 533-538.
Das, Rupali, Andrea Steege, Sherry Baron, John Beckman, and Robert Harrison. "<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/107735201800339272" target="_blank">Pesticide-related Illness among Migrant Farm Workers in the United States</a>." <em>International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health</em>, Vol. 7, Issue 4 (2001): 303-312.
Rodgers, Bethany. "<a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orange/os-apopka-farmworker-geraldean-matthew-20161006-story.html" target="_blank">Pillar in Apopka farmworker community dies at age 66</a>." <em>Orlando Sentinel</em>, October 9, 2016. Accessed October 10, 2016. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orange/os-apopka-farmworker-geraldean-matthew-20161006-story.html.
Transcript
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>This is Jared Muha. I’m here on October 30<sup>th</sup>[, 2014] with Geraldean Matthew. Um, Geraldean, to start off, can I ask you just to tell you—tell—tell me a little bit about yourself, um, and who you are?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, I’m Geraldean Matthew. I was Geraldean Shannon before I got married and became—became the—Matthew. Um, I come from Palm Beach County, a little place in the—on the, um, eastern shores of Palm—of Palm Beach. Um, I was a migrant farmworker. I’m the third generations[sic] of farmworkers—uh, of migrant workers in my family, and, um, we continued—I continued to do farm work until, um, 1972.</p>
<p>Um, I can remember as far as[sic] back when I was three years old, traveling to see them with my mom on what you call a “traffic truck”—a “tramp truck,” and it’s[sic] taken us from Belle Glade, Florida, to the New York states[sic] to pick apples and beans—whatever state we were in, whatever the vegetable was, and, um, in traveling back, we stopped in a little town called Mount Dora, and from Mount Dora to Apopka, and that’s when we decided to stay here to work in the oranges, which was our first time ever picking oranges, and from there we ended up staying here in Apopka, and, um, I left home at the age of 13 and went out on my own and been out on my own ever since, and from there, I got married and I end[sic] up with six babies, uh—12 years of marriage, and then I divorce[sic] and from there, I had to take care of my kids and raise my kids alone, and I continued to travel, and in 1972, that’s when I gave it up. I didn’t want to put my children through what I had went[sic] through—changing schools every two or three months because you’ve got to move to the next state to work.</p>
<p>So, um, we remaineded[sic] here in—in—in Apopka, Florida, and from that, I continued to work in the fields, um, cutting and jiving[?], packing corn, and picking string beans, and, uh, whatever else they had for us to do—working in the carrots, and, um, from there, I just got tired of the—the—the farm work…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And I went into doing the foliage work, uh—potting flowers, and that—I liked it pretty good, and I stayed there for a number of years, and then from there, I volunteered to work with the Farmworker Association[ of Florida] and I landed a job with the association, and I worked there doing different types of jobs in the organization, and, um, I started advocating for poor people[sic] rights in Tallahassee, and that was one of the most awesome jobs I had ever had in my life. Just having a—just a 10<sup>th</sup> grade education, it was really awesome, because I never thought in life that I would land such a good job, and from there, I started working, uh—after they laid me off ‘cause lack of, uh, grants, I start[sic] working with Orange County Health Department and then, uh, Env—En—Environmental Protection [Agency], and, uh, I worked there with David Overfield for a few months, and then I got sick with my kidney. Worked from December until April, and the kidney broke down and I had to stop working with them.</p>
<p>I, uh, left them in June, and from there I got sicker and sicker, and I ended up on kidney dialysis. So right now, that’s where I basically is[sic]. I’m on kidney dialysis three days a week. Um, I just was told a month ago that my liver is gone. My heart—there’s nothing they can do. So right now, I have my good days, I have my bad days, and I just, you know, I have to accept what life throws at me and depend on the grace of the Good Lord. So right now that’s where I am.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Um, there’s a lot of times, if I’m able to go to the grocery stores, um, I always tell people, “My job is not finished,” because I stand in the grocery stores and I talk with peoples[sic] about the use of pesticide in the field. Those that are still out there working.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>I’ve talked with them.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And, um, let them know that it’s not finished, you know? You’re still being sprayed with the pesticide if you’re still in the fields.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Well, thank you for telling me all that.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So you mentioned a few things that I wanna ask about.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Some now and some later. The first thing—um, you said you were 13 years old when you went on your own?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So can you tell me like how that happened and—and what—what that was like being 13 and on your own?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, the reason I left home when I was 13—because of a step-father, and, um, he didn’t treat my mom right, and I had a sister and a brother, at that time, and he didn’t treat them right. He were[sic] more like afraid of me, ‘cause I used to threaten him all the time about if he would hit me, what I would do to him. So I didn’t have to worry about getting licks from him, but he would beat my sister and beat my brother so bad[sic], and my mom, she didn’t—she wasn’t a violent person and I just couldn’t—I couldn’t take it—seeing her not saying nothing at the way he was treating the family.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So one day I just packed and I left, and, um, I was, you know—I was tall. I was always a tall girl. So I could pass off for 17 years old, 18 years old—and that’s what I did.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And, um, I got a man—uh, a man and his wife to say they was[sic] my mom and, um, take me to the courthouse, and I got married.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And when I got married, then I was, you know—it was better for me to be married. That way I could—continue to help my mom.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And I didn’t move from around my mom until after about four years and—I was married and I moved to another town.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>But I would come see her every Saturday.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm, but you continued working at the fields?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm, I continued to work in the fields.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm, you just did it on your own then?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yep, mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It was—it was like—it was hard, but, you know, having somebody to help you, it wasn’t so difficult, because my thing was I always wanted to give my mom—I always wanted to make sure that my mom had—and I was able to help my mom.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So after the marriage was over with of 12 years, then I continued to work, but I was always able to go by my mom[sic] house and give my mom money to help her.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Because my mom was a young lady when she got—she took sick. She was 36…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>When she took sick.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So yeah, I wanted to ask about your parents too. I mean, um, so—so your parents were farmworkers, as well?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yes, my mom and my father were farmworkers when they met. My mom was 13 years old and my daddy was 15 years old.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And, um, when my mom got pregnant with me at the age of 13 years old, my father got—was afraid, and my father, he was big for—big, big, big boy…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And he ran off and lied and went into the military. So he was in the Air Force all his life.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>He made a career out of it, and in, um—in 1960, he come[sic] home and everybody was saying that I was his baby, and he took a look at me and said, “Oh, yeah, that is my baby.”</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And they said then he wanted to be a part of my life, but he went back into the Air Force, and then, when he come[sic] back home, that[sic] when he begin[sic] to fight my mom for, uh, a part of my life. So they took it to court and the court give[sic] him, um—I stayed six months with my mom in Belle Glade, and I stayed six months with my father in Miami, and my father was called by mistake to go back into the military, and that’s when his mama and his wife decided to send me home…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>To my mom.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And I never communicated with him again. When I seen[sic] my father again, it was 1972.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>He came here and visit[sic] me, and I haven’t seen him again since.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>‘Cause he, um—he went fishing in Miami and he never was found again.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm, okay. Do you remember any stories that your mother or father had told you about their days working on the farms?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yeah, my mom used to, um, tell us about when they was[sic] children and the sh—her mom and her father was[sic] together, how they would go to work. Uh, they was[sic]—they was[sic], um, picking cotton, and how they would go to work and work days and—I mean hours and hours in the cotton fields.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Um, she mostly talked about my grandmother, but—because my grandmother was a slave…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And she talked about—we talked about a lot of slavery in that—in our house…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Because of my grandmother being a slave.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Um, sh—I mean, it wasn’t no[sic] [inaudible] generation. Slavery was right at our backdoor.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And, um, that’s mostly what she’d talk about. She never really just do a lot of talk[sic] about herself as a little girl, you know? Sometimes she would tell us stories about how the crew leaders would try to do little nasty things and stunts and things they would pull, you know—and how my grandmother would defend them and stuff.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yeah, and mostly talks about my grandmother and mostly talks about her father and mostly her grandfather. Her grandfather was—uh, mostly talk of the family was her [<em>laughs</em>] grandfather. They used to tell us stories about how funny he was and how, you know, he—he—after coming off the slave camps, he’d never taken crap off of anybody again and how mean he was, and mostly what they talk about—even ‘til today, they talk about my great-granddaddy—how, you know—how raw[?] he got and, you know, just didn’t want nothing[sic] wrong to go—nothing in the family to go wrong.</p>
<p><strong>Muha </strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>All the way up until he passed away, but my family, they’re originally from Georgia—Fort Valley [State University], Georgia, and I used to have to go there after—if my mama didn’t feel like taking us up on[sic] to see her, she would take us to Georgia and leave me with my grandmother.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So I would stay, uh, the month of June, July, August, and come back when school start[sic] in September.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>We would go back to Belle Glade.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>But if we was[sic] traveling, we would go to school wherever we was[sic].</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So, um, you mentioned that, uh, you would travel, you know, during cer— certain seasons to—to pick in other states.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Um, I’m wondering if you could tell me a little bit about that. How did—how did what you experienced in other states differ from Apopka?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It was much different from my home in Belle Glade.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It was much…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>In Belle Glade? Right[?].</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Different from Belle Glade, because Belle Glade was a very, very violent town. Very vi—violent, and those states was[sic] more calmer[sic]. You saw more respect. In Belle Glade, there was no respect at all.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Because Belle Glade was build[sic] up on people of all nationalities. It wasn’t just the people from Belle Glade. It was the people from all over the Caribbean Islands, and there was no respect. If you was[sic] a child in Belle Glade, you knew everything that an adult knew when you was[sic] six or seven years old.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And it wasn’t nice. It wasn’t nice at all. So when we’d travel to the other states, we see the childrens[sic] more respectable[sic], it make[sic] you feel a difference. You be[sic] like, <em>Wow, why I can’t be like that child?</em> You know, and the schools was[sic] different, because Belle Glade schools, they wasn’t[sic] segregated, and those schools up North, they were segregated. So you got a chance to go to school—go—go to a—a school—a minority[?] school, and it was a big difference. It was like—the first time you went, it was scary, scary, scary, and as you continue to go, then the children begin to talk with you and you begin to meet friends, but when you first go—first start, you are told, “Oh, you can’t play with them little white children.” You know, because that was the way the South was out here.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>We could not—we didn’t play with the childrens[sic] across the track, you know? We stayed on our side of the track and the whites stayed on their side of the track. So we didn’t know the feeling of being with, uh, the white childrens[sic]. We didn’t know that feeling.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So when I went up to travel up North, then we connected with that. That was—to us it was weird, you know, but then, as we traveled to a—we might be in say, New Jersey—the childrens[sic] are one way in New Jersey, and when we get up to maybe New York, the children are different wherever they are—different style[?]. We had—we had to adapt to that, but as we continued down through the years, then it became like nothing to us, you know?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It was, you know—we expecting[sic] it.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And it was all good, but I can remember the bad times when we travel[sic] and we was[sic] told that—we would stop and we would buy gas, and then if you needed—if one of the children needed to use the restroom, we was[sic] told that we couldn’t use the restroom, and by me coming from the Deep South down here—coming up here, we’d have thought it was better, but it was worse in North Carolina.</p>
<p><strong>Muha <br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>You want to use the bathroom after you done purchased gas, they tell you to go out there in the cornfield.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Wow.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And that wasn’t—that wasn’t right with us, you know?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That wasn’t right.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And it—it finally growed[sic] on us, you know? It finally growed[sic] on us, but we, as childrens[sic]—being a migrant worker, you really enjoyed, because you’ll come in—you’ll see things that you probably wouldn’t have never[sic] seen if you wasn’t[sic] a migrant worker.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yeah, because—like right now, you travel from Florida to Georgia, you don’t see any mountains, and back in our days, there were mountains. By the time you get to Savannah, Georgia, you got mountains. North Carolina on up, but now, you don’t see that like you did—did when I was a child.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And, um, childrens[sic]—childrens[sic] nowadays will never get the opportunity that we had and that make[sic] me appreciate my life ,because I got a chance to do something that children nowadays would never do. I got a chance to travel on the back of a truck full[?] the women and childrens[sic] going up north. That was awesome. I got a chance to stop - when they stopped the truck, we would stop in the mountains and we would go up in the mountains and we would cook our food, and water would be coming down the mountain and we would take baths in the water. Children would never see that now, but, you know, it made us feel good. It made us feel good, ‘cause the adult[sic] used to get mad. We out there, the water running down the mountain streams…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And we were washing our skin and they were arguing, because we were so happy, you know?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>We cooking our food and stuff and we so happy, and they would argue, because life was really hard for the adults that had childrens[sic].</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>To be on the back of a tru—of a—a truck—they called them “tramp trucks,” ‘cause that’s what they called us—tramps. We was[sic] either tramps or we was[sic] either maggot workers. We wasn’t[sic] called “migrants.” We was called “maggot worker.” “There go[sic] those maggot workers.”</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>By who[sic]?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Hm?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Who would—who would call you that?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>The peoples[sic] in the town where we was[sic] going, and then we would live on labor camps. Some of them would have bathrooms and some of them wouldn’t, and we would have to go down to the river to drink—get our—get our drinking water. So find the river—once we locate the river, we come back—the children would locate the river. We’d come back and tell the adults that we located a river, and the adults would go down and would start getting water from the river. Bring them back to the camp in buckets, and when the city people learned that peoples[sic] the, uh—the, um—the migrant workers from Florida are here. Once the word get[sic] out, then there were some people from the city—like there was a company in Maryland, Merita Bread—they would bring us bread on the camps, and, um, there was another company that made coats—they would bring us winter coats on the camp.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>They made sure that we had socks on—some of the camps. Some of the states we went in, they wouldn’t give you nothing[sic], but, um…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>And the crew leaders would provide these?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>No.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>No? Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>These was[sic] peoples[sic] that hear that migrant workers was[sic] here working.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And they would do that in hopes of[sic]—when we would start working, we would come and spend our money to your…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Oh.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Store or whatever.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah, I see.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So I wanted to—to ask about the labor camps, uh—the quarters. Um, so yeah, I mean, what were the quarters like? Could you speak to what the quarters were like here in Florida that you observed?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, a quar—the places here in Florida was[sic] much better than the places—much better than some of the places traveling up north, because here, in Florida, you had the Florida Farmworkers Bureau here and they was[sic] on top of a lot of faulty living, but up north, they didn’t worry about you. They would—they would take you in the woods. They mostly built their camps in the wood[sic], but here, in Florida, there were eyes on you, you know? So you can’t get away with a lot of stuff that you can get away[sic] up north, ‘cause I can recall, in 1970, traveling to Michigan to pick cherries and apples. I can recall, when we got there, we saying[sic], “We[sic] going to the camp.” There was no camp. The guy had chicken coops—what you put the chickens in.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And they was[sic] taking chickens out, and I say[sic], “What are they going to do with them? Why are they taking the chickens out?” And somebody whispered to me and say[sic], “That’s where you guys gonna sleep.” So they brought a carriage. they put all the chicken coops in a line side by side in a circle-like and they brought a carriage—they put a carriage on top, and you’re—from here up is inside the coop and your feet hanging[sic] out, and that’s where we slept.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Wow.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And, um, finally, somebody came down and talked to the—talked to the owner of the property, and that’s when he began to build, um, a shed—a thing—a little building where we could go inside. So we had to go inside, but everybody was in one—one thing, and you had to put a—just a little sheet between you and the next family.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yep.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And that’s the way we slept that season.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>In—in—in—in Michigan. I can recall, in Maryland, the crew leader had a horse stable, and, uh, it was a huge horse stable. I never seen[sic] one that big, and he parted off into rooms, and each family had their room, and that’s where we slept, but the male child could not sleep with—in—with the females. It—like my brother.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>My brother had to go up in the loft.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And, uh, where they have all the hay at, and the mens[sic] had to sleep up in the loft, and the women slept in the barn—what we called a barn.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>You know, it was a lot of [<em>laughs</em>]—a lot of crazy ways we had to sleep. I mean, it was miserable.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Miserable.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah, but you stayed in quarters in Florida, as well, did—did—right? Or no?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>No…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Only—only when you traveled?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>I never stayed—let me see. I never—I stayed in a quarter when I come[sic] to Apopka. They called it “the Graveyard Quarters.”</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And it housed migrant workers, but most of the people was[sic]—was like—had come here as a migrant worker and never left.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Oh, okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yeah, they come here as a migrant worker and they lived in “the Graveyard Quarters,” but they never left.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>They be—they just continued to stay there until they tore it down.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay, and—and who were they? Were they generally black Americans living there?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Black Americans.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm. At that time, there wasn’t[sic] no[sic] Hispanic farmworkers here. When I come[sic] to Apopka, it[sic] wasn’t[sic] any Hispanic farmworkers here. It was all African Americans, and, um, when it got really throwed[?] was in 1990-something that they faded out African Americans. They got rid of them. Um, I’m trying to think, and when they—well, before they closed the farmland down, they give[sic] us all our papers and told us that they would not need us anymore, but those that want to come out there and help clean up can come clean up. They, um—all of the black crew leaders—they laid them off, and they hired a Hispanic man from Pahokee, and he brought some peoples[sic] up here and he re—they replaced us. We demonstrated and demonstrated about it, but nothing never[sic] happened.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>When we would go out there and try to get work, they wouldn’t give us no[sic] work.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And it’s still like that today. Once they replace[sic] us with Mexican workers, the Mexicans would not hire us. The crew leaders would not hire us, but we get a job, we’ll hire them, but they will not hire us. It’s still that way today.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Great, so yeah—so, if I understand, uh, correctly, you said at some point in the 1990s, they fired most all the black…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>They got rid of all the black…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>And that’s up in Apopka?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>In Apopka.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>And they replaced them with mainly…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Hispanics.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mexican or Hispanic crew leaders.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm, right.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>And those crew leaders hired…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Hired…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Predominantly…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Nothing but Mexicans.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Really? Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yep, we got involved—the organization got involved. We went out there. We marched out there with Hispanic people. Hispanic people—there was[sic] Hispanic people that didn’t like the idea and they’d march along beside us, you know, but they never hired us back, and right now, I don’t know—have[sic] Jeannie [Economos] taken you out to—to—to—to the—where they[sic] corn is? Where they[sic] working in the corn.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, right now out there was all African Americans doing all that work out there, but now it’s nothing but Hispanic people.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>They…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Uh…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Just plum out replaced us.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>And—and do you know why they did that?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, my—my—my thing is this—and I tell peoples[sic] this all the time, and I used to say this before they replaced us—that one day, we won’t have a job, and people used to look at me crazy and they say[sic], “What you talking about?” I say[sic], “One day, you will not be able to come out here on them muck[?] and work here.” I say[sic], “It’ll be all Hispanic peoples out here working.” That was about probably five years before they replaced us. We hadn’t heard nobody[sic] talking about replacing us.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Uh huh.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>But I felt that way because, when the Hispanic people come around, the crew leaders would—the—the—the crew leaders that owe—owned a pro—piece of the job would always have a big conversation with them, and, uh, African Americans I truly believe was[sic] replaced because you start—when they start working us, they started working us and giving us our money every day. When we’d leave the job in the afternoon, we were paid off, and if you pay me off and I drink, I’ma[sic] come home and I’ma[sic] drink up my money, and tomorrow I’m gon’[sic] be sick and I’m not able to come to work. So your job is still going on, but I’m so sick ‘cause I done[sic] got my money overnight and I’m drunk. I can’t come to work. That kind of stuff was going on, and there were many years you could see, at the ending of the season—every season have[sic] an ending. There was[sic] a lot of crops to be throwed[sic] away,</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>’Cause the manpower wasn’t there to work it, because you pay me every night, I feel like, <em>I—no,</em> <em>I ain’t goin’ to work tomorrow. I got me some money in my pocket.</em></p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That’s the way I feel about it. I don’t know how anybody else feel[sic], but I feel that African Americans begin to lag on the job. You give them all that power and now you want to snatch it down from them. So the best way to snatch it away from them is to replace them, and that’s what they did. It was—it was sad. The year they replaced them, it was sad, ‘cause I was out there. I was, uh, working.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And it was really sad. We didn’t have no[sic] job, and if you was a person worked[sic] seven days a week out there, and they replace you and you ain’t[sic] got nothing coming in—boy, it’s—it’s hard.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It is hard.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm. So, um—so this was—just for the recording—in 1996, uh, through 1998?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It was in the ‘90s.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>What was in the [inaudible]…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>I think it was in the earlier ‘90s.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>But in 1996 to 1998…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>A lot of the farms around Lake Apopka were shut down.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Um, but this was before that, you’re saying, when—when the black farmworkers were replaced?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Replaced, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Replaced, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm, I think it was about ’92-‘90—’91-’92—’92/’93.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>When African Americans was[sic] replaced.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Uh huh.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And then right after that the farmworkers—the farm was shut down.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>And do you remember…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Only one farm was left open. That’s what they called the Sang[?] Farms.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Uh huh, and do you remember, uh—so before that—before—while—while you were still working, what were—what were relations like between black farmworkers and Mexican farmworkers, Or Hispanic or Caribbean farmworkers?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>There wasn’t any relationship because when they—when they—when they—if you go to work, and a Spanish person is in what we call “the stall,” in one of the positions on the machine or whatever, he don’t say nothing[sic] to you, you don’t say nothing[sic] to him.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>I mean, you work. If he say[sic] something to you, then you, you know—we try to—most American—most—most African-American people probably my age and down took Spanish in school.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So we try to, you know, [<em>laughs</em>] comprehend the little Spanish that we…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Took in school. “Good morning.” “How you doing?” “My name is this,” and…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So on.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Eh, but if they don’t say anything to us, we work all day and don’t say anything to them.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And then there was a Mexican guy come[sic] around named Mexican Pete. He start[sic] getting—organizing farmworkers and then he got a crew—he the only Mexican that had a crew, but he went to school and he learned English really good[sic], so all Afri—all African Americans likeded[sic] him.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm, when did you start noticing, uh, Hispanic farmworker—like a presence of Hispanic farmworkers on—on farms in Apopka and in Florida?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yeah, well, on farms in Apopka, I started noticing them—a large percentage of ‘em in 1989.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So that’s when a lot had come or a lot had—you had noticed a lot of them, that had already been there…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mm…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>But now made up a large segment or…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>They was[sic] coming.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>They were coming? Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay, and, um—and yeah, so I mean, how did that—did that change the workplace at all before a lot of the black farmworkers were fired, as you say?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Did it change?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah, I mean, was—was there something different about, um, the workplace or the way the crew leaders treated you or anything like that?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>No, it wasn’t—they—hm, they just come[sic] to us and just told us what it was going be, and the crew leaders told the crew leaders, so the crew leaders probably held it under they[sic] belt a week—didn’t want to tell us, and then finally, it got out.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And then, when it got out, a lot of people didn’t want to believe it, you know? Well, those like me that were smart and—and knew it was going to happen, felt like it was going to happen, went on and looked for a job.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>You know?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Most of it—most of the farmworkers, they, um, had programs trying to get them to go to school, but a lot of farmworkers could not go to school. They[sic] hands all cramped all up like that with arthritis, and they[sic] feets[sic] and stuff all messed up from all the, uh, sores and stuff working on the farm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And they—they just—they just could not—could not, um, take—they was[sic] offering us typing classes and computer classes and—wasn’t none[sic] of us computer literate at all, so…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It just was a mess.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Uh huh.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So I—I landed a job taking people to school every morning.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>You know, picking them up in the evening for the trainings, but they knew that—the state knew that eventually they was gonna be that—deal with that. So the program close[sic] down and left the people shut out again. So you kept promising us—they kept promising us and promising us and trying to open up doors, and the doors that they were opening up, like the computer classes, they didn’t last long. The truck-driving classes did—I can’t tell you not[sic] a one man that got a job with the truck driving school.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It just—every—there wasn’t nothing[sic] falling through. So right now, those of us that worked in the fields—all the promises that you made to us, right now, we don’t believe nothing[sic] you got to say. Don’t come telling me nothing[sic] about, “Well, they gonna open up a program, and this program going to help farmworkers do this,” ‘cause I’m not going to believe it because I’ve been deceived so many times. So that’s where we are now. So most of the farmworkers that work now, they’ll sit. They can’t do nothing[sic]. They’re on disability [insurance]. Our young farmworkers, you know—you done sprayed us with your chemicals all your life—all our life, because most children start working in the fields back in them[sic] days when you was[sic] six years old, you know? You take your children to work with you, but then, when it got in the—in the ‘9—‘80s, they: “Oh, you can’t bring your children in the field no more.” The damage is done. I had a daughter—three—had a stroke at three years old.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Because she was in the field with me every day.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>You know? The damage is done. You done took ‘em out there for a few years, and then in the ‘80s, they decided that they wouldn’t let you—you bring your children in the field no[sic] more.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm, alright. So—so you said after—after a lot of the black farmworkers were fired, most of them went to school on some program?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>[inaudible]…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Numerous skills. Do you know what happened—So after they went to school, did they—did some of them find jobs in oth—other industries or…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>The only…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Do you know what happen to [inaudible]?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, the only ones found[sic] jobs—the only African-Americans[sic] women…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That found jobs was because of me, because there wasn’t a list of who were[sic] hiring you. There was a list of—for[sic] you could go and go to school to be retrained.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That’s what they claimed. They was[sic] retraining us into other job fields, but what I did is[sic] I called different agencies that knew where women can get medical training, and a lot of women went to the medical training and they got jobs in nursing homes. They become what they call a “tech[nician].” They got jobs in nursing homes, they got jobs in shelters for boys and shelters for the handicapped, and the men—the men—they were hard—they were hard for the men. We got mens[sic] and—and—work up until [inaudible], and then they started dying. We lost a lot of farmworkers. Uh, at points you go to a funeral every weekend.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Somebody you worked beside have[sic] died.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, it was hard for a man to get a job. So the—the women became head of the house, and that’s when they lost their hand with the childrens[sic]. No respect in the house, because the man wasn’t there to put—to say nothing, ‘cause you’re not putting nothing in here, so the child[sic] looking at—you’re not putting nothing in here, so you don’t have no say here. So the—the bigger boys—they bullied their mama and all of that. So right now there’s a lot of crisis in people[sic] home, because the father was put out of work due to the closing of Lake Apopka.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Uh huh.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>They want to make Orange County this big metropolitan area. They swiped up all the orange trees. You can’t go pick oranges, but when you were—when you—when all of this stuff exists, you could take your childrens[sic] to the grove and make ‘em work. You—I could take you on a street here in Apopka, right now, with about 60 or 70 young men just standing on the corner, but they graduated from high school.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>But they still live home with their mama. They don’t think they[sic] got[sic] to go to work. The runs—they rule they[sic] mama[sic] house, but with me, it was a different story, because your butt was gonna go to work. You wasn’t[sic] gon’[sic] live in here and don’t[sic] work, you know, but a lot of parents scared[sic] of their children. They was[sic] afraid. They [inaudible] this day.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>The—the young boys run they[sic] mama’s house.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm. Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It’s—it—it—it hurt us. It hurt us and I don’t think—I don’t think that our leaders of our country understand that. I don’t think they understand that—you got—and it’s so easy. It’s so easy to understand. You[sic] got to realize we come from slavery. We were poor. We were ran[sic] down all our lives. Now, you want us not to apply? The same thing you did to me not to apply it to my child? So my child disrespect[sic] me, because my child can say, “I’ll call the police on you.” Police come on out, what they gon’ do? Handcuff me and take me to jail, because I whipped his butt, ‘cause he stayed out all night long. That’s the way things are now.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And it really hurt the parent. It hurt—killing the parent. You can’t be a parent in your own house. Mm-mm. I got a 22-year-old grandson here with me. He just come[sic] back here. Last Saturday morning, I woke up, he laying[sic] in my bedroom with a girl. I said, “What is this?” I called him out and talked with him. This is no respect. All my life I respect[sic] my children. Now, this is no respect.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Jm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So I give[sic] him time[sic] period to get out of here. I’m not going—I don’t have to tolerate with that. I don’t have to tolerate with[sic] that, but you don’t want to go look for a job. He do[sic] not go look for a job. Daily, he laying[sic] up in here. You can’t—you—I mean, lack of work causing[sic] a lot of problems in your home, and there’s no work here for a young man.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>There’s no work.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm. Well, thank you for telling me all[sic] that.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Hm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Um, so, I wanted to ask about ray[?]—okay, so I wanted to ask about—we were talking about, you know, what a lot of farmworkers did after they were either fired or after the shutdown of Lake Apopka farms. Um, for you—I—I know that you got involved in a lot of environmental justice work.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>And I—I was wondering if you could tell me about that.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, I was, um, like I said, advocating for poor people[sic] rights for a long time. Very young kid wi—with the organization, and, um, when I start[sic] with—working with the environment people in Orange County, it was like a different ballgame. I organized and organized and organized peoples[sic] to come to m—meetings, where we could talk about the rights of farmworkers, of laws that needed to be put in for farmworkers. Um, the first law I worked with was asking—giving farmworkers the right to know what type of pesticide was being used in the work area.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That was the first law that we fought for. Finally, years of fighting in Tallahassee, years of walking the floors, I, um—they passed the law.<a title="">[1]</a> They finally passed the law.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>What?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Finally, they passed the law, giving us the right to know what type of farm work we were—what type of pesticide we were working in, after about 20 percent of African Americans in Apopka had passed away.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And, um, we continue to fight for other improvements, like drinking clean drinking water in the fields.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>When I was there, there wasn’t clean drinking water. We finally got that deal passed, um, where we could have clean drinking water in the fields. Um, better working equipment for farmworkers, like rubber gloves, rubber boots, rain coats.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And stuff like that. Some of the companies got away with it, but some of the companies went on and bowed down and gave us the equipment we—the proper equipment we needed to work in. Um, as far as going to the doctor, like accidents happen bad[sic] in the fields, and, um, we would go to the company doctor. Finally, we managed to get around that and, um, get a good—good—better medic[sic] care—medical care.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yep.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>When we’d get cut sometimes, you know, we work with knives…</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And—and sometimes we get cut. Like you[sic] working here and somebody working there, they got[sic] their knives set up and you[sic] doing this here all day and your arm—elbow hit the knife and bust[sic] it all open. You got[sic] to go to the hospital, and they don’t take you to the hospital. They take you to a regular doctor, and he patch[sic] you up and send[sic] you home.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>We finally got, you know, help with that, but a lot of changes. We see a lot of changes, but it’s[sic] still a long way to go.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Still a long way to go because they’re still using pesticide. They’re still making pesticide. They’re still using pesticide. Our babies are still being born deformed, so we have a long way to go.</p>
<p><strong>Muha <br /></strong>Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, and, you know, you mentioned your—your kids and your grandkids…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>A few times throughout this. I—I’m wondering how they perceived farm labor. Did any of them have interest in doing that, or…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, my kids worked the fields.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>All six of my kids worked the fields. My grandkids never worked the fields, because when they came along, I was stone against them going in the fields. Um, they came along at the ending of the term, where[sic] children were no longer to go out there anyway. So they didn’t get a chance to work the fields, but, um, all of my kids did.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm. Okay, and, um, lastly from you, I think, I wanted to ask about the book, <em>Fed Up</em>[<em>: the High Costs of Cheap Food</em>], um, by Dale Finley Slongwhite. Um, could you tell me a little bit about that and your part in that?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong><em>Fed Up</em> is a book that I’m proud of and I’m not proud of. The reason I say “I’m proud of,” because[sic] it was the first book that I ever had been involved in, and “I’m not proud of” is because I think that I left a lot out the book, and, um, I wanted to do three versions of the book. So I had[sic] talked with, um, what’s her name?</p>
<p>[<em>phone rings</em>]</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Do a second version and a third version, but if I can do the second version, maybe I could capture a lot of stuff I left out.</p>
<p>[<em>phone rings</em>]</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>It’s like I was saying, um, there’s a lot I want to add to <em>Fed Up</em>. Um, and I would like more pictures in the book, because, um, peoples[sic] really need to actually see what our peoples[sic] are going through—um, the lesions on the s—the legs, the feet, the amputations of the toes, the amputation of the feet, legs—because of all of the pesticide where it had deteriorated the skin, and, um, I’d like to get more[sic] deeper into the labor camps. It’s[sic] a lot that I left out, because I wasn’t thinking. I’m thinking that, uh, when the book was gonna be wrote[sic], it gonna be like a mini-book [<em>laughs</em>]. I didn’t realize it was gonna be a story—um, a nice book. I’m just looking at it like it’s gonna be a—be a little, short mini-book, and, um, I imagine everybody that played a part in the book—about eight of us— I would imagine if—if everybody can really redo their story, it’ll be more awesome than what it is.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Because a lot of people left out stuff that should’ve been told, you know? There was a—um, a lot of death in our family, due to, um, the DDT<a title="">[2]</a> that they used. People lost their family, and they didn’t talk about that in the book. Um, how we come from work and we[sic] riding on the bus, and when we get home, we think the other person sitting over on the bus sleeping[sic]. The person dead[sic], because of the chemicals that we worked in all day long.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>We didn’t talk about that in the book, and I would like to, you know, let people know these things actually happen. You[sic] going home from work and when you get there you[sic] hollering, “Mr. Clyde! Mr. Clyde!” And you—“Mr. Clyde!” You think he[sic] sleep. He[sic] dead, you know?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Those things happen, and we didn’t talk about none of that in the book. We didn’t know how much room or space or whatever we had in the book.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>So I asked her about second and third version, and we didn’t—a lot of stuff—when I read the book, on my—my part of the book, I—I wasn’t pleased. I wasn’t happy with—with—with the part that I wrote—that she wrote for me, and then I read the other people[sic] part, and I know their history, and same thing with them. You know, they don’t talk about it, ‘cause[sic] when you say, uh, “We gon’[sic] write a book.” You know, you—you never wrote a book before, so you[sic] not—you[sic] not thinking good, you know?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yep, right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>But if we can—another book could re—be redid[sic] [<em>laughs</em>], it’d be awesome.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yep.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>We left a lot out.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Well, is there anything—you said you—there are things you wanted—wish you could’ve included. Is there anything that you haven’t told me thus far that you want to include in this interview? Uh…</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Well, in—in—in the book? I talked a little about the treatment of the African-American women and the crew leaders. Not the growers, the crew leaders. I talked just a little bit about that. That should’ve been brought wide open. Should’ve been blowed[sic] up, because a lot of young girls have babies—they’ll never know who the father[sic], because the crew leaders and his[sic] what we call “henchmens”[sic] would come in and have sex with those girls like they was—they wanna, you know?</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>And we didn’t express too much of that in the book.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>You know? If you had a father that drank, a mother that drank—oh, God. You didn’t have nobody[sic] in your corner. The crew leaders do whatever they want to do. Mmhmm, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>As I can recall, one time I was going—my mom had got[sic] me up early. Uh, our day begin[sic] by five o’clock, and she sent me to the store to get a loaf of bread and there was a man waiting in the dark on me when I got to get the bread, and he jumped right at me and grabbed me, but I was so fast I snatched the loaf from him and I ran home and I told my mom, and my mom went over there and my mom jumped on the man and told him don’t try anything like that on none[sic] of her childrens[sic] again in life. She would kill him, and I—we never had problems with him again, but just imagine if I had a mama that didn’t do that. Every time he saw me, he would’ve give[sic] me a problem.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Yep.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>But my mama let him know that, you know, she was not taking no crap like that.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>But then a lot of the girls, their mama never say[sic] one word, and it went over and over and over again.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Uh huh.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Thank you for telling me that.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Is there anything else you want to tell me before we conclude the interview?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That’s it.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>That’s it.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That’s about it.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay. Well, thank you so much, Geraldean.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Again, this was Jared Muha and Geraldean Matthew on October 30<sup>th</sup>, 2014. Okay, this is Jared Muha with Geraldean Matthew on October 30<sup>th</sup> again, uh, for a second session interview. Um, Geraldean, I wanted to ask, uh, what is your impression of, uh, farms today in Florida and, you know, treatment of Latino workers, uh, who are on the farms?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>You know, the farms today have changed very much because now most farmworkers, uh, get their own place to stay, but, as for the Latino workers—women—the ones that are still housed in labor camps, they are treated really bad[sic] by the crew leaders. If they are undocumented and have daughters, the crew leaders think that the daughter should be their woman or their wife or their girlfriend, and they mistreat the women very bad[sic]. Um, what brought that to my attention was, uh, when I was doing HIV<a title="">[3]</a> prevention, went into the homes talking and, um, passing out, uh, HIV materials on the camps, uh—how the men would treat the women when they tried to get protection. They didn’t want the women to get condoms for—from us or female condoms from us or whatever. So it’s a problem to me, because it seems like nobody[sic] really paying that Latino group attention, just like they didn’t pay the African-American group attention back in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. So, um, it kind of bothers me a lot, you know, seeing that happening, and, um, seeing how the women have to take up their young children—their young daughters and run at night and try to find another place when the crew leaders come, um, pounding on their doors and demanding that they open the doors and demanding for[sic] sex. I don’t think that should be like that, and yes, it does disturb me.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Mmhmm. Well, thank you for telling me that. Uh, is there anything else you wanted to include?</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That’s it.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Matthew<br /></strong>That’s all.</p>
<p><strong>Muha<br /></strong>So this is Jared Muha and Geraldean Matthew on October 30<sup>th</sup>, 2014.</p>
<div><br /><div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Alfredo Bahena Act.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[2]</a> Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a pesticide banned in 1972.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Human immunodeficiency virus.</p>
</div>
</div>
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/aaf3e9e626e5f3a4b798bb5dfd7ca844.mp3" target="_blank">Oral History of Geraldean Matthew</a>
agricultural labor
agriculture
Alfredo Bahena Act
Apopka
apples
arthritis
beans
Belle Glade
carrots
cherries
cherry
citrus
civil rights
clean drinking water
contraception
corn
corporal punishment
crew leaders
Dale Finley Slongwhite
David Overfield
DDT
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
discrimination
domestic violence
educational programs
environmental advocacy
environmental justice
environmental law
environmentalism
FAF
Farm Workers Association
Farmworker Association of Florida
farmworkers
farmworkers' rights
FDOH
Fed Up: The High Costs of Cheap Food
FFB
Florida Department of Health
Florida Department of Health in Orange County
Florida Farmworkers Bureau
foliage
FWA
Geraldean Matthew
Geraldean Shannon
Graveyard Quarters
Hispanic Americans
Hispanics
HIV
human immunodeficiency virus
Jared Muha
Jeannie Economos
kidney dialysis
kidney disease
labor
labor camps
labor rights
laborers
Lake Apopka
maggot workers
Merita Bread
Mexican Americans
Mexican Pete
Mexicans
Miami
Michigan
migrant farms
migrant farmworkers
migrant labor
migrant laborers
migrant workers
Mount Dora
National Farm Workers Association
NFWA
nursing home technicians
Orange County Health Department
oranges
Palm Beach
pesticides
protected sex
retraining
right to know
safe sex
segregation
sexual abuse
slavery
slaves
string beans
Tallahassee
traffic trucks
tramp trucks
tramps
underemployment
undocumented workers
unemployment
vegetables
workplace injuries