Los Nuevos Esclavos, The New Slaves

The Maize Festival, by Diego Rivera

Now you look me with that scorn
And you eat up all my corn
We gonna chase those crazy
Chase those crazy
Chase those crazy baldheads
Out of town…

—Bob Marley, Crazy Baldheads

MEXICANS are in large part responsible for the agricultural might of the United States. Many of us out here are related to those fields by hand, or by a generation or two. Or a prim@ or a ti@. I myself have not had the honor or challenge of working those fields. Though I know well the joy in growing things, and in eating those things that we help nurture. I feel the great and deep joy that is found in gardening, and I feel proud that my own father, abuelo and abuela made their way here this way, as migrant fieldworkers and i feel proud of my people and what we’ve brought to the world. I do feel a cultural and tangible connection and gratitude to la tierra (which belongs to, as you recall, quien lo trabajo).

Some of this knowledge—as well as sense of pride in contribution to what WE are and survive upon and build our bodies with and have built our economy with—is what makes it hard to hear the slurs, so perverse. Invader, these “anti-immigrant” or “immigration restrictionist” monsters hiss. Aaaaaaalien. Will a septic bile-laced drool later rinse over their mouthy bits of salad? Of tomato? Of corn? For now they dissolve their own substance and integrity and credibility with this acid of ignorance.

And if that is where this dynamic ended, fine. But it’s bigger than that. And bigger, even than the violent open secret called Suffolk County, New York.

This particular evil is, as is said, “institutionalized.”

You already know of the way Latinos and blacks have been targeted for higher rate loans by banks. And I guess I don’t really absolutely need to start linking to prison statistics or shooting statistics or Sheriff Racist-With-a-Gun-and-the-Govmint-Go-Ahead Arpaio to make clear that this nation uses institutionalized racism to suppress, nullify, and eradicate people of color.

But while we’ve established that, let me drop this latest piece. While I’m here talking about how connected to the land and to the US’ current agricultural power Mexicanos are and have long been.

Latino farmers expected that the Obama administration would remedy the discrimination they have suffered for decades at the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Instead, the White House remains an obstacle to closing a shameful chapter in racism.

There is no question that the agency long discriminated against African American and Latino farmers in how it issued loans. Rural aid programs regularly offer support to farmers in times of need during the agricultural cycle. This could mean, for example, situations where the lack of liquidity for purchasing seeds can lead to a farmer going bankrupt. Yet, the USDA systematically denied these critical loans to black and Latino farmers.

The USDA eventually acknowledged its discriminatory practices. To this point, the federal government has negotiated out-of-court agreements of more than $2 billion in compensation to African American victims of the USDA’s discrimination.

And Latino farmers?

They continue waiting for justice.

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Los agricultores latinos tenían puestas sus esperanzas en que el gobierno del presidente Obama los ayudaría en corregir la discriminación que han sufrido por décadas a manos del Departamento de Agricultura (USDA). Sin embargo, la Casa Blanca es hoy un obstáculo para cerrar un triste capítulo de racismo.

No hay dudas sobre la discriminación que la agencia federal cometió en perjuicio de granjeros afroamericanos y latinos en el otorgamiento de préstamos. Los programas de beneficio rural ayudan habitualmente con préstamos en los momentos necesarios del ciclo agrícola. La ausencia de liquidez para la compra de semillas, por ejemplo, puede significar la bancarrota.

La misma agencia federal reconoció con posterioridad su comportamiento discriminatorio. Es más, el gobierno federal ha negociado acuerdos extrajudiciales con granjeros afroamericanos por más de $2 mil millones en compensación a las víctimas de la discriminación cometida por USDA.

¿Y los granjeros latinos?

Leér Más

I think justice will be achieved. But in general, Latinos of all the disparate kinds of Americans that we are—Mexican, Haitian, Guatemalan, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Nicaraguan, Argentinian, Chilean, Bolivian, Ecuadorian—are in need of justice today. Any person “Latino” is being vilified by media and citizen and politician alike, being scapegoated and denied justice, and hunted in many cases.

I do want to touch on the Divide and Conquer whispers that loom in the shadow of these disparities. I am glad that the African American farmer community got some of its due, here. Let’s keep going with that. This one element is not part of my complaint.

Necessary extended tangent: It’s easy now for Brown and Black to begin eyeing each other sideways. Even in something like this, above. Where one group receives justice earlier than the other (for I do feel with all my heart that justice for all is the goal). And one of the realities that makes me saddest is when I find some of my black homies, be they a little older than me, or even younger or from a different area, it’s not too hard to find people buying into the Right wing messaging of how much a THREAT the Mexican is. Or the ILLEGULL. This hurts almost more than anything because we should be natural allies. Our fight is not with each other. As I said once when talking with a friend, “Who has worked these fields? Whose people have given sweat and blood and even died in these fields?”

And yet we all eat, don’t we? We are all here putting this food on our table. And in our bodies. It gives us life. It keeps us alive. There ought be gratitude and respect.

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Related Links

• The New Slaves, NAM
• Fractures in the Foundation, NCLR
• New Reports on Labor Abuses in the US, Harvesting Justice