Bridging cultures at migrant camp
By Manuel Valdes
BURLINGTON, Skagit County — Four-year-old Araceli Santiago clings to Georgia Peck's hands as the two girls spin in circles, laughing. It's evening at Camp 1, one of three migrant-housing complexes run by Sakuma Brothers Farms, and Araceli and 14-year-old Peck are sharing a moment of fun. Peck's father is a cinematographer; her mother a book sales representative. She lives in Ballard and describes her family as well off. Santiago's parents come from a small village in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, where none of the houses has potable water and the people still speak their indigenous language. They're here to pick strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. For a few minutes on this day, these two girls from very different worlds are on common ground. Peck is one of dozens of teenagers from Seattle-area Catholic churches who volunteer in the summer to help migrant workers through the Youth Migrant Project, a weeklong camp sponsored by St. Charles Borromeo Church in Burlington. They volunteer at a food bank and day-care centers in Skagit County, and they visit the housing camps to distribute food and clothing and celebrate Mass. At a time of national debate over immigrant labor, the program serves as a bridge between two cultures and offers teenagers a glimpse of the less-privileged lives of these migrant families. "The fact that we drive an hour and 15 minutes and see people living in these conditions, that's mind blowing," said Renee Marquez from St. John the Evangelist church in Greenwood. Marquez led a group of 49 eighth- and ninth-graders — including Peck — who participated in the program. The program started more than 25 years ago, said its coordinator, Jose Ortiz. Fourteen churches will visit the camps and day-care centers this summer, and the waiting list is growing for churches wanting to sign on. The experience can be emotional for some teenagers. "Some of these kids come in with attitudes," Maria Valerio, a head teacher at a day care run by the Washington State Migrant Council, said in Spanish. "But after one week here, when the time comes they have to leave, they don't want to. "They leave crying." Workers arrive in May The Oaxacan workers start arriving in Skagit County in May to harvest the valley's berries and potatoes. News of the jobs here spreads by word-of-mouth. Many of the migrant workers come from California's Central Valley, but their hometowns lie more than 3,500 miles to the south. The Oaxacans are descendants of the Zapotec and Mixteco civilizations that developed alongside the better known Mayan and Aztec populations of pre-colonial Mesoamerica. "They've been around longer than the United States of America," said James Loucky, an anthropology professor at Western Washington University who has studied the Oaxacan people and visited the migrant camps. Oaxaca is one of Mexico's poorest states and ranks at the bottom in literacy and education. The Oaxacans' first arrival in Skagit County about 20 years ago is part of a long history of migrant labor. From colonial times, they have descended from their homes in the mountains to the sugar and cotton fields in Oaxaca's lowlands. As irrigation and large-scale agriculture developed in central and northern Mexico, they began pushing north. "From there, it was a matter of common sense," Loucky said. "They moved into the agricultural areas of the United States. The border was relatively unimportant." Most Oaxacans enter the U.S. illegally and work using false identification. Farmers say they don't have the resources to check each document's validity. Many workers, though, are U.S. citizens or legal residents. One faction speaks Mixteco, while the other speaks Triqui, a language used by only 18,000 people worldwide. Many speak little or no Spanish, a fact that surprises visitors to the camps. While their total numbers are not known by local authorities, Oaxacans make up a significant portion of the labor for an agricultural industry that generates about $600 million a year for Skagit County, according to American Farmland Trust, a nationwide farming advocacy group. Ryan Sakuma, farm-support director for Sakuma Brothers Farms, one of the largest employers in the valley, estimates that around 70 percent of their 600-plus workers are Oaxacan. Like another country At Sakuma Camp 2, English and Spanish are seldom heard. It's an isolated place, nestled next to a wooded hillside and surrounded by blueberry fields. The dirt roads crisscrossing the camp are lined by old Astro vans that transport the workers from California, and take them on to the next stop when the harvest ends in September. "It's like being in another country," said Tomas Alvine, a ninth-grader with St. John's and a volunteer in the Youth Migrant Project. The three camps operated by Sakuma Brothers Farms have 137 cabins that house more than 300 people for free. The rows of cabins look like miniature pre-manufactured homes. It's not uncommon for a large family to share a one-room cabin for the picking season. In the evenings, adults sit outside their cabins after a day spent running, kneeling and crouching to fill their buckets as fast as they can. The more they pick, the more they make. The soulful tenor choruses of Norteña music blast from car stereos, although some younger workers or family members prefer hip-hop. Children are everywhere, running, screaming, laughing, crying. They mob a candy truck that visits one evening, then drift away with chocolate bars in hand, faces beaming. Lucas Martinez, who has lived at Camp 2 for the past two picking seasons, said people welcome the help. Churches and other aid groups bring food, clothing and help in legal proceedings, hiring interpreters for the workers who don't speak Spanish or English. "They talk when we can't talk," said Martinez in Spanish. He also speaks Triqui. Buses to day care Each morning, around 4:30 a.m., buses pick up children from these and other camps around the county, just before their parents head to the fields. About 160 migrant kids attend the three day-care centers in Mount Vernon run by the Washington State Migrant Council. At one center, Alvine, 14 years old and nearly 6 feet tall, sits on a dining table fit for a toddler. Around him, children are settling down for lunch. Spending time with the children is his favorite part of a week volunteering for the Youth Migrant Project. "Working here makes me happy," Alvine said. The help is welcomed, said Valerio, the head teacher. "Many of the kids need affection," she said. "That's what they find in the volunteers. In many cases, they don't get that at home with the parents working so much." The 4- and 5-year-olds in Valerio's class touch, hug and climb on the teenage volunteers. This summer was Peck's second year visiting the camps, but the first time she worked at a day-care center. "It's great seeing their smiles," she said. Her experience in Skagit County these past two summers has made her look for other ways to help people. She's thinking of joining the Peace Corps and wants to learn more Spanish. She'd like to visit or work in a Latin American country. The program "makes me realize how lucky I am," Peck said. "Everyone in our culture wants something more, bigger. It makes me appreciate what I have instead of what more I can get." Peck will attend Bishop Blanchet High School next year — a private Catholic school. Meanwhile, Santiago's parents don't know if they'll return to Skagit County next year. For them, the harvest has not been good this summer. |