M. Colleen Rodgers
May 31, 1995
For our FRC project, we interviewed Professor Ramon D. Chacon, progessor of history at SCU, who grew up a migrant farm worker in the 1950's. Born into a family of migrant workers in Brawley, California, a town thirty miles from the Mexican border, Dr. Chacon spent his childhood picking fruit, sleeping on a dirt floor, to earn barely enough wages for he and his family to survive. Following the end of a grape season in Fresno, Chacon would return to a barn in Brawley, divided by boxes, which housed not only his family, but his aunt and her husband and children. Brawley, a closed, segregated town with little opportunity, presented Chacon and his six brothers and two sisters with a bleak future. Having to perform arduous and mundane work at an early age, the children often resorted to anything for entertainment. However, this seemingly innocent child's play resulted in a hazardous situation for Chacon and his brothers while working in the Fresno area. They often played with dangerous blasting caps, not realizing they were used to set off dynamite. Chacon's brother, Ruben, stuck a bobby pin into one of the blasting cups, causing an explosion. Chacon described his brother as being covered in blood, and remembered himself being hit in the chest and being sprayed with powder. With no ambulance available, Chacon's father rushed Ruben to the nearest hospital. Eventually, Ruben was forced to move to a San Francisco hospital to receive more specialized care, as he almost lost both of his eyes. After staying in the hospital for a year, ten-year- old Ruben lost three of his fingers and an eye. During this time, his father wanted to remain close to his son, so he took work in the Fresno area. Chacon's family filed a lawsuit against the grower as his father had connections because he was involved in the unions. The lawsuit gave the family enough to just cover medical expenses.
Settling in Fresno, Chacon and his family migrated north and lived in a shack with a wooden stove, no beds, and an outhouse while they worked for Casa de Fruta, which began as a roadside fruitstand. Through the exploitation of migrant farm labor, Casa de Fruta has now become a huge corporation.
Through his back-breaking work in the fields and support of his parents, Chacon learned preserverance and the importance of hard work and an education to escape the fields. Chacon stopped working in the fields in 1966, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which allotted college students workstudy funds. Although he no longer works in the fields, Chacon will never forget the long, hard days of picking covered in peach fuzz, dirt, and sweat with pesticide in his nose and brown teeth. Chacon understood the importance of living a life for the community, instead of the individual, as he learned the value of self-discipline and strength of character as a farm worker. Chacon recalls how he, as a young boy looked at the cars from the fields wishing he wasn't there. Now, as he drives along the highways, he looks at the young boys picking and wonders if they are looking at him wishing they weren't there.
Jessica Buckley
M. Colleen Rodgers
May 31, 1995