Panel discussion focuses on lives of migrant workers in Mich.

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Since he was born, Pedro Gonzalez’s life existed with little certainty. Gonzalez, his parents and his siblings never were able to stay in one place for very long, often moving to and working in several states throughout the course of each year.

Gonzalez, like his parents and their parents before them, was raised as a migrant worker.

At the age of 11, the Texas native began travelling around Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, jumping from farm to farm trying to find work for a season.

When the work was done, he and his family just moved to the next place willing to pay for their work.

“The fact (you’re) leaving family back in Texas or back wherever you’re from and leaving them behind is one of the hardships,” said Gonzalez, a Chicano and Latino studies senior.

“(You’re) underpaid and working the jobs that people don’t want to do. Now that I’m educated and now that I know how much profit people make out of migrant workers, it gets me upset that there are people out there still … and they don’t take a stand because they don’t know it.”

Gonzalez was one of six panelists detailing the lives and hardships of migrant workers Wednesday at The Hands of Harvest at Holden Hall as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, which ends Oct. 15.

The event, hosted by Migrant Student Services, Culturas de las Razas Unidas and the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, was a panel discussion intended to inform the MSU community about the struggles of migrant workers in the state and throughout the country, said Elias Lopez, recruitment coordinator for MSU’s College Assistance Migrant Program, or CAMP.

“A majority of the workers don’t have any health care, so a lot of the time when they’re working, they’re exposed to pesticides; they’re exposed to working under the hot sun,” Lopez said.

“Once they become ill, what kind of options do they have to get medical treatment?”

When genomics and molecular genetics sophomore Brandon Tuckey read about how common underage workers are in migrant labor, he said he couldn’t believe this would happen in the U.S.

“I was like, ‘Oh, what country is this going to be in?’” Tuckey said. “I had no clue that any of this is happening in the United States.”

Gonzalez is attending MSU as part of CAMP, which he said is the only program of its kind in the state. CAMP is a federally funded program aiming to bring seasonal workers into colleges for an education, something Lopez said many workers don’t get the opportunity to do.

“When you have a group that migrates, their education is being impacted because they’re attending two, three, four different high schools a year,” he said. “The education is not persistent, therefore they’re at a disadvantage.”

Gonzalez, who is the first of three siblings to attend college, said he felt gratified being the trendsetter of his family’s education.

“I’m not saying I’m not proud of being a migrant worker, because I am,” he said.

“At the same time, I’m glad I’m getting my education and in the near future I would go back and help out my own people and my own kind.”

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