For this blog I have attempted to conduct interviews and
gather up research between migrant worker dispersal in Northern California,
mainly in Arcata, and Southern California, mainly in Huntington Park.
The
Questions asked during the interview are as follows:
1)
What is your
cultural ethnicity?
2)
How hard does it
get to find work?
3)
How long have you
been in the U.S. seeking employment opportunities?
For private purposes I am
only going to list the last name of the participants I interviewed. The following
are interviews from people in Huntington Park. “Home Depot”.
Zavala
Question 1
Response:
·
Mexicano
de Durango
Question 2
Response:
·
It gets very hard
at times if a patron is looking for particular services such as craftsmanship
construction versus landscaping duties. Not everyone has knowledge in every
particular field of work. However, when there is no other alternative it’s time
to take chances and improvise in what the patron is paying us to do whether we
know how to do it or not.
Question 3
Response:
·
I
have been here in and out of work for 7 years.
Morfin
Question 1
Response:
·
Mexicano
de Michoacán
Question 2
Response:
·
It has gotten a
lot harder over the years; in fact, 30 years ago there were more employment opportunities
than there are now and immigration laws have gotten worse.
Question 3
Response:
·
I
have been struggling to work here for 20+ years.
Rubalcava
Question 1
Response:
·
Mexicano
de Jalisco
Question 2
Response:
·
Sometimes you get
lucky sometimes you don’t, it can become very competitive getting work, and
unfortunately not everyone can be guaranteed work.
Question 3
Response:
·
I
have been in and out of work 10 years.
One thing to
note is that, even though, the people I interviewed happen to be Mexican, this
does not mean that all the migrant workers are Mexican, some are of other
Hispanic descent. In other words, NOT
EVERYONE THAT SPEAKS SPANISH IS MEXICAN!
Unfortunately,
the vendors that I wanted to interview were off to no avail.
In Arcata,
though there are quite a few street vendors some were not migrant workers and
were too industrialized to consider for street vending and becomes more of a
street establishment.
I have also
attempted to go to Arcata’s “Home Depot”, Ace, and investigate the dispersal of
migrant workers and found none standing around. It becomes clear that since the
population of Arcata is only a fraction of what the population of Huntington
Park is; therefore, it is more obvious that where there is more people that
need things to get done more migrant workers will be there to offer their
services in hopes of earning some currency.
