Fields of Toil: A Migrant Family's Journey - Softcover

Valle, Isabel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874221013 ISBN 13: 9780874221015

Publisher: Washington State University Press, 1994

Synopsis

As a reporter on special assignment for the "Walla Walla Union-Bulletin," Isabel Valle spent an entire year with a migrant family, sharing domestic and other responsibilities. Every Sunday the newspaper published her award-winning, widely acclaimed reports on life with the Raul and Maria Elena Martinez family. As they resided and worked in the Inland Pacific Northwest and South Texas, Valle investigated topics such as the difficulties of asparagus cutting, drug smuggling and illegal aliens, children working in the fields, and Hispanic customs. She also examined cultural acceptance and language barriers. Her invaluable insights refuted stereotypes and replaced misconceptions.

About this title

About the Author:

Isabel Valle is a public affairs officer at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho.

From Booklist:

The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, with a circulation of not much more than 15,000, did an extraordinary thing: they hired bilingual Isabel Valle to live a year with and write about one Texas migrant family, that of Raul and Maria Elena Martinez. The Martinez family represents a typical pattern: they own a home in Texas but spend much of the year on the road, and one of their principal destinations is Walla Walla. Valle is an ordinary stylist, but she effectively shows what migrants face in terms of housing, education, health care, and wages, demonstrating that conditions have improved little over the years. Farm safety has improved, she shows, but housing and medical care are always worsening and improving at the same time. Valle doesn't blame growers or governments; only when consumers are willing to pay more for their food can conditions improve, she says. As for the Martinez family, Valle gets to know them almost too well--raised in a middle-class environment, she is distressed by having to sleep on the floor and share the bathroom; she finds the adult Martinezes to be noble but infuriating, too. Their children become her brothers and sisters. The authenticity of the Martinez family is unmistakable, and Valle's unsentimental, nonideological approach is refreshing. John Mort

About this edition

• Publisher: Washington State University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0874221013
• ISBN 13: 9780874221015
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240