[PEN-L:3659] Hunger Haunts Orange Cove

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

HUNGER HAUNTS ORANGE COVE
By David Bacon

        ORANGE COVE, CA (2/21/99) -- The name of Orange Cove describes the
life and landscape of this tiny town precisely.  Nestled in a finger of the
San Joaquin Valley carved into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
mountains, it owes its existence to a single fruit.
        "That's all there is here -- oranges," says Diana Contreras, one of
the 9000 people living here.  "That's how we survive -- there's no other
way.  Oranges are what feed our children."
        This winter, heavy reliance on a single crop proved Orange Cove's
undoing.  In dozens of farm worker towns stretched along the skirts of the
Sierras, where they meet the eastern Valley floor, temperatures sank below
freezing in late December.  Tiny ice crystals formed inside the fruit on
the trees.  When they melted, the oranges were so badly damaged they could
no longer be eaten as fruit.
        Two thousand people in Orange Cove have jobs picking citrus.
Suddenly, there was no work at all.  In the middle of the busiest time of
the year, the town's ten packing sheds fell silent.  Groves were deserted
that are normally alive with laborers in the trees, climbing ladders and
filling huge boxes.
        Since the freeze, workers have grown increasingly desperate, as
they've sought to pay rent and buy food with no paychecks in sight.  "We
were the poorest city in the U.S. in per capita income before," laments
Orange Cove mayor Victor Lopez.  "Think of what our situation is now."
        Physical disasters in America normally excite broad sympathy.
Officials fly over the devastation in helicopters.  Congress quickly
appropriates emergency funds, while federal and state agencies organize
food distribution and get paperwork started on loans for rebuilding.
        Orange Cove has seen none of these things.  Economic disasters
affecting farm workers don't make it easily onto the radar screen.
        Two months after the freeze, President Clinton finally declared
five San Joaquin counties disaster areas.  But the Department of Labor is
still waiting for the state to tell it how many people need relief.  The
Federal Emergency Management Agency is only planning to send money to
qualify small business owners for unemployment benefits, and to compensate
growers for crop losses.  Meanwhile, the method for delivering relief to
thousands of affected workers will disqualify over half the people affected
before they even get in line.
        "Normally I make $300-350 a week," says Esther Nuñez, "and this is
the best time of the year.  I pay $425 for rent, and I'm two months
behind."  Nuñez is echoed by her neighbor  Maria Andiano, who's picked
oranges here for eight years.  "I owe two months as well," she explains.
"Plus, I have to feed myself, my husband, and my 10-year old son, and I
have nothing to feed them with."
        For eight weeks, food has been distributed here at the local
Catholic Church.  But there hasn't been nearly enough for everyone.  "I
leave my house to get in line at the church at 5 in the morning," complains
Josefa Mendoza bitterly.  Mendoza, whose weather-beaten face testifies to
13 years picking oranges, is no stranger to discomfort.  But waiting
needlessly for food that doesn't arrive gives discomfort a tinge of
humiliation.  "At 8am they come and tell us there's not enough for
everyone.  Meanwhile we've all been standing in the rain for hours, getting
wet and cold for nothing."
        Last week there were 450 people in line, and only enough bags for
180.  In Orange Cove, the only relief food available has been surplus
cheese and other commodities from US Department of Agriculture warehouses.
Other towns tell a similar story.
        The only other organized relief has come from the United Farm
Workers, and from Von's markets in L.A., which donated six semi-trailers
stocked with food.  Last week, the UFW distributed 11 tons of food through
organized committees of workers in each of the towns affected by the
freeze.  But the union says the need is four times that.
        Back in January, the UFW urged the incoming administration of
Governor Grey Davis to request federal intervention.  In early February
representatives of the Department of Labor and the Federation Emergency
Management Administration finally flew out from Washington.  For three
days, federal and state officials toured valley towns, getting their fill
of stories from hungry workers.
        In Orange Cove, more than 500 families gathered in the town plaza,
spilling into its single main street, lined with taquerias and Mexican
grocery stores.  A cold rain drizzled over angry men in workclothes and
women holding infants wrapped in blankets, standing on the muddy grass in
front of the bandshell to meet the visiting dignitaries.
        Mayor Lopez warmed up the crowd, recounting a prior trip to
Washington to plead with the President personally, and then urged his
town's workers to let the officials have it.  "You jumped on me the other
day," he told them.  "Now jump on them.  We don't need cheese and stale
bread, or to get in line anymore.  We need money to buy our own food.  It's
our money.  We pay taxes like everyone else."
        The delegation arrived, escorted by UFW Vice-president Dolores
Huerta, and for two hours the town's orange pickers took advantage of their
chance to describe the failure of relief efforts.
        Unfortunately, however, government representatives don't seem to
have listened closely.  They still plan to use a system to distribute
disaster aid which already disqualifies many, if not most workers -- the
unemployment benefit system.
        Very few farm workers in Orange Cove or elsewhere receive
unemployment benefits, despite being laid off through no fault of their own
since December.  Surveys by the local UFW committees document that in
Tulare and Fresno counties alone, over 28,000 workers are unemployed or
underemployed because of the freeze.  Counting family members, the number
affected could easily be well over 100,000, with additional tens of
thousands in other affected counties.
        But only 5164 workers have even applied for disaster-related
unemployment in the five counties, according to the state Employment
Development Department.  Many seasonal farm workers didn't accumulate
sufficient hours to qualify for benefits.  Others have to work a day a week
to keep their jobs, also rendering them ineligible.  EDD is not relaxing
any eligibility guidelines to make additional benefits available.
        Orange Cove growers themselves have not offered any relief to their
own employees, and workers say they are responsible for another reason for
disqualification.  One large grower, Harding & Leggett, no longer employs
its own workforce directly.  "The company sent us to Manpower in Visalia [a
temporary employment agency]," Contreras says.  "Then we came back to work
for the company, but as Manpower employees.  Now we can't get help with
rent and bills because they say we weren't working for Harding & Leggett."
        But most workers are disqualified because of their immigration
status.  Almost all farm workers in California today are immigrants from
Mexico and Central America.  While there are no accurate statistics,
probably over half have no immigration documents.
        That disqualifies them from unemployment benefits, despite the fact
that those benefits are based on a worker's earnings.  Similarly, lack of
papers keeps undocumented families from receiving welfare, MediCal or food
stamps.
        The Federal Emergency Management Agency and state disaster relief
programs are planning to open 15 one-stop centers in the disaster area,
where some workers may qualify at some future point for federally-financed
help with rent and mortgages.  "But people can only qualify for programs if
they're here legally," according to Eliza Chan, FEMA spokesperson in San
Francisco.
        Most undocumented people live in the shadows, shunning public
exposure which could lead to deportation.  But desperation and anger fueled
one undocumented Orange Cove woman, holding a baby in her arms and trailed
by a small boy pulling at her skirt.  She climbed to the stage in the town
plaza to confront the visiting officials.
        "We pay taxes," she declared angrily.  "My rent is $292 a month,
and seven of us -- me, my husband and five kids -- live in our apartment.
Why can't we get relief?  I've been living and working in Orange Cove for
eight years.  Two of my children were born here -- they're citizens.  But I
still can't get help.  No unemployment benefits.  No foodstamps.  No
welfare."
        While Marta Lidia Orellana, who came from El Salvador 13 years ago,
has a form of legal status, she also feels abandoned.  "My husband was
assassinated during the civil war," she explains, "and I had to come here
as a refugee.  I left my children behind, and for months I haven't been
able to send any money home.  I don't even have enough to pay rent or buy
food.  They say they can't help me because I don't have a regular residence
visa."
        Many workers in Orange Cove are legal residents themselves, but are
worried because they're applying for visas for other family members in
their countries of origin.  They fear that the 1996 immigration reform law
will invalidate those applications if they receive any form of public
assistance.  "I have a 23-year old son in Mexico," explained Maria Andiano.
"I'm worried that if I accept any help, he'll never be able to come here.
I have to choose between uniting my family and getting evicted."
        According to Ted Mastroianni, deputy assistant to Labor Secretary
Alexis Herman, as of mid-February his department was still awaiting a count
from California of the number of workers affected.  While the freeze was in
December, "the impact was only really known a couple of weeks ago,"
Mastroianni claims.  "We're moving very rapidly to deliver aid to the
unemployed."
        "Just tell us if the government's going to help us or not," Mendoza
responds bitterly.  "We pay taxes.  Now we need help."
        "All of us need it," Orellana adds, "documented and undocumented.
It's the poor who make the growers rich.  If we don't work, they don't eat.
Now when we need something, where's all the money we made for them?"

        - 30 -

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david bacon - labornet email            david bacon
internet:       dbacon@xxxxxxxxxxx      1631 channing way
phone:          510.549.0291            berkeley, ca  94703
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