Jose Mendoza
Jose Mendoza, was a young migrant farmworker,
he was harvesting sweet potatoes on
Barnes Farming property in Spring Hope,
North Carolina on September 5, 2023.
The temperature was in the 90's,
and Jose began to not feel well.
He went to rest on a bus used for worker
transportation to the fields,
the fields of labor under the unyieldng sun.
Jose came to America from
Guanajuato, Mexico,
with his wife and their two children.
He came for what our nation could
offer in honest work.
He was one of God's salt of the earth,
picking the produce for our plates.
He succumbed to the heat-
on a farm that previously refused to
give water breaks to those out in the fields,
those who toiled so hard for them.
Lunch breaks were only twenty minutes.
This farm was investigated in 2019 and
2020 by North Carolina Dept.of Labor's
Occupational Safety and Health Division
for hazardous chemicals and insufficient
toilet and handwashing facilities.
Jose left his youthful laborer's life on the
fields that oppressively hot September day.
God loves His laborers, His people of
the harvest.
Barnes and the NC Growers Association
took care of expenses related to Jose's
death and funeral.
His body was returned for burial back
home to Mexico.
His family without his presence,
reposing eternal from his earthly labors
We must remember this,
appreciate and pray for the farmworkers,
as we eat the bounty from the fields. ~
Copyright © Regina Elliott | Year Posted 2023
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