On both sides, my grandparents were farmers and people who worked the land to make a living – they lived in Oaxaca and Michoacan, Mexico. They didn’t have a lot of educational opportunity, but they worked extremely hard and raised fairly large families – over a half-dozen children on each side. Giving their kids — my parents and their siblings — a chance to go through elementary and middle school was a big part of why they worked so hard. They did their best to provide my parents, and my aunts and uncles, a better opportunity than what they’d had – something my parents also did for our generation. They got up at the crack of dawn, planting and harvesting crops during their seasons and then raising, selling, and living off their livestock.
With each generation, we got a little bit more opportunity, and a lot more support to pursue our education and life’s goals – and because of that opportunity and economic mobility, today we have the opportunity to do our part to try to take care of our parents and grandparents as they get older. What I’d say about the way they worked was that it was physically intensive and tiring, and through that work they embedded into future generations a strong work ethic, teaching us that if we wanted to get further in life we’d have to work for it. They worked extremely hard so that we could have more opportunity, and as I think back on it, I hope I can say that it worked, and give thanks and love to my grandparents for it.
Carlos is the Midwest Field Organizer at Jobs With Justice
Photo: A farmer at harvest (via Flickr user Hartwig HKD)
