Ruben and his daughter Maria Hernandez rise early each morning, usually around 6 am. By 7 am they are in the fields prepping the harvest boats for the day. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
by Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
As the afternoon sun travels close to the horizon, Ruben Hernandez sits on the edge of a wooden porch attached to a modest trailer. His feet dangling over the edge, still clad in heavy hip-high rubber waders. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
As the afternoon sun travels close to the horizon, Ruben Hernandez sits on the edge of a wooden porch attached to a modest trailer. His feet dangling over the edge, still clad in heavy hip-high rubber waders. Spread out on a nearby chair, his 19-year old daughter Maria rests, eyes half-closed from exhaustion.
Covered with mud and the smell of fish, Hernandez and his daughter have just spent eight hours working in the crawfish fields that surround the south central town of Eunice – something they will do six days a week for the next four months.
Ruben and his daughter are two of thousands of H-2A and H-2B immigrant workers making the annual trip from Mexico to Louisiana to work in the seafood industry.
“I like to come here because there is not much work back home,” explained Hernandez in somewhat broken English. “I come to make money for my family back home.”
1100 Miles and a 24-Hour Bus Ride From Home
“Back home” for the immigrant worker is the central Mexico mountains north of Mexico City, about 1100 miles and a 24-hour bus ride. Illustration: Google Maps
“Back home” for the immigrant worker is the central Mexico mountains north of Mexico City, about 1100 miles and a 24-hour bus ride from the flooded rice fields he now works.
For the past six years in February he has left his wife and six children – four boys and two girls – in Guanajuato to make the trip to work the crawfish fields of Joey Schneider. This is the first year that he has brought his daughter.
“Ruben comes here for six months to harvest crawfish,” explained Schneider. “He then returns for an additional two months to help me prepare for the next seasons crop. In between, he gets to spend a month back home with his family.”
Work Days Start Early
Father and daughter rise early each morning, usually around 6 am. By 7 am they are in the fields prepping the harvest boats for the day.
“You steer the boat with your feet and harvest with your hands,” said Hernandez with his daughter Maria working the crawfish field. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
“I check the oil and gas in the boat, load the bait and then it is into the field,” explained Hernandez. “My daughter is learning, this is her first time.”
Driving a harvest boat has a definite learning curve. It takes a lot of concentration, but even more co-ordination. It has been described as “poetry in motion.”
Hazards that come with the profession include unwanted creatures in the trap. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
“You steer the boat with your feet and harvest with your hands,” said the experienced Hernandez.
Crawfish harvesting for Hernandez is a series repetitive routines – reach into the shallow water, grab a trap, empty the crawfish-filled trap on metal shelf situated in front of him, clean out unwanted articles or creatures, bait the trap with a fresh fish head then place it back in the water and grab another. And so it goes and goes and goes and goes for more than 1800 traps a day, come rain or come shine, all the while driving the flat bottom boat with his feet.
Learning to drive the boat propelled by a rear-mounted paddle wheel comes with its own set of hazards – and it’s not uncommon to end up in the water the first few times out.
“When you learn to drive the boat, you’re going slow. If you move too much the wheel, you can turn the boat over,” he said having first-hand knowledge. “It happened to me at least two times.”
Hernandez and his daughter also face other hazards that come with the profession – unwanted creatures in the trap.
“You be careful when you empty the trap,” he said. “Sometimes you find snakes, turtles, and even a small gator. Big gators in the crawfish pond usually avoid the harvesting, the noise of the boat scares them off.”
Visa – A Ticket to Work
Why leave the mountains of Mexico for this life? Work.
“There is no work back home,”Hernandez said. “At least no work where I can make anywhere nears the money I can make here.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
Like many H-2A workers, Hernandez had worked illegally in the U.S. before joining the program. Becoming harder and harder to cross the border illegally, he felt lucky to obtain an guest worker visa.
“I worked with reputable gentleman experienced in finding documented H-2A workers,” said Schneider. “I knew I needed to have a worker that had all the proper documentation, drivers license, birth certificate and visa. I am glad that I was able to connect with Ruben.”
An H-2A visa allows Hernandez and his daughter to work in the states for a 12-month period. In addition to their wages, Schneider is required to provide clean, livable housing as well as one meal-a-day. He also provides auto insurance.
A Family Separated 8-Months a Year
Living eight months a year away from his family is not an easy life, as his daughter is finding out.
Hernandez writes the family regularly and tries to talk on the phone at least once a week.
Crawfishing runs in the Hernandez family, as well as the central Mexican mountain community where they are from. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
Sitting on the porch as the sun draws nearer and nearer to the horizon, tears form on the edges of his eyes as he remembers who he has left behind.
“I talk on the phone every weekend,” he said, “and occasionally during the middle of the week.”
Back in Mexico, his wife stays home to take care of the kids, the youngest being nine-years-old.
As hard as it is for Ruben to be away from home, it has been even harder for his daughter Maria.
“She is very lonely and the work is hard,” he said. “She left all her friends to be with me. She wanted to come to U.S., but she speaks no English. Maybe it will be better when she gets some English.”
Crawfishing runs in the Hernandez family, as well as the central Mexican mountain community where they are from.
Reuben’s brother Jorge also comes to Eunice to work in the flooded rice fields harvesting crustaceans, and he has friends in Mamou, Basile, Opelouses from his region back home.
“There is no work back home,” he said. “At least no work where I can make anywhere nears the money I can make here.”
Reliable Labor Pool for Seafood Community
“I could probably find an American to work the fields, but they would never last,” explained Schneider on why he hires immigrant workers. “After a week, or even a day, I would be looking for someone else – and then another someone and another someone and another someone. You can’t run a successful business with that kind of turnover and uncertainty, you just can’t.”
“It is hard to find reliable and steady workers. Without the workers program I would not be able to harvest the acres I do now. I would have to be out in the field working and constantly supervising the operation.”
Crawfish farmer Joey Schneider (right) has complete faith and trust in Ruben and his daughter. “They do a great job in the field, and at the end of the day they bring the crawfish to the plant for processing,” he said. “I don’t need to be around looking over their shoulder.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
Schneider has complete faith and trust in Ruben and his daughter.
“They do a great job in the field, and at the end of the day they bring the crawfish to the plant for processing,” he said. “I don’t need to be around looking over their shoulder.”
H-2A and H-2B workers are at the heart of the Louisiana Seafood community, working the boats and peeling crawfish in the plants.
“Without these workers we wouldn’t have crawfish to market,” Schneider explained. “Even if I managed to get the crawfish harvested, who would peel them? Where would our market be without them?”
Seafood from the Gulf depends on the reliable workers H-2A and H-2B legislation provides.
Legislators – Leave H-2A and H-2B Alone
According to Schneider, who has to pay his workers whether they are catching crawfish or not, “legislators are just giving us fits right now. Every year it gets harder and harder to continue in the program.”
“If they leave the regulations alone, the way it currently is written, we will be just fine. But if Washington continues to raise the wages up and up and up, sooner or later they are going to out price the benefits and I won’t be able to afford to have Ruben here.”
As hard as it is for Ruben to be away from home, it has been even harder for his daughter Maria. But as Congress is set this year to consider revisions for current H-2A and H-2B legislation, both Hernandez and Schneider hope their working relationship will not be put in jeopardy. Photo: Ed Lallo/ Louisiana Seafood News
As long and hard as the work is, time is set aside for socializing.
Saturdays are reserved for shopping, and the Eunice Walmart is the place to meet.
“On any given Saturday there are approximately 300 H-2A and H-2B workers doing their weekly shopping,” said Schneider.
“We shop and talk,” said Ruben. “We all agree our favorite thing about Louisiana is the work. We are not so much about the food here; we miss the food cooked in our own homes back in Mexico.”
Saturday afternoons are often reserved for a trip to one of the two Mexican restaurants in Euless, La Manana or La Hacienda, which according to Ruben “are both pretty good.”
Sundays are family day. After church services, Ruben and Maria gather with friends and relatives in the area to boil some crawfish or Bar-B-Q, play a little soccer and just socialize. “A bit of Mexico in the heart of Cajun country,” as Ruben calls it.
As Congress is set this year to consider revisions for current H-2A and H-2B legislation, both Hernandez and Schneider hope their working relationship will not be put in jeopardy.
“I like working here,” said Ruben contemplating the fate of his future. “God willing we will all be back next year.”
The post Far From Home in Louisiana’s Crawfish Fields – An Immigrant Worker’s Story appeared first on Louisiana Seafood News.