My story is that in 1994 my three children and I arrived in this country because my husband fixed us up with the amnesty thing. I started working in the fields and that’s how the years went by. I had an accident at work and I couldn’t work anymore. My husband fell ill with a disease so he couldn’t work anymore. My children started working. The son in the fields and one of the women at school. The other young woman too, but over time my husband died on February 14, 2010.
To date these dates are very sad.
“The doctors told us that he had died because of all the pesticide that is put on the land and because of all the time he worked in the fields.”
I am still very sad, but seeing what my children have each accomplished with their families and with their children getting ahead….
I am in an organization that has taught me to get ahead and I’ve learned many new things that I am able to share with my community and help colleagues who go through various abuses in the field or with their partners. They also teach us how to prepare to support them and their families. I’m trying to put it into practice.
What happened to my husband still hurts me a lot because these dates are very sad for me and his children. The whole family. But, with the help of Lideres Campesinas and my colleagues from all the committees and workshops they give us, I’ve learned a lot of things and I know that I’m going to see him sometime soon. Sometimes I’d like to have wings to fly up to see him. Just before he died, he told me he wanted to have wings to be able to go to the beach and walk in the sand. Every time I’m near the beach I remember him a lot.
Storyteller Alas al viento writes that she lives in Greenfield, California and a housewife.
