En español >>

By Elizabeth Trexler

On a Friday afternoon in Jonesborough, Tenn., the sun is beating down, five men load tobacco that has been cut and speared on a tractor to take the barn. They have worked a short day, it is pay day. But they are not done yet. They still have to hang the tobacco in the barn.

Junior Villanueva, 32, Juan Avila; 42, Victoriano Gomez, 20; Santos Miguel, 32 and Jose Sanchez, 34, are Jeff Aiken’s migrant workers. The men toil over his farm on a daily basis for about six months, harvesting his tobacco in the fall.

According to government regulations, in order for a farmer to request H-2A workers, the work performed must be of a seasonal or temporary nature, such as farming. The job must also be posted in a newspaper and advertised in other ways like radio or television advertisements in order to let Americans have a chance to apply, said Aiken. He also has to provide housing for his workers, and the Department of Labor inspects the living arrangements before allowing the workers to stay there.

“I met someone in Mexico who takes papers to bring people to America,” said Villanueva. 

“The benefit of coming here is that we can make more money than we could back home,” said Villanueva. The workers say they can make about three times as much money here as they could make home Mexico. Avila and the other workers keep what they need here to get by, but send the rest of the money home to their families.

“The best benefit of using the program is we can work about six months and come to America legally,” said Villanueva.

Back home, Villanueva works construction, Avila worked in a factory, Gomez planted corn and Miguel worked in a bakery.

The workers live together in a trailer and share chores.

“Everybody shares the cooking, and no one is sick yet,” said Villanueva.

A farmer in America calls a recruiter when the farmer needs help. To bring the person to America to work, a background check must show they have been law abiding in their home country. The program allows the workers to stay for 10 months of the year. Aiken’s workers last year went home on or before January 31, when their temporary visas ran out. He has been using H-2A for about 10 years.

The men make their own schedule, and Aiken said they are sometimes in the field and barn up to 11 hours a day.

“We want to get done, so we can go home,” said Avila. When he says home, he does not mean to the trailer Aiken provides, he means Mexico, where their families are waiting. As soon as the tobacco is harvested they can leave, their job here is done.

For entertainment, the men have a chess board and Aiken suspects they thought was checkers when they purchased) it, cards, dominos and a VCR or DVD player they use to watch Spanish movies that they buy from Wal-Mart.

“I trust my workers,” said Aiken. He explained how when his mother was well, she would pick the men up every Friday and take them to the bank and then to Wal-Mart. In a way, she treated them as if they were her other sons, helping them with their errands. Now that she is not well, she cannot do that any more. 

Aiken becomes attached to his workers.

“When my life leaves for the weekend, I hug and kiss her goodbye,” he said. “But I have to choke back the tears when they go back to Mexico. They become like family. You work with them every day for six months, you get really attached.”