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In Ariz. Town, Main Street Is A Border Crossing

Published September 12, 2009 12:01 AM

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One of the busiest times of day in San Luis, Ariz., is 3 a.m. At this early hour, Main Street is lined with trailers selling breakfast foods like burritos, instant coffee and menudo, a spicy soup. The patrons are all dressed in long sleeves and workboots, carrying backpacks with a few tools and water bottles.

Every day, these thousands of workers wake up in Mexico and cross the border on Main Street to work in southern Arizona's vast agricultural fields. The product varies with the season — watermelon in summer months, broccoli and lettuce in the winter months. Yuma, just north, is known as the Winter Lettuce Capital of the World.

"You better believe it's different here," says farm laborer Joel Silva. "You wake up 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock in the morning to cross the line and go to work and come back 5, 6, 7 p.m. so tired."

San Luis is a sprawling urban region divided by the border between the United States and Mexico. The Arizona side is a small town of about 20,000. Joel lives on the Mexican side in San Luis Rio Colorado, a much larger city, having grown over the past decades to a population of more than 150,000. People from throughout Mexico have migrated to the city, drawn by the abundance of farm work available in southern Arizona. The majority are legal migrants with I-9 forms that allow them to work in the United States. During the height of the winter lettuce season, more than 40,000 workers cross through the border onto Main Street every day.

A U.S. citizen, Joel is 51 years old and was born in Harlingen, Texas. His mother moved the family to San Luis, Mexico, when he was 5. Joel has been traveling to Main Street in San Luis, Ariz., all his life. When he was 12 years old, his mother would send him to Main Street to pick up milk and cheese, which were cheaper in the United States. She also, eventually, sent him to work there.

"When I was 17 years old," Joel remembers, "my stepfather was sent to prison and no one in my family except for me could work. All of my brothers were in school. So my mom said to me, 'I need you to help me.'"

Joel has been working as a laborer for more than 30 years.

"I like to work in the fields. It's hard, but I like it," he says. "I never really go to school, only first or second grade. I've worked with my hands all my life."

When Joel crosses the border in the morning, he heads up Main Street to the parking lot of Del Sol supermarket, where buses from various farms pick up workers and take them to the fields. Each bus has a hitch with a water cooler and two Port-O-Lets attached. During the busy seasons, there are hundreds of buses lining the various parking lots on Main Street.

Before Joel heads out to the fields, he buys oatmeal from his favorite mobile food wagon, Panchita's. "I've tried oatmeal from all of these wagons, and to me, the best is at Panchita's."

Panchita's is a local restaurant in San Luis, Ariz., run by Georgina Escamilla and her husband. For her, the border is fluid.

"It's like one city here, San Luis, Ariz., and San Luis, Mexico," she says.

Georgina used to live in San Luis, Mexico, but in 2001 decided that she was tired of crossing the border every day and moved to San Luis, Ariz. She still gets up early, though.

"We come here every morning at 3 a.m. to sell food to the guys. Lots of coffee, oatmeal, burritos, and plenty of menudo. Menudo is their favorite."

Most mornings, Joel grabs his breakfast from Panchita's and hops onto one of the farm buses. He tries to get on the bus earlier than other workers so he can have a seat to himself and lay down on the way to the field.

"Sometimes I sleep on the bus — snoring like a lion, believe me — and then I wake up in the fields," he says.

The bus drops Joel off about an hour and half away from the border with the other members of the crew. In the summer, it is sweltering. Sometimes the temperature tops 115 degrees.

Two men are walking between the rows, picking watermelons and putting them on the oversized truck trailer, where men sift through the melons and pack them into boxes. They roll the boxes to the back of a flatbed truck, where Joel and two other men are standing. Joel lifts the boxes and stacks them, making tall columns. The flatbed truck eventually will take the watermelons to a warehouse where the melons will be distributed to Costco, Sam's Club, Safeway and other food stores across the country.

"It's hard. Sometimes we don't take a lunch; sometimes we don't take a break," Joel says. "The boss, he should have 20 people working on this trailer but he only has 16. But you don't complain. You just shut your mouth."

At the end of the day, the workers clean up the trailer and get on the bus to head back to San Luis. The bus drops Joel off on Main Street in the parking lot of Payless Shoes. He walks with many others along the sidewalk, down to the border station.

"You see the green and white building with the fence? That is the borderline," Joel says. "That is the end of Main Street."

It's a slow procession. People are tired.

"You can see the people all outside walking, all wet, all dirty," Joel says. Some have worked 14- or 16-hour days.

Tonight, Joel will be in bed by 9 p.m. Tomorrow, he'll wake up again at 1 a.m., cross the border on Main Street and hope to get a seat by himself on the bus.

Mapping Main Street is produced by Ann Heppermann, Kara Oehler, James Burns and Jesse Shapins. Additional help from Josie Holtzman, Sara Pellegrini, Jasmine Garsd and Edgar Arturo Barroso. Special thanks to Dave and Ellen Riek, Lou Gum and KAWC, Yuma Public Radio. Mapping Main Street is a part of MQ2, an initiative of AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio Inc., with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The project is also supported with funds from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Participate in this open documentary project by contributing stories, photos and videos of Main Streets across the country. Visit mappingmainstreet.org to join in.

View Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, host:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.

Now, we continue our series Mapping Main Street. Producers Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler have traveled around the United States documenting some of the 10,000 Main Streets along the way.

Now, we head south to San Luis, Arizona. The small town of 20,000, Main Street is where people do their grocery shopping and pick up their mail. But the four-lane road also serves as a border station between the U.S. and Mexico. Just over the metal mesh border fence, it's San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico, city of about 150,000.

Tens of thousands of Mexicans legally cross every day. Many pick produce in southern Arizona's vast farm fields, and all of them cross the border on San Luis's Main Street.

(Soundbite of beeping)

Unidentified Man: (Spanish spoken)

Mayor JUAN CARLOS ESCAMILLA (San Luis, Arizona): Well, right now, we're on actual - our Main Street. It's a four-lane - two lanes going southbound into Mexico and two lanes going northbound into the United States. My name is Juan Carlos Escamilla, mayor for the city of San Luis.

Unidentified Man #2: Hello.

Unidentified Man #3: Hello.

Unidentified Man #2: Where are you going?

Mayor ESCAMILLA: You've got thousands of people coming across every single day just to commute to work. We've got 40,000 to 50,000 on our peak time, people coming across.

Unidentified Man #2: Hello, sir. How are you doing? (Spanish spoken)

Unidentified Man #4: No.

Mr. JOEL SILVA: (unintelligible) is different here. (unintelligible) across the line and go to work and come back, five, six, seven p.m. So tired.

My name is Joel Silva. I'm born in the United States. I'm a USA citizen, but I live in Mexico all my life. When I'm 12 years old, my mom, she send me to buy, like, beans, like, potatoes that she pulled in the United States. When I'm 17 years, that's when I start working here.

Mayor ESCAMILLA: Right now, we're on Main Street and you can see that there's some farm workers right now.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mayor ESCAMILLA: And usually at three o'clock in the morning you'll see the buses that park in the business parking lot. They'll just park there and wait for the workers.

Unidentified Man #5: (Spanish spoken)

HOSALIN(ph): (Through translator) My name is Hosalin. We don't know each yet. He knows me because we've met each other in the different jobs here. Lettuce, melons, watermelons, (unintelligible). Like a big family, all of us.

Unidentified Man #5: (Spanish spoken)

HOSALIN: This my other home right here.

Mr. SILVA: We are now in the parking lot of Sol Supermarket. This is the area where the buses parking. You can see buses from there to here. No cars. Morning, coffee.

Ms. GEORGINA ESCAMILLA: (Through translator) My name is Georgina Escamilla, at your service. We are here in San Luis, Arizona, and we're working on Main Street in the Panchita's lunch wagon.

Unidentified Man #6: I'm buying a whole meal to everyone here and the best is the Panchita.

Ms. ESCAMILLA: (Through translator) We come very early every day to sell food to the guys. They don't have time to eat at home because they leave very early. We are working from two in the morning until four in the afternoon. And every day they'll order menudo. Everyday. It's what we sell the most - menudo.

Unidentified Man #7: (Spanish spoken)

Ms. ESCAMILLA: (Through translator) So, it's stomach and they like it a lot. I don't know why, but they really like it a lot.

Unidentified Man #7: (Spanish spoken)

Ms. ESCAMILLA: (Through translator) And with that, they go to the fields to work really happy.

Mr. SILVA: I work in the farm before in Mexico, but I started to work in the United States (unintelligible) 17 years old. When 1986, my wife, she passed away. I lose my car, I lose my pickup, I lose my small beans I had. I lose everything. And now I feel like my life is over. I don't see a reason to live. And these guy, he offered me to cross his car, and he put 30 pounds of dope inside.

When I'm coming to cross the borderline over here in San Luis, Arizona, the officer, he saw me nervous with the way I speak to him. So, when the guy opened the trunk, he (unintelligible). In prison, I'm going to the book library and I find the bible and I start to read it. I never speak English the way I'm speaking to you now, never.

But my purpose to learn English to testify who is God, who is Jesus Christ. But when I got out, back to work.

(Soundbite of whistling)

Mr. SILVA: So, this is my job to pick up the beans, to carry the boxes to them. You can put the melons in here. These are two small ones. The (unintelligible) is more big ones. (unintelligible). Sometimes we not take a break. Sometimes we not taking no lunch. We're working straight. Hey, careful.

We going back for some (unintelligible). By the time we change the machine and clean it up and get it ready for tomorrow, we take about two hours or an hour and a half sometimes. And today's Friday, we'll stop in the office too for the payrolls or the checks. So about five or six, we be there.

(Soundbite of car)

Unidentified Man #8: (Spanish spoken)

Mr. SILVA: And we are on the borderline now. You see over there the fence, the white fence over there, the green on the bottom, the white on the top? That is the line to United States and Mexico. This is going to be the end of Main Street. You can see the people all outside to walking, all wet, all dirty, coming late. Yeah, because you're working 14, 16 hours a day.

I grew up in - in Mexico. I love Mexico. I love San Luis, my town. Some friends, you know, I'm USA, yeah, I'm a USA citizen. Onto the law, onto the border patrol officers, I'm Mexican. I prefer to stay there.

(Soundbite of music)

SIMON: That was Joel Silva of San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico.

Our Mapping Main Street story was produced by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler. Project co-creators are James Burns and Jesse Shapins. Mapping Main Street is part of Maker's Quest, an initiative of the Association of Independents in Radio Incorporated with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

You can join this open documentary project by contributing stories, photos and videos to the Main Streets near you at mappingmainstreet.org.

(Soundbite of music) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Source: NPR

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