RGV Life

I spent a good part of the day working on the van we bought last week. The oil was black and there was some soot in the muffler. The former tells me that the oil hasn't been changed in a while. The latter tells me that it has had poor combustion. The van lacks oomph while tackling the hills up here. I changed the oil and replaced the spark plugs and wires. Next weekend, I will replace the distributor cap and rotor. It's better, but not running smoothly. It took forever to do because of the locations of the spark plugs. You can accurately describe it by saying that it's a bitch to change the spark plugs. This is for a '93 Ford Aerostar with a 3.0 L engine. It may be possible that it doesn't have much go because it is a 3.0 L engine rather than the 4.0 L. In any case, it was an arduous process I don't wish to repeat.   Our relatives downstairs had trouble with their more recent model Ford F-150. Some bonehead engineer made access to the spark plugs vertical o...

Some of the red flagged migrants who were required to provide more proof of working eligibility were unable to do it and have left for other opportunities. As far as families, only one family is known to be leaving the area. Overall, it was single men who have left, mostly. Everybody else was able to buy themselves real social security numbers to use.

This morning, at roughly 5 am, my wife woke up and noticed lightning headed our way. She woke me up and we turned on the weather radio we got yesterday to listen to the NOAA broadcast. Sure enough, there was another severe thunderstorm warning and tornado watch in effect until 6:15 am and 6 am. We got dressed and got our stuff ready. We dressed the boy and awoke the girl and her grandmother. Shortly thereafter, the siren went off. We got a call from downstairs to invite us down. I put a pot of coffee to brew so we could wait out the storm. This time around, things were a bit calmer as we saw it coming rather than waking up to the siren. We had time, prior to the siren, to check TV and listen to the radio.   Last night, our son fell asleep with his hands over his ears in anticipation of the blaring siren. This morning, while we were dressing him, he put his hands up to his ears. He was prepared when the siren actually went off. The family has been glued to The Weathe...

"Oh, Crap!"   That's what went through my mind this morning as I awoke to the sound of a siren that warns Rice Lake about severe thunderstorms and tornados. Around 5 AM, the siren started blaring across the street from us. It had gone off earlier this week during a tornado watch. My wife and I were not home to hear it. This morning, we were. My wife and I jumped out of bed and started getting dressed. The kids awoke on their own with all the noise. Being so close to the siren, we had to shout to hear each other through the droning sound. We still had a bag packed due to the bad weather earlier this week, so my wife grabbed it to head out. My mom has a little bag with important papers that she grabbed. We ran downstairs with some relatives on the ground floor. My son grabbed on to his mom for dear life and refused to let go. My daughter was home during the first siren, so she knew what the siren meant, but was still scared by the significance.   The first ...

I think a little piece of the RGV came with me to the north. Over the past few weeks, we've been having temperatures up in the 90s and 100s. We do get some respite with cool days here and there. But, the locals will tell you that it's been a hot summer. Just today we saw people driving north towards Superior, WI to spend the weekend. There isn't much civilization up there, but there are parks, lakes, and more trees. Unlike the RGV, most apartments and houses do NOT have air conditioning. They come with a furnace for heat, but no system for cooling. When we stayed at the dorms in Oshkosh, the only cooling came from open windows. This is the same in Rice Lake, open window cooling is all the rage. Hot weather and high humidity make our stay here just like home.   If you grew up poor in the RGV, you may remember the days in which it was damn hot. The humidity prevents your body from cooling off by evaporation. Your sweat beads up. Your clothes, your bedding, and ...

I've been reading the blog posts from my friends back in the RGV regarding Gov. Goodhair's ( Sergio Sanchez's term) visit with local mayors for their endorsement. I have just a couple of points to make. The first, is that Democrats assume that they have a guaranteed vote in the RGV no matter what they do. In this I agree with Earn My Vote . You Dems, recall them I'm not one, take the RGV for granted. They need to start earning our vote rather than getting a blank check every election. People are starting to question "what have you done for me lately?". With Republicans, you know going in that you can only ask for so much. With Dems, on the other hand, the RGV gets promised the sun and the moon; only to get squat. On top of that, the Democratic leadership is NOT Hispanic. Seems like a lot of lip service to me on the left side.   My other point is that if you are an RGV mayor, your job is to get as much funding for your municipality as possible. ...

After Immigration requested work eligibility verification from the plant workers, they gave the people 5 days to come up with the documentation needed. This means that Wednesday, tomorrow, is the last day that people will be able to work. The sentiment amongst some of the illegal immigrants who are forced out of their jobs is "vamos a darle hasta donde de", meaning "we are going to take it as far as it goes". Even if they don't get the proper documents, the plant is legally required to pay them for their work. For many, another paycheck is essential. Wednesday is the day when we get the fallout of last Friday's request by the feds. One thing that has cropped up is a premium for "rented" identities. Under normal circumstances, you can buy a social security number and birth certificate for around $150. I have friends who have some extra identities stashed away for resale back home in the RGV. The going rate for a rented identity currently is $500. Th...

If you have seen kindergarten cop, you have an idea of how my first day as a Head Start teacher went today. I say this with a smile on my face. It was a total disaster. I had kids running all over the place. They did not listen. And, I made a little girl cry. If it weren't so funny, I'd probably just leave the program. I was telling my wife, Alma, on the way home (we live close enough to walk to work and back) that I wasn't nervous or even scared the whole time, no matter how chaotic. I was alright with it all. I'm sure I can live with my job until the end of the season. Things will work out.

I'm officially back at the UMOS Migrant Head Start. My last day at Seneca was this past Friday. I worked there for roughly three weeks, I think. It would have been cool to finish out the season there just to say that I did it. I met my objective, however, of meeting some of the other migrants. In addition, my family needs me to have weekends off; and the Head Start needs teachers. By changing over to the school, I will be caring for the children of my friends over at the plant. I start again tomorrow. Working at the plant was both easy and tough. The easy parts are the responsibilities. You basically do one job repeatedly throughout the day. On occasion, you get the opportunity to do something new. The gist of it is that the work is easy and boring, but very necessary. What is difficult are not the long hours; rather, the difficult parts are the cleaning and boredom. My hands are beat up from so much shoveling and working with a pitchfork. I got over the body soreness within a week...

The migrants in our area have had a setback recently. For some, it's a major problem. For others, it's a little glitch. What is at issue is a loss of their investment. It takes more than just gas money for migrants to travel to "el norte". This is especially true for migrants who travel up north with their families. The whole trip is roughly budgeted at a little over $2000, conservatively. I met one fellow migrant who financed his trip with $3000. With today's gas prices, a family can expect to pay $300 or more for gasoline for every vehicle. Right off the top, if housing is not available, a family will need about $1000 to pay for the first month's housing. That's about $500 rent and $500 security deposit. In addition, there are food expenses. At first, with no kitchen or food prep area, migrant families will tend to go out to eat. Depending on how long it takes to find a place to live, the dining expenses can add up. They can save a little bit of money by...

I've come to my senses. I like money. It's really nice and green. I came up to Wisconsin to earn as much of it as possible. But, I lost something in the process. I've been away from the family for 80 hours a week. I have no free weekends and arrive exhausted at home. I basically get home, eat, and get ready for bed. So, I am going to trade down my compensation so that I can get weekends off to spend time with the family. Many of the things I wanted to do with the kids this Summer would not be possible if I stay at Seneca. I took the opportunity to call UMOS to get my old job back. They are really hurting for bilingual teachers. They are looking for local teachers, bilingual or not. It looks like maybe I have the job back, but don't know for sure. It's strange that I'm going to get the know the children of my current co-workers. I've learned about how UMOS is hurting for funding right now. They had actual budget cuts by the Feds. I'm not talking cuts in t...

There really isn't much to report. I'm still working at Seneca. Still working 12 hour shifts. My wife is worried that I am wearing myself out and wants me to take a day off. I've agreed to take Saturday off, although the thought of all that lost overtime is painful. I figure I'll have another couple weeks before she asks me to get a day off again.   One important piece of news for me is that the Mrs.. has decided to stay up here in Wisconsin until October, when the season ends. This means that she will lose her job at the Hidalgo County Head Start and that our daughter will start school here in Rice Lake. Our son currently attends the Migrant Head Start, where he will stay until October.   For once in our lives, we are earning enough money to have a little surplus. It feels nice not to be struggling. Soon, however, we'll be going back to the RGV. One hopes that the job market will be improved in South Texas.    

My wife and I are aware that we live in the Rio Grande Valley where being bilingual is commonplace. For this reason, we have decided to expose our kids to both English and Spanish. We teach them Spanish when they are babies and then let them pick up English as they get older. This worked well with our daughter, Tien. However, with the boy, it's more difficult because we all speak English, primarily. He only spoke a few words to grandma and grandpa in Spanish. What is ironic is that now that he is here in Head Start in Rice Lake, WI, he is learning to speak Spanish. It's backwards. He has no need for Spanish here in an all English area and he's speaking it. Back home, we could barely get him to try.

In my job over at Seneca, in the tons and tons of green beans, I occasionally get live animals that get swept up by the farm machinery. I've had rabbits, rats, mice, snakes, and toads. Some arrive dead and some arrive living.  There isn't much one can do for dead animals. The live ones, I can rescue and put out of the way so that they have a chance to live longer lives.   I swear that I work with a bunch of savages. When they see the toads going by in the conveyor or hopping around in the dumper, they grab them and toss them out into the parking lot. These creatures were not designed for a 20 foot flight onto asphalt. Upon impact, they stop moving. When I rescued a snake, I put it down by the fence so that it would go away. As soon as I did that, this Mexican comes by with a shovel, scoops it up, and flings the snake into the street where it got run over by a car. I have to rescue these animals when nobody is looking because there is no compassion from these bea...

One gets curious about how some of the undocumented workers come into the country. One common way of doing it is to swim across the Rio Grande and run like hell. But not everybody does this. There is a much easier and less risky way of doing it. All you have to do is cross the bridge legally. Yes, some of the people working up here in Wisconsin came across the border legally. They did this by getting a tourist visa and then staying here. All they need to do to get the visa is show proof of employment and other documents that prove that the person has a stable life back home. Once here, they go find work. Back in the RGV, many undocumented workers will cross the bridge as tourists and then send their visa back home with somebody. The reason for this is that if there is a raid and they get picked up, they won't lose their visa. They get shipped back to Mexico and are back in the U.S. the next day, legally. Many of the undocumented workers actually do have bank accounts a...

I am working at Seneca in Cumberland, which is about 15 miles away from Rice Lake, WI. This canning plant processes green beans. There are two 12 hour shifts with no scheduled days off during the canning season. There are some days that there may not be any work. At first, work was sporadic. We'd work a day or two and have a day or two off. It appears that we are now entering full production. We won't be having days off for a long time. The thinking amongst the migrant workers here is "nomas son tres meses". Three months of 80 hour work weeks. Some people are earning minimum wage, which is $6.50/hr in Wisconsin; others are earning more. The work is easy and boring. If you can stand the monotony, there is plenty of overtime available. Jobs are demanding in one of two ways: you have to stay in one place and do the same thing every day or you have mobility and are working hard cleaning up after the machinery. Most everybody will be on their feet for 11.5 ho...

The local cable company here in Rice Lake, WI has installed our Internet connection. I am now back online with a high speed connection. I have much to write. The only issue remaining is having the time to sit down and write. I've been getting up at 4 AM all week to go to work, with the exception of Monday. I don't get home until roughly 6:30 or 7 PM. This means that I only have a few hours of useful consciousness before I need to hit the hay.   I'll be catching up on all my favorite blogs in the next few days. I look forward to reading what is going on in the Rio Grande Valley.

I'll be back online by July 8th. I've ordered cable internet to be installed. Here at the library in Rice Lake, I only get 30 minutes to access the computer. After catching up on email and posting the latest press releases on SpinRGV, I don't have much time left over to write anything.   There are many things to share. I've met many people at the canning plant from Mexico and other parts of Texas. I'm also experiencing some pretty exhaustive work which leaves me tired and sore every day. It's very demanding from me, but it gives much to write about. My job is actually very simple and not so demanding, which means that I need to keep myself busy doing odd jobs around my area of the plant. It's the odd jobs that are murder.   I may end up going to the school again, later in the season. There will be several employees who will be leaving early, leaving the Head Start short on bilingual people. I do believe in the project, so if I can help it succeed th...

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File