Raza Inolvidable/Unforgettable People: Artist Statement

Abstract

Raza Inolvidable/Unforgettable PeopleArtist Statement Gabriel Cárdenas (bio) Between December 4, 2017 and January 12, 2018, Ventura County and parts of Santa Barbara County were set ablaze in what is known as the Thomas Fire. The fire burned through 281,893 acres, destroying 1,063 structures, and damaging 280 homes (VCFD.org). The Thomas Fire started in Santa Paula and made its way westward, blazing through Saticoy, Ventura, Ojai, and into Carpinteria. The fire burned through agricultural food lands that form the bedrock of our community’s agricultural market. This could mean drastic food shortages to our communities and those we distribute to across the nation. For example, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, California grows over one-third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts (CDFA.CA.gov). Due to this emergency, many ranches, farms, and agricultural businesses depended on farmworkers to save their lands from total destruction. Latinx farmworkers had little choice but to work in the toxic and dangerous working conditions to save their employers’ commodities (Etehad 2017). This idea of choice must be understood as the relationship between farmworker and farm labor. The social skills and documentation of farmworkers is often not recognized by white American capitalism and does not allow for them to, for example, take paid days off when extreme weather events occur or have a safety net that can support them in such dire times. While fires raged, farmworkers’ blended between ash and smoke, inviting toxins into their bodies for low-waged and renewed levels of exploitation. This artist statement discusses the visual art paintings I made to reflect and critique the environmental [End Page 63] impact that wildfires have on laboring hands in agricultural havens like Ventura County, California. The Thomas Fire illustrates the precarious economic situation of farmworkers, as well as how environmental injustices are exacerbated under climate change. Many Latinx farmworkers chose to work in order to continue receiving wages and pay, whereas others who were given days off or shorter workdays were anxious of not being able to labor and generate income. Even a few days of lost wages (for some, weeks) created economic insecurities leading to loan requests from banks and/or family members. It ought to be recognized that the labor of farm-workers in our community is dependent on continuous workdays to collect income. Farmworkers have little to no options of employment due to immigration status, citizenship, and family. Moreover, additional economic strains burdened farmworkers such as food insecurity, food waste, power outages, freeway closures, loss of work/reduced workdays, school closures leading to costs for babysitters, health risks, incomplete income to pay rent/bills, and emotional and psychological stress. Their experiences illustrate environmentally related injustices due to extreme weather events within a capitalist society that favors agribusiness and profits over human life, health, and well-being. However, the exploitation of farmworkers is not new. As Laura Pulido (1996) and others have shown, the economic exploitation of farmworkers goes hand-in-hand with their exposure to environmental hazards such as pesticides, toxins, polluted air, water, and unhealthy living conditions. As a young person with parents working in the agricultural sectors of Fillmore, California, these conditions were part of everyday life. I had opportunities to work in the fields and to experience firsthand how a full day of extremely hard work would bring only a few dollars in wages. For example, hunched over for an entire day cutting peppers and assembling large metal pipes to use as sprinklers is no easy toil. Pulling weeds on your knees using a small hoe to carefully place seeds along fields amounting 300 yards and up can leave you confused and defeated. Adding to that, normal day-today high temperatures ranging in the 90s and 100s Fahrenheit, it is no wonder a young man like myself would question the capital I obtained and dread the idea of coming back the next day. My life experiences have led me to utilize my skills as an artist for social critique and social movement. Therefore, I must speak to my [End Page 64] work as an artist and how the Thomas...