After watching part of 'Harvest of Shame' last week, I found myself emotionally torn. One part of me felt incredibly depressed after hearing an account of Maria's tragic story and seeing the list of all the workers who have died of heat exposure in the Central Valley in the last few years. Yet another part of me felt suddenly more impassioned to work toward improving conditions for migrant workers. Like Elena, I think that class last week forced me to look inside myself and consider both my own cultural mindset regarding agricultural workers and how comfortable I am standing by as workers grapple with incredible injustice and adversity on a daily basis. Like Sharada, I think that California legislation to improve migrant workers' situation is moving in the right direction, but I don't know that the issue is the speed at which legislation is being drafted. In the article handed out last class about Maria's death, it discusses how difficult it is to enforce the measures already in place which require farmers to provide workers with shade, water, and other basic provisions. One of the reasons it is so difficult to enforce these measures is that even when violations do occur, it is basically impossible for workers to unionize and make complaints. Since Schwartzenegger has taken office, he has vetoed a bill three times that would have made it easier for workers to unionize. I think that all of this reflects on the need to alter the attitude of the general population toward migrant workers. I'm not sure how this can be done....