• [At a processing plant with grower as guide]
    • “What made the biggest impression on me while I was there was the woman taking the plastic bagged apples off of a rotating circle and putting them into boxes. Her face was COMPLETELY expressionless and she was almost doing it in slow motion. She made me incredibly depressed. Then again, so do a lot of things. The grower was very concerned about how he is perceived by us. Whenever he said ‘problem’ he corrected himself to say ‘situation’ and when speaking of issues of race, gender, and environment (pesticides) he was very quick to clarify, saying I know you must be thinking this or that. But most powerful was his statement that ‘The media has destroyed the credibility of the farmer…’ He said it so carefully, with such emotion. He’s very intelligent; very sharp.”
  • “We introduced ourselves and it was interesting that when I stressed to him that the interview was confidential and that we would note quote his name, Mr. N replied, ‘I’ve quoted the newspaper so I can quote you,’ said in a very fearless manner. From here one of the first things that we asked was how the town has evolved with the Hispanic population. Mr. N answered, ‘it hasn’t evolved, it’s deteriorated.’ I think from here Alicia and I felt in store for a lot of negative comments, but in the end I felt that most of the things he said were ‘fair enough’ with the exception of only a few things. From his point of view as a small shop owner, he said, ‘Mexicans have brought the town down, they don’t pay taxes and shop elsewhere.’ He also emphasized the slum housing conditions caused by outside landlords who have made the appearance of the town less desirable. I found out the owners of many apt. buildings live no where near York Springs and could care less what the town looks like. The business of this man’s store had decreased significantly in the last 10 years. The blame, however, could probably be put more on the construction of Walmart and Super K in Hanover (with cheaper prices) than people fearing to enter his store (located in the midst of Hispanic housing). ‘This town’s name has gone from York Sulfer Springs to York Springs, soon to be Tijuana Springs.'”
  • “As it turns out, today, the day I asked the students to bring in things, Human services brought in a friend of the photographer to help the students turn their photos into life books. The woman was very creative, spoke fluent Spanish and had a great way of instructing the students. We decided to combine our ideas, and have the students create books telling about themselves for my exhibit. All of the students actively participated in the activity, and they seemed to really enjoy it and get involved. Students created books about their lives, trips they took, Mexican customs, personal experiences, and of course their visit to Dickinson. It was really the first time I saw everyone truly involved and enjoying the activity. Another student wrote up an explanation about Christmas tradition in Mexico, and brought in a singing Christmas card. Another brought in little souvenir cups of different pueblos in Mexico. There is also a new man from Peru. He’s such a sweet old gentleman, he wears a suit everyday. This man brought in book of poetry from Peru. The poet is actually this man=s deceased father-in-law from Peru. This man was so excited that I was going to put this book and this story in our exhibit. It was such a wonderful day, it made me so happy to give the students a chance to be creative and construct their own product. I find it so interesting and rewarding.”
  • “We collected our things and went out into the parking lot where we stood around talking for a little while. While we were talking the police showed up. The officer pulled up right next to me where I was talking with a classmate and two of the Mexican students. The officer in an ever so suspicious demeanor asked how we were doing. I told him that we were fine. Then he asked what we were doing. I told him that we had just gotten out of class and that we were just talking. He said ‘ohhh you just got out of class………, well have a good night.’ He just looked at us for a moment and then left. The whole time I thought that the teacher was going to start yelling at him because I could see that she was getting very upset that he had come to bother us. I assume that she was upset because she figured that he came to bother them just because they were Mexicans.”
  • “The most revealing information that she shared with me was her experience crossing the Mexican- American border. I believe that she had gone down to Mexico with some of her sisters to visit her husbands family. She told me that she almost died trying to return to the United States. What was most terrifying for her was the fear that she would not be able to see her children and her husband again. She told me that she had some problems with her papers, and was going to have to wait in Mexico for a long period of time waiting for them to be processed. While they were waiting for the papers, she and her family were kicked out of the place that they were staying. She said that they felt their only choice was for her and her sisters to cross illegally. Her husband and her children are American citizens, so they were able to cross safely by car into the United States. Veronica and her sisters paid a coyote to cross the border. The coyote had them get inside a small box with twelve other people, and he placed the box in the back of a truck. She said that there were no air holes in the box. This claustrophobic experience across the border took them forty minutes. She told me that she could barely breathe, and the heat was unbearable. They were told that they were lucky that the trip took such a short amount of time, and that usually someone dies within the box. Luckily, everyone survived the trip the day that Veronica went across. That night all twelve of them were forced to stay in one motel room with the coyote, whom she said was very mean. He showed them that he had a gun and a knife.”
  • Labor Issues: Ethnicity (as noted from an interview)
    • “Late 40s/early 50s-Jamaicans, Haitians, Southern blacks; late 50s/60s mostly Southern blacks, Puerto Ricans enter; 70s Mexicans enter; 90s Mexicans are the major contributor. 20 years ago Banner had all Puerto Ricans, in 1998 he has 10 Puerto Ricans and 30 Mexicans (only 8 rookies). Why these ethnic changes? Southern blacks left the agricultural workforce with the development of welfare. Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, therefore they have access to federal assistance and are also leaving the agricultural workforce because of it (they’re getting spoiled). I’m just telling the facts. Those that are ‘hungry’ for something and realize that they have to work hard for it are good workers; people without a goal or purpose in life are not good workers. Housing along ethnic lines because the different diets of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans can cause conflict within the house.”
  • An Interview with a Local Minister:
    • “‘Socially our congregation has a ways to go to get over prejudices. The way to get over that is to meet people up close, hear their stories, see them as people like ourselves, this type of close environment is essential.’ I then thanked him for being so honest and told him I was proud to see that he recognizes this verbally where other Ministers did not. He then began to tell me quite a mountain of stories. When he first came to the church ten years ago, outside of church before a service there was a popular 17 year old girl from the town complaining that the night before a car had side-swiped hers and it was a Mexican and said that ‘I’d be happy to take a torch and burn the hole lot of them.’ Of course said right before entering his church service Y The Pastor has heard other comments about how saddened people are about what the town has become and that blaming the Hispanics for the town’s problems has become and safe and easy thing to do (when really there are such culprits as slum lords from York or Hanover).”
  • “An Anglo York Spring resident equated a lot of the Mexican activities to those of a fraternity house. At least with the single men. She said in a small town with nothing for them to do, but drink and they all live in the same house, so what can be expected. She also mentioned that because of their inability to speak English that they get taken advantage of a lot.”