Agriculture 农业

Agriculture 农业

Chinese laborers first came to the Monterey Bay Peninsula to work as laborers in the fields. Land owners, looking for cheaper labor, brought in Chinese workers from San Francisco to help with the harvest. When local indigenous labor became scarce, Chinese immigrants raised their daily rate to two dollars a day in response to the demand. Despite this, Chinese workers were willing to work longer hours, under harsh conditions, and for less money.

Sam Chinn on his carrot machine, Salinas, 1983. Sam Chinn has been reclaiming farm land since his boyhood in Castrobille. retired from active farming, Sam Chinn is Secretary-Treasurer of the National Association of Conservation Districts and an advisor to the United States Secretary of Agriculture.

Santa Cruz Market gardeners, 1940s. Many of the Chinese immigrants of the nineteenth century were not able to move into business or return to China, and their lives eventually ended in Chee Kong Tong buildings or county hospitals. They were the unfortunate victims of a seventy-year series of immigration and naturalization restrictions.

By Flex Kids Culture.