Puerto Rican workers have played an important role in Connecticut agri culture, Future research may reve of Puerto Ricans coming to i Connecticut to do farmwork before World War Two and pethaps in the nine teenth century. But even now we know that tens of thousands of Puerto Rican farm workers came to the state in the post-World W: Tivo era. They planted trees and cut tobacco, picked tomatoes, apples, potatoes anel other crops. Why did Nestor Morales and thousands of other Puerto Ricans feel a desperation that made them leave their homes, families and friends behind in Puerto Rico? Why did they go to work on large commercial farms, in orchards jout the eastern and midwestern United States? What and nurseries throug was it like to be an agricultural contract worker in Connecticut? In order to answer these questions, we must go back almost a century NESTOR MORALES: someting Sing biapoest ot re aed ortunities that lured then to tty their Thefele taco mga othe luck in the United States. As the story of Connecticut tobacco industry will oe One ee es ie eee es ie Sinn aid Noting ten pene hey the mainland, wind up inthe Biida. Now the ar ‘as were ain compiel ofatns ‘vn came seeking a beter ny le and We must look at the political and economic conditions that made people ave Puerto Rico, as well as the © show, there were often links between what was happening on the istand and Agricultural Upheavals they can oo ‘7 wha To comet he fas. Even before the Spanish-American War of 1898, most Puerto Ricans Noite ulna now i Api They red thousands of workers, This is cheap labor that the American people are not willing 1 do. So they need somebedy 10 come and doi and why occupation of the island, the struggle became even harcler, The small coffee ‘no Puerto Ricans? ‘were small farmers or plantation workers who had to struggle to make a liv ing, Alter the defeat of the Spanish and with the beginning of United States farmets of the inland mountainous are s of Puerto Rico were not protected by United States tariff laws and could not compete against other coffee producers nv the world market, When Hurricane San Ciriaco hit the island in 1899, it destroyed that year erop ane! put many farmers over the edge Other branches of agriculture were even less accessible to most Puerto Ricans, The island's huge stigar industry, for example, was increasingly con trolled by United States investors. Over the first half of the twentieth century United States sugar companies expanded hoth their growing and processing operations, This meant that the sugar plantations swallowed up huge tracts rowers used of land that had formerly belonged to small farmers. As the big more sophisticated machinery to cultivate, harvest and process the sugar, they also hired fewer and fewer workers.Soares eee ga renter Farmers displaced by the decline of coffee production and the expansion of the sugar industry onto theit lands, poured into Puerto RicoS cities, There | they were joined by unemployed and a loyed sugar cane plantation workers who suffered during the “tiempo muerto” [dead time], the six: months there was no work on the st of the year wh at plantations, When the United States was in the Great Depression of the 1930s, as, one Pt Iwas a ro Rican said, his island suffered a “depression and a hall Lime of great hunger, political a est, and many strikes by Puerto Rican sugal workers, dock laborers and factory employees. During World War Two, when times were getting better for workers on the mainland, Puerto Ricans still sul zes, unemployment, and a severe wartime shortage of food Industrialization and Migration Operation Bootstrap was @ post-World War Two economic development program formulated by the Puerto Rican government. It attracted manufactur- ing concerns, mainly from the United States, with the promise of land, tax breaks and cheap labor. Its sponsors promised economic miracles to solve an increasingly desperate situation. But the companies coming to Puerto Rico did not provide anywhere near the number of jobs promised. At the same time, the industrialization of the island by such companies continued! to swallow up land, displacing farmers and other rural dwellers and workers. A recent study, for example, estimated that Puerto Rico’ agricultural labor force declined by 78 percent between 1940 and 1979. Even island government figures admitted hat Operation Bootstrap could not lift Puerto Rico out of economic misery unless its people lft the istand in enormous numbers, One official suggested that ift least 60,000 people did not leave Puerto Rico per year, unemployment would continue to rise.> Another stated that Puerto Rico could export strong and intelligent workers the way other nations exported petroleum or sugar:® By the Operation Bootstrap era, there was already a strong precedent for this migration, Since becoming United States citizens in 1917, many Puerto ‘MARI \, BE GONZALEZ, “Migrant ‘Workers: A Forgotten Sector Clanidd March 28, 1971 Tnerestea in having direct contact ‘vith some migrant workers and becoming acquainted with thle prob- lems se went up wa neighborhond om the outskis of bonito where there lives community almost all of whose members migrate ta worl on Unuied Sates farms: ‘Alera couple of hours on the toad ‘we found the barie of Algarobas almost hidden among, the imposing mountains ‘of he central mountain range: We stopped infront of the litle store ofthe atea and there we met Don Felipe. Felipe Gonzalez, one of the com ‘muy eaders, cod us why the mien ‘began fo emigrate from the barr of Algartoos, “We cultivated this farm which used to belong to Jose Camino. We planted pigeon peas, plantains, corn, Tomatoes, all Kinds of produce, and we sold i. We gave a third of the earnings to Senor Canina, We had elle, pigs, hhens. When the propery passe ino the hands of Bon Rurico Diaz he turned the farm over to cate since that was shat he houight i fo He didn’ allow iso callin it and since he didn ‘want auy shafeeroppers to have any part ‘off they've had to go over there [tothe United States) in search of beter lie “They would have preferred to work here bbat sce they dont have a place o ‘work they have 1 go there”icans hadl come to the mainland in search of jobs. Most settled in New York City. By 1940, there were at least 60,000 Puerto Ricans in the city. By 1950. the number was 250,000 and by 1960, over 600,000." By 1047, the New York daily press sounded an alarm over the numbers of Puerto Ricans flowing into the city. They claimed that there would not be enough jobs and soc: services to accommodate the migrants, But the Pue 10 Rican government would not discourage migration that helped to ease the pressures of unem: ployment on the island. In the meantime, United States labor needs offered an enticing solution to these problems. Since the nineteenth century, large landowners, builders and factory owners throughout the United States had benefited from an almost unrestricted flow of overseas labor to work the least desirable jobs for the low I Laws severe. est wages possible, But beginning in the 1920s, a series of fedet ly limited the number of immigrants who could come into the country each year. Additionally, by the post-World War Two era, many United States citi ens were employed in factory jobs. Often, these jobs were well-paid and pro- tected by the unions fought for by the workers for decades, Agricultural work, on the other hand, was poorly paid, physically strenuous and harder to unionize than industrial work ® It became increasingly difficult for growe: to find people willing to work on their farms. By the 1940s, thousands of Puerto Ricans had migrated! from the island to fill such gaps in agriculture and heavy industry. Facing unemployment ot underemployment at home, many Puerto Ricans had become contract workers in a variety of places. For decades, people {rom all over Puerto Rico had bee: recruited by government representatives, farmers, ancl owners of factories They signed contracts where they agreed to work in far-off places for a speci- ied period of time, Puerto Rican contract laborers toiled in fields andl mines n Cuba, built railroads in Ecuador, and labored in United States industries during World War Two. Puerto Ricans played an especially vital role in United States agriculture AL the beginning of the twentieth century, for example, the Hawaii Sugar Planters’ Association brought Puerto Ricans to the Hawaiian islands to cut cane oon huge sugar plantations alongside a virtual United Nations of other workers, inclucling Japanese, Filipinos, Chinese, and Portuguese. In 1926, hundreds of rom “How io Hire Agricultural ‘Workers Faom Puerto Rico.” pamphlet, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, no date ‘eeause Puerto Rican workers are US elizens they are par of this cour tuys domesti labor force, Seasonal demand for agzteltural workers slow tothe [sland at the time when demand ‘igh in most areas of rae US. mai: land. Thus, mainland employers have the resource of thousands of workers from Puerio Rico avalable fo the har vesting of mainland crops, Most work: ers have jobs and famalies aslting their -euurn to Puerto Rigo hen mainland harvests are through, Every year thousmnds of Puerto Fieans come io the mainland mder a ‘work agreement between the workers sand farm employers, which is approved by the Commonwealth govennmen. ‘This agreement is mutually beneficial, Doth io workers and employers. I, quar- nse workers devent wages, housing and other Fringe benefits Workers ean als be recited fom the Puerto Rico ‘Hureav of Employment Secunty by migans ofthe Interstate Clearance Procedure ofthe Employanent and ‘Taining Administration of the US ‘Department of Labor. Employers benefit ‘because they are assured ofa stable and abundant workforce, available of shor term detnand. The Migration Dhislon ‘of the Puento Riean Labor and Hunan Resources Department asits inthe recrulimient, orientation and arrange ment of transportation of workers Field representatives ofthe Migration Divisions ate always available to Investigate gre ancesand (help solve whateyer dt ‘oties might arse on the mainland Puerto Ricans who have come 16 the mainland under agricultural work ‘agreements during the lat 30 years have ‘been employed in Comecticnt, Delaware, tinois, Indiana, Maine Maryland, Massachuses, Michigan, Minnesota, Nev Hampshire, New Jersey, ‘New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode sland, ‘south Carolina, Wisconsin, Ohio, ‘Virginia andl West Ving. “They have worked the following ‘Tops asparagus, toratees, onions, ppeiches, apples, beans, peas, trawher- ties, potaioes, cherties, sweet corn, mushrooms, sugae Beets, pickles, egg. plants, eaulilowers, lettuce, cranberries,