Ruben Navarrette: Where guacamole really comes from
By Ruben Navarrette
Posted: 08/13/2011 08:38:42 PM PDT

I'LL never look at guacamole the same way.

I'm standing in a grove of avocado trees on a ranch about 40 miles northeast of San Diego. Even for someone who grew up in the farmland of Central California, I've never seen anything like this. The trees are hunched over and on a hillside, about 20 feet apart. The ground is moist, not dusty like the fields back home.

I'm going to need a guide. I have a good one in Al Stehly, the organic avocado grower who owns this land. Stehly is a third-generation farmer but doesn't look the part. The 55-year-old pulls up in a hybrid car, and greets me dressed in shorts, T-shirt and tennis shoes. This is farming, San Diego-style.

It's 10 a.m. and about 75 degrees, just right for this finicky crop that doesn't fare well when it's too hot or too cold. In California, there are only a handful of regions where the weather is suitable for growing avocados. This is one of them.

Supply is one reason you're probably shelling out $2 per avocado at the supermarket. One dollar goes to the grocer and the other to the farmer who has to pay for equipment, water, fertilizer, packing - and workers.

Ah yes, the workers. They're the reason I'm here.

I've been hearing some far-fetched theories from members of Congress. Get rid of illegal immigrants, some insist, and Americans will gladly do the jobs that are left behind.

Farmers don't know whether to laugh or cry. They know better than anyone that these olks are doing -- as George W. Bush used to say -- jobs that Americans won't do.

Like picking avocados. There are five pickers tucked back amid the trees. They've been out here since 6 a.m., and they'll work until 3 p.m. They will spend all day with a leather sack around their necks, climbing up and down ladders, and then carrying the ladders from one part of the grove to the other.

One tool of the trade is called a "picking pole." It's a 10-foot plastic shaft with a clipper at the end and a small basket attached. The picker holds the pole while standing on a ladder. Yanking a string, he clips a few avocados into the basket. Then he pulls in the pole, collects the avocados, and transfers them to the sack around his neck. Later, he will dump the avocados into a bin.

Workers earn $60 per bin. A fast worker can fill three bins per day and earn $180. An average worker makes about $120. The law requires that a worker be paid at least minimum wage.

Now guess what ethnicity these folks are. Or what country they're from. Here's a hint: At lunch, they ate tacos.

The supervisor is from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, and he's been working in the fields for 25 years.

When I ask if he thinks Americans could do these jobs, he is diplomatic but honest. He doesn't think so.

While Stehly doesn't believe that Americans won't do these jobs, he also doesn't buy into the idea that immigrants take jobs from Americans.

"If there are people who want to work," he says, "there's work in agriculture."

You heard the man. Don't push. Not everybody at once.

Ruben Navarrette's e-mail address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.



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