February 2, 2015 - 22:33
The Relationship Between the Migrant Worker and the Earth
In these first few weeks, I have taken a particular interest in the roles that race and ethnicity play in one’s perception of and interaction with the environment, nature, outdoors, etc., such as in Evelyn C. White’s autobiography Names We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity and the article The Multicultural Approach to Ecopsychology by Carl Anthony and Renee Soule. That having been said, for this first paper, I would like to write about the relationship between the Latin American migrant workers in the U.S. and the fields in which they work.
Other than the texts we previously read, the only substantial, tangible inspiration I have for this is the poem provided in the following link: http://www.seattleglobalist.com/conflict-a-poem-for-americas-migrant-workers
As I continue to develop this vague paper topic, I ask myself these questions: How does what the migrant workers gain from the earth compare to what the rest of society gains? How are earth and nature portrayed in artistic representations of migrant farm work (such as poetry)? How can I refrain from turning this into a sociological observation?