|
Working in Connecticut
Puerto Ricans came to Hartford
to earn money by working in factories, harvesting tobacco, and processing
chicken.
Lay the Path
for Others
If there was prejudice…then, it was not getting in a job… And there [were]
two things that I was looking at, number one, I wanted to be a cop and
I wanted to be a darned good cop. And number two, I wanted to lay the
path for others that would be behind me. And if I were to start a fight
in the police department I'd go out. No, I couldn't do that. I couldn't
damage myself, my family, my co-Puerto Ricans… So I took it.
Juan Román 
Listen in English (72
KB MP3 - 1,139 KB WAV)
Working in 'La
Chicken' - Chicken Processing
…I arrived, it seems to me on a Saturday and on Monday I began to work…
The same man [that I met in Puerto Rico] got me a job in 'La Chicken'
[a chicken processing company]… I was earning seventy five cents an hour
in 'La Chicken'. That was peeling the hens… But in that I worked until
3:30 in the afternoon. Afterwards I began at four until twelve at night,
which was the shift they gave to the girls who were in school… I used
to earn forty-two dollars, and from that I sent fifteen to my mother every
week. With fifteen dollars you could do a lot because that was in 1950
when things were very cheap… I used to pay my rent. One paid at least
twenty-six dollars…everything included… The little apartment was furnished…and
they gave you sheets, they came and changed the sheets and all that. That's
how Hartford was.
Joaquina Rodríguez
Listen in Spanish (117 KB MP3
- 3, 939 KB WAV)
Recruiting Tobacco
Workers
We used to
compete with Green Giant and asparagus, beans and other recruiters from
this area, that used to go there, like me. I remember …each of us…getting
up on a chair, and sell our product. And you tell them what you offer,
and of course Green Giant would say, "Don't go to tobacco, because…tobacco
kills people" …And then I used to say, "Well if you want to pick asparagus,
go ahead and do it, because you've got to keep on going all day, up and
down, up and down, up and down, your back is like [swollen]"… We used
to make fun…and then the people - they know exactly where to go anyway.
They wanted to…go wherever they had relatives.
Juan Román
Working Tobacco
…These people
were being fed poorly. Besides there was no health care at all. There
was no participation in religious groups. See, these people were just
like in a camp with a guy with a gun. So we start raising hell with that
and fighting with the farmers in the tobacco industry.
Florencio Morales
Listen in English (57
KB MP3 - 901 KB WAV)
The work was very
dirty, and if it rained you still worked… If it rained today, well the
next day when you got there it was muddy... [The pay was] 50 cents an
hour.
Haydee Montalvo-Feliciano
Harvesting and
Processing
When we the students went to work, the plants were already quite high.
So we had to tie them below with a string… You had to cut this string
with your finger… You had to put on a tape…it was on your knees, we had
to be kneeling...through the rows…of tobacco…for miles, tying each plant…
Going down and getting up, down and up, and very carefully so as not to
touch a leaf, not to bend it… When we are tying the plants on one side,
there are other already harvesting to take [the leaves] to the sheds.
Haydee Montalvo-Feliciano
Listen in Spanish (118
KB MP3
- 4, 171 KB WAV)
Helping Puerto
Rican Tobacco Workers
….Mainly
I was an interpreter in the farm camps…because the workers didn't speak
English… I spoke English, I was an English teacher.
The boys came [to
the] tobacco cultivation work and they had rooms, camps where they slept,
and they made their own meals. I was with them, I ate with them.
They were farmers…tobacco
harvest, seeing to the tobacco plants, and in the evening they returned
to the camps, to make their meals and entertainment. I was in charge of
the entertainment, to bring them religious services and films, and religious
literature. They were very entertained. They spent peaceful nights.
José Negrón
Listen in Spanish
(72 KB MP3 - 2, 297 KB WAV)
Segregation in
the Tobacco Fields
I went to work in the tobacco [fields]… I made friends with a black girl
from Florida and I sat under a tree to eat lunch with her… The supervisor
didn't want me to be with the black girls… I said to her, "But why do
I have to go with my group? What are you trying to tell me?" She said
to me, "No, because the blacks can't be with…the whites"… I remember that
I said to her, "What?…I am Puerto Rican" …She says to me, "That doesn't
matter, but you're white." I said to her…"What do you mean, white? " And
she says to me…"If you don't want to lose your job, obey [me]"… I didn't
obey, and she dragged me, she pulled me and she took me by force… When
I turned around…my black friend was crying.
Haydee Montalvo-Feliciano
Factory Work
The environment [at Royal]…was quite friendly. Because they saw the Puerto
Ricans in the factories over here were considered as good workers…and
the opportunities were there, for example…the companies that employed
a large number of Puerto Ricans, which were Colt, Underwood, which was
also a typewriter factory, and Royal. All of these factories had many
Puerto Rican employees. And they were treated well… There was no disparity.
Juan Colón
Listen in Spanish (72 KB MP3
- 2, 291 KB WAV)
|
