Huron, California May not Exist in a Year (Congress created the dust bowl)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141231/huron,_california_may_not_exist_in_a_year/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_workplace

By Viji Sundaram, New America Media. Posted July 9, 2009.

The unemployment rate in Huron in recent months is “off the charts.”

As you drive down Highway 198 toward the tiny Central Valley city of Huron, yellow-and-black signs poke out from parched fields with a message that harkens back to the days of the Great Depression: “Congress Created Dustbowls.” congress

The signs, believed to be the handiwork of the Central Valley’s agricultural industry, reflect a collective cry of desperation from a community of about 7,300 Mexican immigrants, who have made this Fresno County town their home, with hopes of realizing the American dream.

That dream, many of them are finding out, is increasingly getting more and more elusive.

It certainly is for Maria Ramos, 57, a widow and mother of three, who was laid off a few months back after working for 25 years, sometimes as a farm hand and sometimes on the assembly lines of an onion packaging plant. At the time she was let go, she was making the minimum wage of $8.25 an hour. She’s not sure she’ll find another job any time soon, given the current water crisis Huron and many other Central Valley communities are experiencing.

“There are a lot of people in my situation,” Ramos said in Spanish through an interpreter, adding: “We don’t know where to go; there are just no jobs.”

“No water, no jobs,” is the dismal mantra you hear everywhere around Huron these days, as a combination of a long-standing drought and a federally enforced diminished supply of water from nearby lakes has turned this once bustling city half way between the giant metropolises of San Francisco and Los Angeles into a land of the hungry.

FULL 3 page story and photos at link.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. Interesting. Hadn't heard of this situation until you posted this article. Thanks

[pennylane100]

2. I wish all the citizens of Huron well

and hope that better times are ahead. However, after living here 25 years, it would certainly improve your employment chances if you could speak the language. At least that would open up other avenues of employment other than the backbreaking work in the fields.