Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Eric Schlosser

Order Document:
"The Short Handled Hoe"
Source: http://www.farmworkers.org/shorthoe.html and
Balderrama, Francisco E. and Raymond Rodríguez. Decade of Betrayel. University of New Mexico Press, 1995.

Rationale: This source examines the use of Braceros in domestic agriculture. It highlights the poor working conditions in which thousands of immigrants toil. This source chronicles the historical roots of immigrant labor in the United States – an unseen labor force that produces the food we consume.

During the "Bracero" Program the short handle hoe was widely used. The "braceros" still remember the all day long bending, thinning sugar beet fields with this tool.

The use of the short-handle hoe is now illegal in most of the states, although you still find farm workers using it especially in south Texas and in New Mexico.

The following is from Balderrama and Rodríquez's Decade of Betrayel:

"It was a dirty, miserable job that gave real meaning to the term "backbreaking" labor. The work was done with two "instruments of horror" designed by the devil, according to one worker. One was the infamous "short shoe," which had a handle twelve to eighteen inches long. A regular long-handled hoe could have been used, but it was considered harmful to the plants. With the short hoe, there was less margin for error."

 

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