KPBS On Air
Where Will They Go?
May 1989
They live in the shadows of affluence, in makeshift bungalows of used lumber,
plastic sheeting, cardboard and other cast-off materials. They come from Mexico and Central America seeking a better life. They work as gardeners, housekeepers and day laborers on construction sites. On Sundays they hold church services.
They are the invisible residents of North County; migrant laborers living in conditions more common to Third World countries -- without running water, electricity or toilets. Their camps are nestled in canyons or wherever they find shelter from the elements, usually on rural land that increasingly is being paved over for shopping centers and half-million-dollar homes.
Their presence has heated uneasy feelings among many of their more-prosperous neighbors, who see the camps as sources of crime and unsanitary living conditions and want them dismantled. The story of one such camp in Green Valley near Carlsbad is told in the KPBS Television production Uneasy Neighbors, Thursday, May 11, at 8 p.m.
Homeowners are often at a loss for how to deal with the scores of migrant workers living within a stone's throw of their neatly manicured lawns. "Why should a lady have to call her council woman to tell her that there are men who come into her back yard and steal her fruit and defecate and burglarize the house?" asks Encinitas City Councilwoman Marjorie Gaines.
The migrant workers see a different story. "We come in search of dollars, your precious commodity," says Ramiro Bolanios Huerta, a camp resident in Green Valley. "With one of your dollars we've earned our living for the entire day. You're selfish. You treat us like dogs. That's what hurts us!"
In February, the migrant workers lost another fight in their struggle to eke out a living in the canyons of North County. The residents of Green Valley were served eviction papers by the property owner and forced to move on. None of them knew exactly where they would go next.
"Where will we go?" asks Huerta. "We will continue shivering in the corners like coyotes or dogs or lizards!'