Leamington worker tells stories of cartels in Mexico.

 

 

By Shaun Garrity

Every morning Joel Dominguez’s alarm clock goes off in Leamington, Ontario, he wipes the sleep from eyes and feels privileged to have escaped the turmoil in Mexico.

He remembers a simple meal at a restaurant in Mexico can easily be interrupted, when the screeching sounds of tires braking are mistaken as gunfire and sends civilians ducking for cover.

“People are so panicked and afraid, the dangers are every day,” he said.

Dominguez, 33, is relieved to be working in the tomato capital of Canada.

“Me being here is less scary, because if I was in Mexico there could be confusion and someone could shoot me.”

There are limited options in Mexico, men Like Dominguez can work for less than $10 a day, join forces with a cartel or, in some cases work out of country. Instead of choosing a life with a cartel, his choice was to work because he cares about the well-being of his family.

“They just don’t kill you they kill you and your whole family,” said Dominguez.

“I have eight friends and they got killed by these gangs and two relatives. My uncle and my cousin, they just take them from their house and they make them disappear.”

 

Cartels have a major influence over life in Mexico. The ones who are not part of that movement suffer terribly- the poor mainly, Dominguez says.

Almost half the population of Mexico is living in poverty. Mexico has more than 120 million people, which means 50 to 60 million people are malnourished and lacking acceptable shelter. Even worse more than 20 million children are growing up deprived of food and a place to live.

With all the chaos caused by gangs and the lack of decent paying jobs, the wise decision few Mexicans make, is to be employed in Canada.

It was all just a dream to evacuate the place he calls home, until the chance arose when Dominguez was listing to his trusty AM/FM radio in his kitchen. Most Mexicans only have a radio to use as their form of communication to the outside world. A voice in crackled Spanish on a radio station mentioned the opportunity of working in Canada. He jumped on it.

Dominguez said this was something him and his family agreed he must do. Seven years have passed and he’s been in Leamington each year since. He is part of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program. It`s a project organized by the Canadian and Mexican government, which began in 1974 with a small turn-out of 204 workers. Today, the numbers have grown to more than 19,000 employed in nine Canadian provinces. Not only is Leamington the largest tomato producing town in the world, but it also receives the most Mexican migrant workers in the country with 3,000 hard working bodies arriving every year.

Like most seasonal workers in Leamington, Dominguez is employed in a green house and specializes in  picking tomatoes.

“We have to be selecting the good and bad tomatoes, separating them and growing them.”

His work load is tough, constantly being on his hands and knees. Compared to his previous situation in Mexico this is nothing out of the ordinary for the young Mexican. In his native land when he was young, instead of playing outside like most 12-year-olds Dominguez decided to work to pull his weight. Canadians are privileged, he said adding back home in Mexico, there are children working in rural areas as young as eight. There are no rights or restrictions to tell them differently.

“They don’t give you break time like here, (employees) work really fast, the ones that are not able to do it faster it`s simple they fire them,” said Dominguez.

He said the work is not a problem in Leamington, the most challenging part is leaving his home and not seeing his family for eight months at a time. Back home, his wife and four children, Jessica, 10, Johan, 8, Derek, 6 and Alexa who is 5-years-old are constantly missing his presence.

This distant relationship with his children has taken a toll over the years, said Dominguez. At the moment one of his youngest sons is not taking his absence well.

“It is really difficult, every time that we are on the phone he always asks me, are you coming tomorrow, are you coming tomorrow,” said Dominguez.

“I have to explain to him that there will be a little bit more time they will be waiting.

“It is difficult for them.”

To make up for lost time, Dominguez brings gifts for all his children upon his return home.

“I always pick up stuff that I know we cannot purchase in Mexico, souvenirs, last year I bought a laptop computer, but actually we have to sell afterwards to pay some bills,” said Dominguez.

Movies and commercials of tourism paint pictures of Mexico being strikingly different with terrain stretching from tropical forests to sandy beaches. Avid travelers spend millions of dollars in places like Cancun for the ideal Christmas getaway. As they lay back and experience life in six-star hotels and full massages from head to toe,  possibly down the road a family is gathering scraps to feed their children, this is the existence Dominguez said he lives.

Eusebio Del-Cueto, 60, head of the Mexican Consulate in Leamington, recognizes the hardships migrant workers go through in the place he also calls home. He said to reverse the shortage of jobs and food, a balance of salaries must be created.

“Try to put wages at the same levels, not as in numbers, what they earn here(Leamington) they would be able to earn in Mexico and get the same products and services and commodities, ” said Del-Cueto.

Jaime Munoz, 44, License Officer for the Consulate said the large population of Mexico means an oversupply of workers which contributes to low wages. Munoz also said there is an abundance of Mexicans employed in Leamington because Canadians are not interested in making minimum wage jobs like the ones offered in green houses.

He said migrant workers are satisfied with making $11 an hour, which we as Canadians consider low.

“Canada is the dream for most Mexicans, ” said Munoz.