Students tried to lift a 32-pound bucket on the Plaza of the Americas on Wednesday.
Chispas, a student-run immigration advocacy group, asked students to lift a bucket filled with weights and rice to see what it’s like to be a migrant farm worker. Migrant farm workers have to carry buckets of produce to trucks, said Mariana Castro, the vice president of external affairs for Chispas.
“I don’t think people understand the physical need to do all this work for such small financial gain,” the UF neurobiological sciences sophomore said. Students carried the bucket about 100 feet, the 21-year-old said. It was provided by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a group that fights for fair wages and safe working conditions for migrant workers.
“They don’t have any protection, so they don’t get basic human treatment,” Castro said.
The groups will hold a march Friday starting on Norman Field for fairer work conditions, she said. Natalia Perez Santos, a UF history and political science junior, said she heard about the CIW last year. She said fair pay and conditions for migrant workers are important to her because she is Latina.
“I could not imagine having to lift that day-in and day-out constantly throughout the entire workday,” the 20-year-old said. She said she plans on attending the march Friday.
“It’s really sad just how unjust their lives can be just from trying to make an honest living,” Santos said.
