![]() PABLO FLORES: I understand it's the law, but the law can't do anything against a person's will. But it didn't keep him from taking 11-year-old James out to the fields to work right by his side. Pablo, the father of our South Texas family, knew the law about 12-year-olds. And if a kid is in the fields and under age 12 - and we found lots of them – then you've wandered into another world of don't ask, don't tell. So how's this for irony? At age 12, a child can pick blueberries all day long in the hot sun, but, at age 12, he's too young to get a job stocking those berries in an air-conditioned supermarket. Agriculture has always been an exception to the rule when it comes to minimum age in the workplace. Kids seemed to be everywhere in the fields.Īnd here's the thing about kids working on farms: If they're at least 12 years old, they're perfectly legal. It was like old black and white news documentaries coming to life, and it was hardly a shameful practice legislated out of existence. How about this six-year-old? And a two-year-old beginning her apprenticeship? Even more than ten years ago, we were surprised to capture these images of child labor in America. As we got to know Pablo, we realized that he saw a purity to his work, where we'd seen just back-breaking stoop labor. They piled high into their creaky van and pointed it north toward Ohio. citizens all, on their journey to work in the fields. Pablo Flores agreed to take us along with his seven kids, U.S. Eventually, we were introduced to the Flores family of South Texas. A dozen years ago, we wondered what kind of lives they led. Here's Dennis Murphy.ĭriving through farm country, you see them at a distance in the summer haze, small figures in the field picking – the migrants. Over the course of the past year, our cameras have documented a story of hardship, perseverance and love, and sometimes a triumph over adversity. ![]() ![]() They're migrant workers, some as young as five or six years old, working alongside their struggling parents on America's farms. But for some children, hundreds of thousands of them, summer means hard labor in the hot sun. ![]() When most children in America think of summer, they think of swimming, playing and going to camp. ![]() ANNA VILLANUEVA: I'm the first in the family to go to college and get a degree.ĪNN CURRY: Good evening and welcome to Dateline. ![]()
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