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National Geographic : 1973 Oct
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Reaching for a better life, Mexican workers daily cross the border to jobs in the U. S., where the pay is higher, and return nightly to homes below the border, where living is cheaper. Green cards, inspected by a U. S. immigration officer at Calexico, California (left), permit them to settle in the U. S. if they wish. Lettuce pickers like Jugo Olivas (right) earn as much as $8,000 during about eleven months of varied field work. Their earnings have risen in recent years, in part because of union influence. But now they find themselves caught in a fierce rivalry between Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers and the Teamsters. The fight has included strikes, angry con frontations, and violence. Higher U. S. pay each year draws some 300,000 wetbacks - illegal entrants from Mexico -and authorities return most (below). But if a worker is lucky, he may avoid detection until he has earned a few weeks' pay and accumulated an onion sack full of possessions. National Geographic, October 1973 562
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