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A Mighty Hard Road Songs of America's Migrant Farmworkers
This thought-provoking program explores the challenges faced by migrant farmworkers from the Dust Bowl of the 1930's through the Bracero program of WWII, Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers of America, and up to the present day. Using a variety of folksongs ranging from Woody Guthrie to contemporary songwriter Gillian Welch, Jeni Foster connects music with agricultural and social history in America, exploring the dynamics of a complex system and raising questions of fairness versus profit. Times have always been hard for migrant workers in their unending cycle of sowing and reaping. With no job benefits, low pay, squalid living conditions and few opportunities for advancement they labor continually just to survive. Any pleasure there might be in working outdoors is offset by the extremes of weather and exposure to unhealthy chemicals. Many migrant farmworkers are in the country illegally and live in fear of exportation. There is no security in migrant labor and exploitation is common. Click on the player below to hear a bit of "Ghost of Tom Joad" ... Songs of the migrant workers have become part of our American musical heritage, from Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads to the modern bluegrass and folk songs of today. They tell poignant stories of people living outside America's mainstream whose endless toil provides food for our tables. This program runs one hour. |
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