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Another problem caused by the fire is the loss of wages for field hands in Ventura County’s fruit and vegetable farms.

In the summer months, when the days were longer and there was more to be done, field hands worked fifteen to sixteen hours, six days a week.

He said he had little trouble finding field hands, including migrants who move from farm to farm with each season.

“My first memory of her cooking her fried chicken was seeing my grandfather and the paid field hands walking up out of the tobacco fields midday hot and sweaty,” reads the submission.

Bakersfield sees itself that way too, a place of battering and renewal; a town of Merle Haggard songs, passing trains and the muddy boots of field hands.