Farm life is strenuous. Days begin before dawn and end long after dusk. But, my grandfather, Otto Gensler, has lived this life for eighty-six years. He grew up in a poor farming family but through self-determination hard work, and dedication, he has worked his way up to become a highly prosperous farmer in northern Illinois. He has accomplished this in a variety of ways, one of which includes growing fresh produce to supply to food-processing companies. Growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables requires a huge amount of labor and can be quite tedious but by commitment and resourceful methods my grandfather's farm became a flourishing farm enterprise.

My grandfather moved to the Rochelle area from Metamora in 1950 along with his wife and children. He had always grown corn but also added fields of soybeans and wheat. Unfortunately these crops were not profitable enough to support the needs of his family. In the late 1950s he was offered the opportunity to grow tomatoes and asparagus for the Rochelle-based company, Campbell's Soup. He jumped at the chance. Since there was no machinery to pick and plant the vegetables my grandfather hired Hispanic migrant workers to assist him. In the winter of 1958 he traveled to San Antonio, Texas, and hired a field manager who would find willing workers. He returned to Illinois with the verbal agreements of thirty-five workers who planned at the end of April, to drive up with their families in caravans. When they arrived, the migrants settled into the two-room shacks he built for them, and off to the fields they went.

Days were long and laborious for migrant workers. Men, women, and children over the age of thirteen were expected to work from six in the morning to five at night, six days a week. My mother remembers the long days in the field, "The sun was always hot and it seemed that no matter where you looked there was miles of tomatoes to be picked." The season started with the planting of tomatoes in early May; then crops were weeded two or three times a year by walking up and down the rows with hoes, pulling out weeds. Finally from late August to September, tomatoes were picked for the companies, local fresh produce stands, and grocery stores. When the last tomato was shipped, the migrant

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workers packed up and left for harvest time in the next state.

My grandfather was not the only man who hired migrant workers to help work his fields. Area farmers hired approximately a thousand migrant adults a year to work. Most of the work was with tomatoes, but some grew carrots, peas, green beans, and potatoes. Produce was sold to Campbell's Soup, Heinz, Libby's Soup, and Del Monte. The field manager supervised the migrants as they worked the fields. The farmers looked to the production of corn and soybeans, for even though the fresh produce crops were profitable, they did not earn enough to support a whole farm. Workers were paid by the bucketful of tomatoes, which averaged a minimum of $1.25 an hour. The field manager accounted for the buckets as they came in. For this, he would earn around $1.75 an hour. These may seem like low wages but actually they were higher than what an average worker was paid. The only difference was the migrant's work was unreliable and they were never sure where they would be in the next month. The money that they earned growing fresh produce had to last until the next growing season wherever it was at.

Even though most workers continued to live a migrant life, some decided to stay in the Rochelle area. "One out of every ten families were able to find jobs and move here permanently," according to my mother. Today Rochelle has a large population of Hispanic-Americans based on the workers who migrated there. Because the Hispanics were predominantly Catholic, St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Rochelle began to offer Spanish masses on Sundays. Grocery stores offered a greater variety of Mexican foods and ingredients. Communication became a problem between the local population and the Hispanic workers. Most Hispanics could only speak a little English, while most of the local people did not know any Spanish. My grandfather, even though he worked with Hispanics for over thirty-five years, admits that he did not understand everything his workers said. Fortunately, as more and more Hispanics moved here, communication improved.

As modern technology increased, the use of migrant workers diminished. Newer equipment could pick and plant more efficiently than manual laborers. A tomato planter modified by my grandfather planted twice as many plants as the workers in half as much time. The huge food processing plants moved out of the Rochelle area, and shipping prices were too high to send produce to them. Dependable workers also were difficult to find because most Hispanics wanted steadier jobs that they could depend on for work. In 1982 my grandfather stopped growing fresh produce and tore down the worker's housing.

Growing fresh produce helped farmers in the Rochelle area thrive. The use of Hispanic migrant farm laborers increased their chance of success and higher yields when the use of machinery was almost non-existent. My grandfather was one of the men who took advantage of producing vegetables for commercialism. He will be remembered throughout the community as a dedicated man and hard worker. Farming practices enabled farmers around Rochelle to have an influence on the business operations and everyday life in the Rochelle area by introducing the Hispanic culture and finding a new supply of crops to grow to compete in the modern farm market.—[From student historian's interview with Susan Gensler Burke, Sept. 22, 1999; student historian's interview with Otto Gensler, Sept. 22, 1999.]

38 ILLINOIS HISTORY / FEBRUARY 2000