El Futuro es Nuestro (or It’s Our Future, IOF), one of the fiscally sponsored projects of Southern Vision Alliance, is a worker-led initiative organizing H2A and immigrant farmworkers in North Carolina. We confront exploitative working and living conditions by training leaders, addressing grievances in the fields and labor camps, coordinating mutual aid, organizing direct action, and cultivating labor solidarity. We envision a world in which farmworkers’ human rights are honored and where they are able to work with dignity, fairness, and self-determination.
In May, we were thrilled to break ground on our new plot of land, “El Jornalero” or “The Laborer”, as named by our worker leaders.
Despite the intermittent rain, volunteer supporters and IOF farmworker leaders came together on Sunday, May 4 for the blessing and dedication of our new tract of farmland which will one day house all our operations, hopefully including an emergency housing for injured or fired farmworkers; an agricultural cooperative where we grow our own crops; IOF offices; and an assembly hall.
Around 60 volunteers and members worked together on various projects: hauling away the remains of an old burned building into a dumpster, cutting down trees and debris to clear land, moving bricks, planting the first round of crops, and preparing a meal to be shared by all. Workers and long time farmworker supporters were joined by volunteers new to the struggle from community organizations, universities, unions, and sustainability projects. But the camaraderie, labor, and sense of purpose were inspiring to us all, especially during such troubled times.
Reverend Kaleb Graves, a pastor from Durham, joined the event to offer a moving blessing of the land. As he prepared to pray, he held up a special cross. “This cross is made of wood from Palestine, a place often called the Holy Land. And one might ask, what makes land holy? Some might fight and kill because they say it is ownership of a special place that makes it holy. But I would say it is the people who work on a land, who live on a land, that makes land holy. And so from the struggle of Palestinian farmers across the sea to rural NC with its tobacco fields and cucumber fields, it is the workers that make land holy. The greatest land blessing you could have done today is splitting bricks from that pile.” In the prayer that he offered, Rev. Graves also reminded us that we are all here on this earth, not “merely to work, but to live: to eat good food, and listen to good music, and have good conversation, and love one another. And may that be the blessing that continues from generation to generation upon this land.”
Learn more about the work of El Futuro Es Nuestro on our website, where you can also sign up for our newsletter and make a donation to support our work.
