Juan Antonio Salas

How does it feel to grow up during the time of segregation and “separate but equal” but also during the time of MLK and Cesar Chavez? Juan Antonio Salas with Mexican ancestry born on october 4th 1950 but born in Texas was there though things like segregation in the school, working on the fields, Including now with the Political climate that we are now facing. Imagine working on the field with the burning sun on your back filling up crates and bags only to earn less than a dollar per crate or bag. In Texas every morning Juan Antonio Salas would walk to school that was about 4 miles away so during the week he would stay at his grandma’s house and then on weekends go home to his mom and dad. In Texas seperate but equal might have seemed equal but though the eyes of a student it wasn't Oregon on the other hand everyone went to the same school even went to the same classes and ate at the same cafeteria except they ate apart. Classmates would call him names and tell
Señor Salas would pick potatoes for 3 cents a bag and 25 cents for 12 crate of strawberries to survive his whole family had to work. His Father got a GI loan because he was in the army but to this day Señor Salas does not have an idea of how his mother was still able to put food on the table and have those corn tortillas ready to eat. Even though it was very hard work Señor Salas still rose and became the manager of a farm for about 25 years. He would also be approached by undocumented people that wanted a job sadly if they told him that they were undocumented by law he could not fire them but some gave him a number that was fake just like that he would hire them and when the government sent a letter that said that the number does not match another number was given giving them about one more year to work and it kept going until the employee was tired of