Raquel, seen at 18, picks strawberries in the Salinas Valley. She started working in the fields when she was
11 years old to help her immigrant parents. She graduated from high
school with a 4.0 grade point average and attends college. She dreams of becoming a nurse and using her
Spanish and Mixteco language skills to help her community. She described entering a field where a tractor had sprayed chemicals that made her feel dizzy. She also says she has worked
piece-rate jobs that paid less than
minimum wage and labored in fields
where employers failed to provide shade on hot days.