Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
to turn this unpleasant aspect of the job to his advantage: ''If the foreman
was hanging around being a pest, you just started to spray over where he
was standing. At first I didn't know how to do it, but my god-father taught
me how to work.''
Cantalisio maintained that a skilled escopetero could avoid getting
splattered by the spray, but the details of his storycontradicted this claim.
For instance, he wore a handkerchief over his mouth and two shirts. He
alsoputasackoverhimselftoabsorbthespray:''Ihadconfidencethatthis
would protect me and I didn't believe that my body was exposed.'' How-
ever, he changed his mind after his wife discovered something unusual:
Iusedtosleepinabedmadeofleather.Onedaymywifesaystome,
''I was cleaning and I noticed that the underside of your bed is blue.''
I told her, ''Damn, I'm not going back to work with that stuff.'' My
body—and there was nothing on top of the bed. It was the under-side
that was blue. When I realized this, I told myself, ''This means you're
poisoned.''Ineverwentback...itscared me to see my bed so blue.
I remember that I worked with a shirt and then the sack on top, and
still the poison penetrated my skin.
81
Cantalisio worked ''about two or three years'' in Sigatoka control. He did
not complain about any acute or chronic health problems resulting from
hiswork,butherecalledan''unconscientious''coworkerwhodidnottake
any protections and suffered from chronic health problems. For Cana-
lisio, the perception that spray work could be dangerous was not linked
to the onset of personal health problems, but rather to the realization that
the Bordeaux solution could penetrate his body in spite of his improvised
protective gear.
The memories of other former workers contain similar themes and
images. For example, Neche Martínez remembered starting the day off in
white clothes and ending in blue-green ones. After a few weeks on the
job he recalled, the blue penetrated his skin.
82
In fact, every former spray
worker with whom I spoke recalled the blue-green stain that penetrated
theirclothingandskin:''whenyousweated,itwasblue,''oneassuredme.
83
BricioFajardo,anex-StandardFruitemployeewhoworkedasbothaman-
guerero and escopetero, explained''wealwaysusedtocallit'poison'—it
turned people blue-green.'' But Fajardo believed that the spray did more
than stain clothing and penetrate the pores of human skin: ''It [Bordeaux
spray]alsokilledpeople;itkilledmanypeople''
84
Although his memo-
ries of workers dying on the job resonated with the fate Don Braulio in
