“Maybe I am.” But Enrique didn’t want to ask her out again just yet. He had to be certain that he wasn’t leading her on. Their fake romance was over—clearly there was no benefit for it to continue, as Enrique was certain that her father despised him.
If Enrique was going to date Carolina and deal with all the obstacles that might follow, it would be for real.
She gave him a wry smile. Hopefully, she wasn’t hurt by his teasing. She walked them over to a man standing near a huge industrial plowing machine.
“Enrique, this is Manuel. Manny is going to show you the ropes this morning.”
Enrique paused. “I thought you were going to take me around the farm? I have a bunch of questions for you specifically.”
Carolina’s lips spread into a wide smile. “Enrique, I grew up in these fields. I picked berries in the hot sun until my skin burned and I would collapse from exhaustion. But somewhere along the way, Ifell in love with the fertile soil. The pride from growing the produce that ends up on tables. As I got older, I kept digging into the dirt until my fingers bled. Now it’s your turn. You want to learn about my farm, aboutme? This is where you start. I’ll see you later.”
And with that, she turned and walked away.
Fuck. This was not how Enrique had expected his day to go.
But a wave of guilt washed over him at his own disappointment. He was painfully aware of his privilege. He needed to be out here laboring with other farmers to truly understand what farm life was like, if he could ever hope to be a fair owner.
Why had he never done this before? This was a great way to find out firsthand about the real challenges farm employees faced, his included.
Manny spoke to him in Spanish. Despite Enrique’s best efforts, he didn’t understand him at all.
“Yo no entiendo,” Enrique eked out. God, what a nightmare.
Manny nodded. He led Enrique to a row of strawberries, handed him a box, and wordlessly showed him how to pick the fruit.
Enrique crouched down. Manny’s hands worked the crops like a machine. Enrique, however, was slow and awkward. As he looked out on the endless harvest, he tried to imagine what his life would be like if he had been born on the other side of the border. He was twenty-eight. Would he have had a wife and family to support by now? Would he have decided to cross in hope of a better life for them?
Manny was kind and patient with Enrique. For the next few hours, they picked. Then, as the sun rose hot on their backs, Manny finally signaled to Enrique that it was time to take a break. He reached into his lunch box and gave Enrique a bottle of water and split a chorizo burrito with him.
And it tasted better than any he had ever eaten. Was it because he was famished and so grateful for a warm meal? The foil it had beenwrapped in was still hot to the touch and the chorizo was spicy and the beans were mouthwateringly delicious.
Lunch break ended as quickly as it came, and it was back to work. But this time, Manny escorted him out of the fields to a windowless building, where many female workers were packing fruit into boxes. At first, Enrique thought that this would be easier than picking the fruit, but he was sorely mistaken. The ladies were fast as their hands moved across the strawberries, sorting the good ones from the bad. At least the small warehouse had air-conditioning. Did the warehouses on the farms the Montez Group contracted with have proper ventilation? How did he not know the answer to that question? What a jerk.
After returning to the farm several hours later, this time to focus on artichokes, Enrique was spent. Those sharp little leaves hurt when they stabbed into his hand. He loved eating these little globes—grilled with garlic in between their leaves, paired with a lemon aioli. But he had never once realized how hard it was to pluck these prickly monsters from the ground.
Carolina eventually walked toward them; her skin glistened in the afternoon sun.
When he saw her, Enrique ran and hugged her like he was a Marine returning from war and she was his loyal wife back home. Her laugh melted some of the ache in his arms. She was a bright spot after a hard day’s work.
“How’d you do?”
Enrique wiped the sweat off his face. “I’m not going to lie. That is some difficult work. I get why you wanted me to pick the fields first before talking about partnering with you—I needed to see how truly arduous this was. I’m just mad at myself for never actually working in the farms before.”
She nodded at him; her eyes were bright. “Well, why would youhave? You’ve never had to work if you didn’t want to. When I read your email after Blanca showed me her reply, all I could think about was how entitled you were. A rich man from a successful company reaches out to a small farm and insists they give him a full tour, share their trade secrets, and partner with them? I couldn’t imagine it.”
He winced. “Yeah, I guess it was pretty arrogant of me.”
“It was, but it’s okay. You said you wanted to partner with an ethical farm, and that’s all well and good. But that isn’t the only point, Enrique. Your company is currently contracted with other farms that don’t treat their farmworkers well. You need to fix those places. Those workers need you. You asked for my help, but you don’t need it. You are smart and you have resources. Talk to the workers; listen to their complaints; provide them medical care. Get to know these people by spending a day on their farm every few months. And if the farms you work with don’t comply, then don’t work with them. And for fuck’s sake, learn Spanish.”
Enrique winced at her direct honesty. “You’re right. I was looking for a quick fix. I’d heard that you treat your workers well, and I thought partnering with your farm and imitating whatever systems you had in place for your team would alleviate my guilt. But the only real way to evoke change is to operate from the ground up. Thank you for helping me realize this.”
She grinned. “You’re welcome.”
He took her hand. “But it isn’t true that it was just for the farm alone. After I read your article, I felt almost called to meet you. I’ve read lots of success stories featuring women, but I didn’t drop everything to find any of them. I guess I wanted to feel more of what you invoked for me in that article. A sense of purpose.”
She gleamed. “Well, I’m happy that I inspired you. I know you came up here to see the farm, and I’ve barely shown you any of it. Isthere anything else you’d like to learn about my farm? What do you really want to know?”
Enrique exhaled. He had been running over this very thing in his head.
