Matt Stockamp's Annotated Bib

1. Jiménez, Francisco. Reaching out. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.

This book is about the life of Francisco Jimenez and the hardships he had in life leading up to his college experiences at Santa Clara. It is a very good resource for me to use as my focus will be largely determined by his father’s personality. Due to his father not being able to provide for his family, he becomes depressed and has many other significant qualities applicable to my project.

2. Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: on (not) Getting by in America. New York: Metropolitan, 2001. Print.

This book places a lot of focus on the culture of poverty. Ehrenreich spends a long amount of time doing a minimum wage job to see if she can get by as an unskilled American worker. Through her behavior at the end of the book, and the behavior of those whom she encounters, the reader can make observations about how one responds with the lack of self value in a low wage life.

3. Schlosser, Eric. "In the Strawberry Fields - Magazine - The Atlantic." The Atlantic — News and Analysis on Politics, Business, Culture, Technology, National, International, and Life – TheAtlantic.com. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. .

This article is an overview of the conditions of workers in the strawberry fields of California’s central valley. It focuses on their mistreatment and the things they struggle with every day such as long, hard days physically, dealing with pesticides, and low wages.

4. Rodriguez, Arturo S. "Organizing Strawberry Fields Forever. (organized Labor in the Nation's Strawberry Business) - Social Policy | HighBeam Research." Research - Articles - Journals | Find Research Fast at HighBeam Research. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. .

This article also focuses on the mistreatment of migrant workers in the strawberry fields of California’s central valley, but especially on the low wages these workers make. Migrant field workers are paid below minimum wage and corporations are very manipulative in cheating their employees. These low wages make life impossible for families in these circumstances.

5. Preston, Julia. "Fewer Latino Immigrants Sending Money Home - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. .

This article talks about a decreasing rate of Latinos sending money back home to Mexico. This is ironic because that is the reason for most immigrants going to America. As life has gotten harder in the US as it relates to wages, Latinos are keeping the cash they make to support themselves.

6. Ivey, Linda L. "Ethnicity in the Land: Cost Stories in California Agriculture." Web. .

This article intends to represent the views of migrant workers in agricultural fields in northern California. It seeks to recover some of the stories obscured by broad brush strokes of California agricultural history by examining the local dynamics of ethnic participation and interethnic cooperation in one agricultural region. It also reveals the truly multicultural nature of the development of California agriculture.

7. Wells, Miriam J. Strawberry Fields: Politics, Class, and Work in California Agriculture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1996. Print.

This book focuses on the economic and political factors that have had a large affect on immigrant fieldworkers in northern California. Wells writes a lot about the different socio-economic levels and how a capitalist system has failed in these fields, reverting back to sharecropping.

8. Maldonado, Marta M. "Racial Triangulation of Latino/a Workers by Agricultural Employers." Web. .

This article focuses on the racism that employers hold over different ethnic groups working in the fields of NW America. While this is not in California, I found that many of the themes in this article resonate with things that happen in California. Recently immigrated Latinos are most valued because they are the most desperate. These employers are abusive, as they create a division of labor.

9. Hastings, Julia, Sarah Taylor, and Michael J. Austin. The Status of Low-Income Families in the Post-Welfare Reform Environment: Mapping the Relationships Between Poverty and Family. 2004. Print.

This article is an overview of low-income families across the US, but is helpful to understand how the culture of poverty works. It dives deep into what happens firsthand in family life, and is an ethnographic work that provides a great contribution in the area of sympathizing with America’s poor.