- My dad worked in the orchard picking apples or doing the cherry harvest.

- He was working since he was 10.

He hardly ever missed a day of work.

He was one of the supervisors who have the bus and have his own crew.

He would have to go early in the morning, 3:00 AM, to go pick up the workers at the camp.

Some days my dad wouldn't even come home 'til like 9:00 PM.

And I know that Gebbers was checking the temperatures and he never showed a fever.

And so he continued to go to work.

It was my dad showing symptoms, then my mom, then my sister.

- They never even called to see how he was doing.

Every day, I will continue to be upset because I didn't get to see him and I didn't get to say my goodbyes.

He was the greatest role model.

I am who I am because of him.

It's been very hard for me to let go.

- [Christina] Here in central Washington, the Latin X population is roughly over 50% because of the agricultural work.

We have a lot of orchards and warehouses, packing sheds.

A lot of migrant workers come and H-2A workers.

- I am first generation Mexican American.

Growing up, I remember I was about eight years old and my parents started working in the fields.

My parents couldn't afford a babysitter.

We used to sleep in the bins and I just remember having fun with my sister.

Waking up late, see where our parents were, and they were usually up on the ladder.

I learned from a young age that they were struggling.

It takes a lot of physical labor to be out there.

Moving ladders, being exposed to the heat in the afternoons, being exposed to the cold weather in the early mornings.

You're covered to be safe from the chemicals that are on the trees.

- [Edgar] If you live in rural, rural parts of Washington where there's no cell phone service or any kind of communication, nobody will hear from you for days.

- [Bryan] You don't get any sick days, no health benefits.

You're basically just working to live day by day.

- [Edgar] It's not just one bad employer.

We see it as almost a systemic problem 'cause we've been seeing it over and over and over for many years here in Washington state.

- Me and Eduardo come from immigrant families, who escaped a really hard life in Mexico.

We're here to contribute to society for a better life.

- [Edgar] When we first heard that there was an outbreak in an H-2A farm and the one in Wenatchee area, we sued the state because a month in, there still was no plan to protect farm workers.

- [Dr. Perez] Often they offer a carrot, right, before we come with the stick.

And so the state department of health and the governor's office offered carrots to the growers and to the people who run these processing warehouses.

- [Rebecca] When the state had offered to do free COVID testing, only one agricultural employer out of about 80 accepted.

- And it's because they don't want to know.

If they actually tested and found out, they'd have to send people home and then it wouldn't be able to get the work done.

Feeding this nation is important, but it also cuts into the profits and it cuts into workflows.

- The industry had a real challenge catching up to the expectations because of the lack of supply.

And so we had all this personal protective equipment on back order.

It's gonna take a little time for everybody to come into compliance.

There's a lot of education that had to happen for employers and employees.

- [Edgar] Some growers do respond good and take the proper precautions.

There's also some that just don't.

We had the growers that were only interested in keeping the production going.

You know, one of the workers even told us that, you know, what's going to happen if we pass away here?

Like, are the body going to get sent back home to our families or is this is where we get buried?

So it became really apparent to us that we were expendable.

(foreign language) - [Male Voice] A big shout out to all our young folks here today.

You are the future.

You gotta continue fighting, utilize your voice and fight for what you (indistinct).

- [Erandy] Today, I come here to fight for what is right for our farmers.

Not just here in Washington, but in all over the nation.

We cannot allow companies like Gebbers to put farm workers' lives in danger over profit.

I will fight for farm workers because no one deserves the pain that COVID-19 has given us.

- [Bryan] I doubt that many people are informed of the struggles of farm workers and what happens on this side of the mountains.

You don't really need a pandemic to really find the extreme conditions that farm workers experience on a day-to-day basis.

When you have a history of exploitation on top of that, you have a pandemic, you're just adding more to the fire.

- [Dr. Perez] You go and take a look at who's in the back cooking the food, who's doing the cleaning, who's doing the harvest of the food, transporting the food.

If there weren't for Latinos, this country would not run.

We are critical to the infrastructure.

We're critical to the economy, but we're also critical to the (foreign language).

That's the Spanish word for the flavor of this country.

We matter, we're important.

And we need the resources in order to take care of our communities.

- [Female Voice] This series is made possible by the generous support of the port of Seattle.