Allyson Hallman: Life and Debt/A Small Place

     I really enjoyed reading A Small Place, but I thought about half of Life and Debt was boring and dry. I enjoyed the book mostly because Kincaid talks about how the first colonization of the Americas by white Europeans was the beginning of the Caribbean’s problems, and being a Spanish major, I’ve spent literally eight years learning all about that colonization. (The Spanish major at WCU should really be renamed “Conquest Studies” because we learn about it in every single class, but I digress.) I’ve read several texts by indigenous authors from the 1500s about the Conquest, but I hadn’t read anything written by modern Caribbean authors, specifically about how the Conquest’s repercussions are still pervasive in the islands but we don’t explicitly recognize that yet, so I found Kincaid's writing to be pretty interesting.

     With regards to debt and its risk, I’m interested in the resurgence of small farms in the United States. I’ve worked at an orchard as a cashier in the store for over 4 years. We’re considered a small farm—we have about 200 acres of land, and we’re such a small business that we have 20 employees total (excluding the owners). I absolutely love my job for many reasons, but I’m consciously putting myself more in debt by working there. However, I refuse to leave a small business to work for a corporation just to make more money. My parents pay for a part of my tuition that isn’t covered by a scholarship and loans, but if I worked for a corporation making more than what I do now, I wouldn’t need a single loan. Although our farm gets amazing support from the community and we’re thriving now more than we ever have before, our employees are not. 16 of our 20 employees are Latin@, and their wages are not sufficient for them to survive on their own. The only reason our field guys (who work 75 hours a week) aren’t in debt is because my bosses guarantee them free housing—but in turn, their hourly wage is less than what it would be at a farm where they wouldn’t live on the property. The highest paid employee in the store has worked there for 7 years and only makes $2 more than minimum wage. After 4 years at the farm, I’m just barely making more than minimum wage. But my friend who has worked at Walmart for 6 months is making almost $2 per hour more than me.

     Obviously I don’t think that’s right, and it’s certainly different from farm to farm. But watching Life and Debt made me realize that although I’m not exactly content with the financial decisions of my bosses, I have no room to complain compared to the banana plantation workers in Jamaica. If they’re lucky enough to keep their jobs and not be replaced by workers imported from Asia, they don’t get paid in USD like the Asian workers do, so Jamaicans make exponentially less money doing the same hard work. And obviously the corrupted banana industry with its laws and monopolies doesn’t help matters at all either. I thought I was underpaid, but I realize the privilege that comes with living in the United States, so I have a bit of a new perspective on it.