Tonight, at 7pm, the Weatherspoon Art Museum will host a viewing of “The Guestworker.” The 53-minute film, featured in the 2006 PBS “Voces” program, looks at the struggles of Mexican laborers & US farmers involved in H2A as well as the historical and practical nature of the program.

Afterwards, the film’s director Charles Thompson will participate in a public discussion along with UNCG Center for New North Carolinians Director Raleigh Bailey, NC State Representative Paul Luebke, and Emily Dixon of Student Action with Farmworkers.

Event synopsis from the Weatherspoon:   

The Guestworker

Although we call the men and women who come from Mexico to take part in the H2A program “guestworkers,” the term “guest” raises a variety of questions. For instance, whose guests are these people who come thousands of miles to work in our own backyards?

Directed by North Carolina filmmakers, Cynthia Hill and Charles Thompson, The Guestworker, tells the story of Don Candelario Gonzalez Moreno who works on the tobacco, cucumber and pepper fields of the Wester Farms in Louisburg, NC. In spite of back breaking labor, unpredictable pay, separation from homeland and family, and no chance for American citizenship, Candelario and his fellow laborers return year after year for a chance at economic betterment.

The film offers an eye-opening look into both the personal struggles of the Mexican laborers and American farmers involved in H2A as well as the historical and practical nature of the guestworker program. Featured in the 2006 PBS “Voces” program. 53 minutes.

A public discussion with the film’s director Charles Thompson along with Raleigh Bailey, Director, Center for New North Carolinians; Paul Luebke, NC State Representative 30th House District; and Emily Dixon, Student Action with Farmworkers follows the film.

WAM@Nite events are sponsored by the Deluxe Corporation Foundation.

Photo: Don Cande, credit Dr. Charles Thompson