The Cherry Pickers Are Working

Radical organization of space turns this lush orchard into a social cross-section of American agriculture. Four migrant workers are on ladders picking cherries, the one at left positioned to appear behind bars. A farmer or crew chief drives a tractor whose size overwhelms the shared space. Far in the distance, two people blithely sunbathe under an umbrella. Beyond them we see a blue lake, seagulls, a large yacht, and what appears to be the Sodus Outer Lighthouse on Lake Ontario. Most disquieting of all is a laborer in the foreground looking directly at us and winking: this is where your cherries come from, and now you know how.

At or shortly before the time of this painting, Juan Cavazos lived in migrant housing at the Long View Fruit Farm not far from Sodus. He had traveled to the US in 1985 from his home in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, having supported himself sketching portraits in the taverns of Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez. A teacher in the Creative Artists Migrant Program Services, Annie Salerno, noticed his abilities at a workshop and helped to support his work, along with the MollyOlga Center in Buffalo (now called Locust Street Art). This painting was exhibited at a solo show hosted by the Geneseo Migrant Center in 1989.

Cavazos, Juan

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Acrylic painting