11 Cutting lettuce
Lompoc
A young worker cuts lettuce in a field near Lompoc. Lettuce workers are paid piecerates, bending over constantly and practically running through the fields. After years of this kind of work, they often have to have operations to fuse the vertebrae in their lower backs. The median age for farmworkers in California has been falling for many years, and the average age is now around 20.

photographs and stories by David Bacon © 1990-1999

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