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daughters she says, “Every time my daughter looks for a job, they neglect to give her a job because her mother is in the strike.” “All my life I have worked in the fields,” she says. She began when she was 17. “I never go to school because my parents were very poor, I had to work to make money.” She was paid 50, 60 cents an hour; other times up to $3 a day. She starts work sometimes at 5 o’clock; “there’s no limit of hours”; on bad days there’s no work, and she has work perhaps three days out of each week. She has worked in the fields of many other states. “I have been struggle all my life. We are paid too little, and we want to be paid the minimum wages of the federal law.” As for the long road from Corpus Christi to Austin, “with God’s will and help, and the energy and enthusiasm I have, make it.” Senora Gregoria Ramirez Villareal, 41, of La Joya. A widow with one child, Juan, a 14-yearold who has been marching most of the way with her, she was born in Georgetown. She went to work in the fields, she vaguely remembers, at about 13 or 14. She is paid about $4 a day for days that start at about 7 and end about 5:30; there is not work every day, and sometimes when there is she can’t go out, as she has been sick. She gets dizzy while working in the fields. A doctor at Sinton gave her a shot to help cure her. She is in the march, she said, “because I am one of them that wants $1.25, and I’m for justice.” Of the union she says, “I believe in it. There are so many poor people that need help. Some of these people don’t have enough to eat.” So far she has not had dizziness on the road. “If God’s willing, we will go to Austin.” 2 The Texas Observer Candida Rosa, 34, Garcerto. He has worked in Los Puertos, cleaning the fields and doing other field work; for ten-hour days his pay has been 60 and 70 cents an hour. He has five brothers and four sisters. He has worked since he was about 14; his family do not migrate because “we can’t afford to leave the state. We’re so poor and cannot leave mother and father, because they are also very poor.” He walked from Rio Grande City to Corpus Christi to get a union and to live better in Starr County. He is married, and he and his wife have two children. She is pregnant again, and he left the march at Corpus Christi by bus Sunday to see her through her two or three days at the hospital. After that he planned to come back to the march and walk on to Austin. Julia Ana Ramirez, 24, La Joya. . Senora Villareal’s sister, she has been working in the fields ten years, since she was 14. Sometimes she works from 7 to noon, sometimes from 7 to 4 o’clock; some times her pay is 45 cents an hour. She is walking, she says, “for justice.” She was not working when the Starr County strike began, but “I am with the union.” “We were trying to get hope from the governor to change his course,” she says. “We waited so long and give them a chance, and still nothing has happened.” Valdemar Garza, 29, Rio Grande City. An unsmiling, hardy man, he has been designated as the representative of the Starr County National Farm Workers’ Assn. in the march. He has six sisters and two brothers; he is single. Sometimes he works in the field, and sometimes he does a little carpentry or painting. In the fields he makes 50 to 80 cents an hour; in other work, sometimes $6 or $8 a day. “Right now,” he says, “I’m asking for a little wages-$1.25 for the people all over Texas, not only Rio Grande City-and at least to be treated like humans. I been walking since I got out of Rio Grande City, and I plan to go all the way to Austin and see what we can do about this thing. The governor ought to receive us in a very special way. He has to invite us into his office, and he’s gonna give us what we are asking for. If he doesn’t, I know it’s gonna be really an election.”‘ North to Austin The rest of the marchers’ schedule: Aug. 5, Sinton toward Mathis; 6, Mathis; 7-8, rest; 9, Tynan; 10, Skidmore; 11, Beeville, 12, Normanna; 13, Pettus, 14-15, rest; 16, between Pettus and Kenedy; 17, Kenedy; 18, Karnes City; 19, Falls City; 20, Poth; 21-22, rest; 23, FlOresville; 24, between Floresville and Saspamco; 25, Saspamco; 26, Southon; 27, San Antonio; 28, rest, visit the Alamo; 29, Selma; 30, New Braunfels; 31, between New Braunfels and San Marcos; September 1, San Marcos; 2, Kyle; 3, Buda; 4, arrive outside Austin; 5, march into Austin, followed by a rally at the Capitol steps.