Times investigation: Hardship on Mexico’s farms, a bounty for U.S. tables
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Workers wait to dump tomatillos into a cargo truck near the coastal pueblo of Teacapan, Sinaloa. Large, bright green tomatillos like these are favored by exporters. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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At the end of the day, Roma tomatoes are ready for transport in Cristo Rey in the state of Sinaloa. Half the tomatoes consumed in the U.S. come from Mexico. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Laborers load broccoli at a farm in Vista Hermosa, Michoacan. Broccoli is not typically featured in Mexican cuisine, so much of the harvest is exported to the U.S. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Broccoli is harvested in Vista Hermosa, Michoacan. No restrooms are provided for farmworkers. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Laborers at Campo San Emilio, Sinaloa, sleep in their windowless rooms on vegetable crates and scraps of cardboard. Juan Hernandez, far right, wanted to visit his ailing wife in Veracruz. “But if I leave, I lose everything,” he says. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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After a long day of work, laborers crowd in the bed of an open truck. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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International Greenhouse Produce operates one of the largest contiguous greenhouse complexes in North America. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Richard Marosi is a former Metro editor for the Los Angeles Times. He previously reported from the U.S.-Mexico border. Marosi was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 for his series on Mexican laborers and in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of immigrants who were deported from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years. He has delved deeply into Mexico’s drug wars, producing a groundbreaking series on the Sinaloa cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club Award in 2009. In the early 2000s, his corruption investigations in Southeast Los Angeles County contributed to the indictment or ouster of a dozen politicians and city officials. Marosi is a Southern California resident but remains loyal to the Giants, 49ers and Warriors of his native San Francisco Bay Area.
