ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 12, 1996 TAG: 9608120086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ONLEY
SOURCE: DIANE TENNANT LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
``Maria la blanca paloma,'' they sang as the image of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, was carried across the soccer field on the shoulders of migrant workers.
Mary, the white dove, who came to the Americas to bring peace.
Above them, the white bird of the Eastern Shore circled, a gull looking down on the fiesta and the workers who came from Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Haiti.
This is the peak of the migrant season, when about 5,000 workers flock to the Eastern Shore to pick vegetables. This, too, is the high point of the season for St. Peter's, when the Catholic parish hosts a ``thank-you'' Mass and party.
``We are members of one church and one people of God,'' said Stephen Colecchi, who oversees the migrant ministry for the diocese of Richmond, which includes eastern Virginia.
``The church needs to be on the side of people who are on the margins of society, even at the margins of the church.''
The crowd was smaller this year than in years past. Organizers blamed it on the beautiful weather. Two weeks of rain had kept many workers out of the fields - and out of a paycheck. When good weather finally came Sunday, many were in the farm fields instead of on the church's soccer field.
``I don't know how it's going to be today because a lot of people are working,'' said Leo Bonilla, a native of Colombia who organized this year's soccer matches for the Virginia Council of Churches. Thirty teams were set up for this summer, he said, but it boiled down to two, waiting to take the field as soon as the image of Mary left.
Bishop Walter Sullivan presided over the Mass, but because he speaks little Spanish, most of the service was conducted by others, including the Rev. Daniel Kelly of St. Peter's.
Three bilingual seminarians from Florida and a priest from Netzahuacoyotl, Mexico, helped out this year. They blessed many of the 140 migrant camps along the Eastern Shore and tried to fill human needs as well as spiritual.
``It is a good experience,'' said seminarian Juan Carlos Paguaga, a native of Nicaragua, ``since I am an immigrant as well.''
But, he added, ``It is painful to see the conditions they live in.''
Migrant camps vary in quality, said Kelly, with the best offering block buildings, cement floors and indoor plumbing. ``But a lot of housing - they should take a bulldozer and plow down some of it.''
Colecchi said he has traveled the Eastern Shore widely during the migrant ministry's 14 years. ``If we didn't know we were in Virginia, we would think we were in a Third World nation,'' he said.
``There are many growers who are very good to the migrant workers and provide decent living conditions, and many growers who don't. Our job is to be on the side of the migrant workers.''
The workers who gathered Sunday fell into two categories: families and groups of single men, most in their late teens or 20s. The families came for Mass; the single men, for soccer. But both groups were silent and attentive as children carried a giant rosary across the field, its beads fashioned from plastic tomatoes and heads of lettuce. The cross at the end was formed from two cucumbers.
The workers who pick such crops earn, on average, $4.50 an hour, or 40 cents per filled container. When it rains, as it has for the past two weeks, they may earn nothing.
``As poorly as they're paid here, it's a good salary compared to the country where they come from,'' Colecchi said.
The church, in addition to hosting the annual fiesta, also speaks out politically for the workers, he said.
``Our nation is debating immigration policy that would severely curtail immigrants to our country. To visit out there [migrant camps] is the best argument for why we need to still keep the land of opportunity for people,'' Colecchi said.
``Immigrants contribute more than they take from the economy. You see it in the families that are willing to travel up and down the coast to put food on our tables.''
Many of the migrant workers started in Florida and will end the harvest season in Pennsylvania and New York with apple harvest. During the winter, they return south.
Along the way, the Catholic church will shepherd them from parish to parish and, in Onley at least, throw a party.
``It's real church,'' Colecchi said. ``It's what church is all about: welcoming the stranger, reaching out to the oppressed, walking with the poor. That's what Jesus did. That's what migrant ministry is all about.''
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Landmark News Service. Roberto Acevedo (foreground)by CNBcarries one end of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe during the
procession Sunday before Mass at St. Peter the Apostle Church in
Onley. The diocese holds a fiesta, which includes soccer, music and
dancing, for migrant workers every summer.