(Vidaenelvalle) - José Mendoza came to the United States when he was 35-years-old. He left his native poverty-stricken small village in Santa María, Oaxaca, México to work in the San Joaquín Valley’s abundant fields.

For 25 years he labored as a farmworker, picking cotton, tomatoes, grapes – and packing garlic, oranges and various other fruits and vegetables.

Although Mendoza is now 76 years old and past his retirement age, the wages that were provided to him as a farm worker –— and most farm workers in California – are simply not enough, he said.

“As you get older, you get tired and it’s hard to do this type of work because it’s not easy and you have to work a lot to earn enough money to just survive and pay your bills. When I slowed down a few years ago, I lost my home because I could no longer pay for it,” said Mendoza.

When Mendoza first came to the United States, he waited a few years to bring his wife to California. When she arrived, a series of health complications ensued and a diagnosis of diabetes from a doctor would eventually end her life.

Farm work, he said was unable to provide sufficient wages for him to pay her medical bills.

“This is the only job I know how to do and it is the only job most people who come from where I come from know how to do. So we hope that it will provide us with a good living in the United States,” he said.

Being a farm worker came with many challenges, mostly from contractors who withheld his wages, time and time again. Once, he was the victim of wage theft and said, he has worked more than his fair share of hours just to earn a decent pay check. That is why he wants these conditions to change for current farm workers and others who plan to do this kind of work in the future.