Author Mark Torres and Long Island Migrant Camps

Esperanza and Irwin welcome author Mark Torres, author of Long Island Migrant Camps: Dust for Blood. Mark's background as a labor lawyer helps us dig deep into a shameful, and not well known recent history. There were numerous labor camps on eastern Long Island to house workers for the numerous farms of eastern Long Island, on both the North and South Forks. The 29 camps in 1951 grew to 134 by 1958. Riverhead to Greenport was nicknamed"Migrant Alley". Living conditions were dismal, mistreatment rampant, with clear racial undertones. Mark shares these unsettling stories from his research. We'll bring it into the present day, and how the service workers of today are often living in overcrowded conditions, or in the woods.