When you work in a factory and you're on a production,
line one of the most important things,
especially if you're the new kid,
is keeping up because if you fall behind,
everyone falls behind.
And that puts the most important part
of the day-- the most important parts of the day off,
which are your break, your lunch, and what else?
Going home, right?
So you want to keep up, especially when
you're the young kid and you're surrounded by men.
"Grinding Pork"-- "I lifted a box off a 2,000-pound pallet
of shoulder, stripped the cardboard,
then heaved the block into the meat grinder.
The grinder banged against the floor.
And I feared if I turned my back,
the grinder would tip over and blindside my head.
At the bottom of the grinder, ground pork
filled a bin I gave to Guillermo, who dropped
the pork into the mixer.
He added spices, vinegar, and water
and rolled the pork to the sausage stuffers.
We're falling behind, Guillermo said.
Go faster.
Guillermo grabbed a carton and tossed the block
into the grinder.
Watch out, he said.
He cracked two more cartons across his knee,
pushed each block through the blades, and mixed the batch.
This was my first day grinding pork.
And I watched the crew, men who rolled up their sleeves
and worked themselves into a sweat in a freezer.
Production starts with me, I said to myself.
I threw up a box, ripped away the cardboard
before the pork hit the grinder, and, when I finished a pallet,
I called for more pork.
The crew saw that I had caught up,
that I had lined up the bins for the mixer.
But when the fat became packed in the treads of my work boots,
I slipped, and my head slammed against the grinder.
Unfamiliar with this work, I understood not how
the men returned each morning with nothing
but work in their eyes.
I understood that I was grinding pork at 6:00 in the morning,
that I was tired and cold, and that I
felt a knot on the back of my head that made my legs weak.
Guillermo helped me up and said, andele!
We still have three hours until break."