CPOY 72 Documentary Award of Excellence: On a Migrant's Back
Rosalino Santiago Garcia knows the United States better than his home country of Mexico. He has spent the majority of the past 14 years away from his small village in the Mexican state of Oaxaca while working in the tobacco fields of Kentucky. He's had to say goodbye to his wife and kids several times over the years, but the benefits are apparent.
In March, Rosalino and his wife, Sabina Garcia Pacheco were able to throw a proper wedding celebration, surrounded by some 500 family and friends in the rural farming village of Santa Ana de Miahuatlan.
Caption
Slide 12 of 12
March 25, 2017
Santiago Garcia and his wife, Garcia Pacheco, wait to have a lasso placed on their shoulders by their sponsors during the couple’s wedding ceremony. The lasso is a staple of Hispanic weddings and symbolizes the couple’s everlasting union. The two were officially married five years prior in a civil union, but it wasn’t until March that they could afford to throw a proper celebration after they saved enough of the money that Rosalino earned as a migrant worker in the tobacco fields of Kentucky.
Nick Wagner / Western Kentucky University
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