BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — As a teenager, David Valadao had a long list of chores to do before school every day. He'd jump on his tractor, buck hay and feed the family's dairy cows on their Hanford farm. After school, it was more of the same.
When Rudy Salas was a child, he woke before dawn to join his father in the Central Valley fields. He worked piecemeal, boxing up grapes and fixing machinery. When he injured his fingers doing repairs, his father would tell him, "put some duct tape on it and tell me about it later."
Valadao and Salas represent, at least symbolically, two of the largest forces fueling the Central Valley — the farmers who drive the area's agricultural industry and the workers who harvest the food that feeds the nation.
