“Nosotros Sufrimos Mucho,” (translated “We Suffer Much”) by Rochester photographer Dr. Joseph Sorrentino, is on display through May 31, 2006, in Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center.
The images reflect life in the mountain villages of Oaxaca and Puebla, places Dr. Sorrentino visited as an outcome of his work documenting Western NY farmworkers, virtually all of whom were from Mexico. Traveling up to 3,000 miles to get to Western NY, farmworkers may go for days without work (and without pay) and then work 12 or more hours a day (without overtime pay) for as long as the farmer dictates. Yet tens of thousands of Mexicans continue to work on farms in Western NY. As one farmworker advocate stated, “I can’t imagine the conditions they’ve left to travel that far…and do the most difficult labor here.”
While Dr. Sorrentino has done a lot of work documenting homelessness and poverty in the U.S., nothing prepared him for what he saw in the mountain villages. Just getting to the villages required a seven hour bus ride, three hours in the back of a pickup truck, followed by a strenuous 3 1/2 hour trek through the mountains. Many villagers make their living growing coffee. When it’s time to sell their coffee beans, some must walk over seven hours with 70 pounds of coffee on their backs; the coffee brings them less than 40 cents a pound. In addition to the exhausting work, there’s the unrelenting heat and humidity, diseases like cholera, dengue fever, malaria and tuberculosis, and poisonous snakes.
Dr. Sorrentino’s work spans traditional, black and white, and digital imaging; from personal and reflective to documentary and proactive. Born in Staten Island, Dr. Sorrentino received his Ph.D. in Biology from SUNY Albany. Before moving to Rochester, he lived for 14 years in Philadelphia, where he organized a soup kitchen and began documenting the lives of homeless people. He has been a member of the Rochester Zen Center for more than two decades, and is a contributor to City Newspaper.
For additional information: http://www.sorrentinophotography.com/ or
Contact: Joseph Sorrentino joso1444@usa.net
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