In Texas and across the Southwest, Hispanic farmers have been fighting the Agriculture Department for close to a decade.
The farmers say the department's Farm Services Agency discriminated against them — denying or delaying loans, and refusing to investigate when they cried foul.
Modesta Salazar stands in front of what's left of the farm in Pearsall, Texas, that her father bought in 1952.
The government settled a similar complaint brought by African-American farmers for $1 billion. And while the claims of discrimination and other factors are almost identical, the Hispanic farmers have gotten nothing.
'Always No'
Noe Obregon, 47, looks exactly like the South Texas farmer he's been all his life: cowboy hat, blue denim shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. Obregon says that in the 1970s, '80s and '90s, it didn't matter what you looked like or how good of a farmer you were. If you were Hispanic in Texas, getting a farm loan from the USDA was like the quest for the Holy Grail.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.Php?storyID=113730694
Posted by Victoria Bell
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