Leandro works on Clecio's crew. He arrived in the U.S. from Brazil the day after Thanksgiving and will be returning home at the end of April. Leandro's English is slightly better than my Portuguese, so Clecio was nice enough to translate our conversations. The first thing I noticed about Leandro was his positive demeanor. It would be pretty easy to complain about the type of work in which he was engaged, but Leandro was quick to smile and he appeared to have a great relationship with Clecio. In my experience, it takes a special person to leave your family and home to journey to a country where you don't speak the language, know little about the culture, have very few acquaintances, and earn your living by the sweat of your brow. Since his family owns and operates a produce business in Brazil, I focused the five questions on that part of Leandro's life.
What is your job title? Shop owner
What do you like most about your work? I love being in contact with people...our customers.
What is the hardest part of your job that no one knows about? For me, taking care of the finances is very stressful.
If you weren't doing this work, what kind of work would you be doing? This is it. My family has been in the produce business for so long, it's all I know.
If you could go back in time and talk to yourself at age 16, what would you tell yourself? Be more persuasive with other family members about the direction of the family business. We made some poor decisions that cost us money and I should have spoken up.
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