Bright red in color, juicy, aromatic, and sweet, strawberries enliven pies, fruit juices, ice creams, preserves and milkshakes, and they help to empower California's immigrant population.

Building planting beds, weeding, watering and harvesting is laborious work for California's strawberry farmers, 65 percent of whom are of Mexican descent.

The report "Growing the American Dream: California Strawberry Farming's Rich History of Immigrants & Opportunity" documents immigrant pioneers and investigates why so many immigrants are drawn to strawberry farming. According to the report, strawberry farming supports an environment for small farmers to run thriving businesses.

Strawberries can be produced in high yields from small plots; there is year-round harvesting, meaning steady work for immigrants to feed their families; strawberry farms are typically on rented land, which means that individuals don't have to put up a great deal of capital to purchase land. The sweet fruit is always in high demand, and they take the title as one of America's most nutritious and favorite fruits. Latinos have become a visible part of the industry, as 25 percent of Latino strawberry farmers in California started out as field workers.

"Strawberries have given Latinos more ownership opportunities than any other major crop. Latinos now comprise two-thirds of strawberry growers in California, where 90 percent of the nation's strawberries are grown," Gosia Wozniacka said to Associated Press in July 2012.

The $2.3 billion strawberry industry is led by many Latino growers who were once former pickers, or they're the children of field workers who progressed to renting or owning their own land. Immigrant families in the strawberry industry have decided to capitalize on their own hard work and entrepreneurial spirit. They work the fields, learn the business, advance as a foreman or equipment operator, and then excel as manager or owner.

"If you want to work hard, grow strawberries.This is the only thing I know how to grow. I've got the American Dream and I can't ask for anything else," said Alfredo Ramirez, who arrived to the United States from Mexico at the age of 18 without knowing English.

Ramirez opted to work hard and learn English by memorizing five words a day. He became an American citizen in 2001, and he now supervises Lassen Canyon Nursery's Manteca operations.

The California Strawberry Commission, the state government agency that represents more than 400 growers and 100 shippers and processors of California strawberries, published the report that helped to shine light on strawberries' effort toward the upward mobilization of California's immigrant population.

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