This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the full series here.
For Marisol, it’s not strange to feel aches and pains all over her body when she comes home after work. She picks and packages fruit for farms in Contra Costa County. Even when temperatures rise over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, she’s out in the field collecting cherries, peaches, nectarines and apricots.
Read more Berkeley Extends Surveillance Contract With Flock Safety but Rejects Major Expansion
She knows it takes a toll on her body. “Sometimes you’re so exhausted that it feels like there’s something wrong with your body, and you don’t know if you’re actually sick or just tired,” she said in Spanish.
As an undocumented immigrant without employer-provided health insurance, actually finding out if she’s sick is a luxury. KQED is withholding her full name because publishing it could expose her to potential immigration enforcement. “I either pay my rent or I go to the doctor,” she said.
Read more Carnaval San Francisco Turns Music, Memory and Resistance Into Celebration
Read more Advocates Urge Demolition of FCI Dublin, Raising Worries It Could Become ICE Jail