From the Chicago Tribune:

Benito Baca and Tony Ramos worked in Pierson's ferneries since they were 5. Children of Mexican immigrants, the boys worked after school, cutting foliage used in flower bouquets.

If one fell behind cutting leaves, the other pitched in so they could make baseball practice, said Baca, who still recalls working in cold, damp clothes after Florida's heavy rains. During summers, he says, the black shades that protect ferns from the sun intensified the humidity underneath.

"It was so humid, you immediately started to sweat. It was so hard to breathe," Baca, 31, said.

These days, the men's sweat is plowed into their own agricultural businesses. Baca and Ramos are among a growing number of Hispanics in the U.S. who have gone from field hand to farm operator. Baca started a business more than a year ago setting up irrigation systems at local nurseries and new subdivisions.

Hispanics going from field hand to farm owner