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Hudson Valley sculptor highlights plight of Hispanic farm workers

Sept. 15 marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, and News 12 is celebrating by featuring a Hudson Valley sculptor who is using his art to shine light on Hispanic farm workers.

Nadia Galindo

Sep 15, 2022, 9:33 PM

Updated 811 days ago

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On a hot September day, Wilfredo Moral jammed to music as he worked on a new sculpture.
"Today, I'm creating the monument for the town of Red Hook." said Moral. "Image of a hook that will be placed in the center of town."
He is working on the piece at his fabrication studio located in Red Hook at the Greig Farm.
"I'm using reclaimed metal and those are metals that once were used in tools at the far," he explained.
Some of his pieces are on display at the Greig Farm, others are scattered across the Hudson Valley.
"Some of the pieces you see they do have some kind of animal shape or figures such as human shape and those are basically parts in my life where I have some interaction with the farm workers," he said.
The half-Dominican, half-Haitian sculptor said much of his work focuses on the plight of Hispanic farm workers.
"You tend to forget that Latinos or Hispanic are not just in urban cities or in the suburbs," he said. "They are the farm workers, they are the foundation of the harvest, they are the ones that work the long hours."
He said as Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated, people should not forget to celebrate Latino farm workers.
"My sculpture again it is to remind us that farms still need the farm workers, still need us, and we really need to bring them on and we need to be aware of that," he said.