Voces from La Planta centers the voices of meatpacking workers across California, Minnesota, Colorado, Mississippi, and Washington. Workers whose labor sustains the nation, yet whose lives are too often made invisible.

The meatpacking industry has been built on extraction: of labor, of bodies, and of communities. For over a century, companies have generated enormous profits by relying on a workforce that is deliberately made vulnerable and disposable. What is often described as “stability” in these regions has, for many, meant instability, exploitation, and exclusion.

This oral history project challenges that narrative.

Here, workers speak and fight back. In doing so they demonstrate unwavering resilience and hope for a better future for their families. These oral histories document migration journeys, unsafe workplaces, surveillance immigration enforcement, displacement, organizing, joy and love. Through their testimonios we witness resistance, organizing, care, and a desire to build community across difference while fighting for dignity and respect on the line.

As you explore the website and engage with the art we ask you to carry these testimonios with you. To question the systems that make meatpacking labor invisible, and to consider your role within them. What would it mean to stand in solidarity with the workers whose stories you have encountered here?