Immokalee's Intersting Past and Exciting Future

I like to think I watch the history channel but honestly my television is rarely plugged in, much less watched. It’s safe to say I was stunned by how engrossed I was in the Immokalee videos assigned; I even enjoyed the assignment, shocker! This tremendous amount of history literally in our backyard, I had no idea how colorful Immokalee’s past is and how bright a future it has.

There were many communities represented in the video, most of the early years focused on the old Florida farmers. These are the men that built Immokalee and started the agricultural industry that is still in effect today. The Seminole Indians were a huge part of the birth of Immokalee; it was even named after the Seminole word for “my home”. Immigrant workers were also depicted in the video near the end, regarding the people who harvest the crops now and how machinery is changing this custom. The whole story has a sense of teamwork between all the communities that share Immokalee and through history these people have come together to help this area prosper.

Compared to where I grew up Immokalee is like a whole different planet but there are some similarities I can relate to. In Holland there are a lot of cows and farming is widespread, but I grew up mostly in the city. Furthermore it’s hard to imagine having a community with only 47 farmers and a land that’s hardly been touched by humans. Most of the land in Holland is manmade and has been farmed and lived on for hundreds of years by thousands of people, and good luck finding anything like and Indian! One thing I could relate to was the community all knowing each other and helping one another, most of the people that lived in my community were like a family and were similar to the structure of people in Immokalee.

I think Immokalee is both the new and old American Dream, it was uncharted territory for farmer to come and make their own, which was the American dream. With its evolving communities and adaptations to the changing industry economy it’s becoming the new American Dream. I think the Farming industry will never die in Immokalee and the introduction of other industry will grow exponentially. In the video the army noted that it’s a very central location in Florida that once this is noted by business will move in and around this budding community. I think in ten years Immokalee will grow more than estimated, I feel the people of Immokalee want expansion and will embrace it. In ten years Immokalee will be a beautiful city with a whole style and mindset of its own.