Mexican guest workers: It was a good year.

ROYAL CITY — As he ate his last dinner in America for this year at Royal’s La Cabaña restaurant last Friday evening, guest worker Ramón García of Oaxaca state in Mexico had between $50-80 in his pockets.

The rest of his earnings in 2015 were already in a bank in Mexico, where his family saved it, or spent on family needs.

According to Rafael Avila of Zacatecas, guest workers on six-month contracts can earn from $12-15,000 in Royal Slope orchards and up to $22,000 on a nine-month stay.

García and Avila dined with four other guest workers they may or may not see again. The next day they were to catch airplanes for the trip home. Three of them knew each other before they came here. Now all six are friends.

For some of the guest workers, this was their first year in America. For others this was a common occurrence. Which ones come back next year will depend on which will receive an invitation.

According to García, the guest worker process starts with an invitation, initiated perhaps by a friend or relative here. The company involved then makes the official invitation.

“We met with a company representative in Oaxaca,” he said. “Their must have been about 200 of us at the meeting.”

García said the prospective workers were given the general rules of the contract at the meeting. They could not drink alcoholic beverages in their living quarters, they could not cause trouble in the community, and they had to be at work on time ever day.

“If you did not show up for work and didn’t have a good reason, you got a warning,” García said. “If you did it again, you would incur certain penalties.”

This particular group’s members were regulars at La Cabaña on Friday or Saturday nights, sometimes both nights. The owner, Salvador Nuñez, appreciated their business and their comportment.

“They are always very nice,” he said. “These are very serious men who come to work and earn the money they need.”

“No matter where we went,” García said. “we were treated very nicely by the American people.”

According to García, all of the men were headed home wealthy, by Mexican standards. They could contemplate improvements on their properties and homes or even starting a small business.

“If we stayed in Mexico and worked there, we’d never save any money,” García said. “The money from one paycheck gets you only to the next paycheck.”

The deal these men worked under was good, if not generous. They did not pay for bus transport here nor for air transport home. And they paid no rent because they lived in company housing.

They were all given temporary work visas. They can get another for next year.

“I will come back next year if I’m invited back,” García said.

The general pay, García said, was $12.42 an hour, but the men could earn more when there was piece work to be done. They picked four to six bins a day during apple harvest at pay rates of $17-28 per bin. The pay rate depended on the apple variety.

The men were picked up by bus in Tabasco, Zacatecas. It was 24 hours of straight driving to Nogales, Ariz. They boarded American buses for the 36-hour trip to the Royal Slope.

García noted the group he was in worked six months. They started with apple thinning on April 13 and picked their last apple on Oct. 30.

García said the men worked 8-10 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, depending on the company’s needs.

“The company treated us right,” García said. “By keeping us working, we didn’t have many chances to spend our money.”

No, García said, he hasn’t learned any English. There is no one to practice with in the orchard.

“We’re all Mexicans, and we’re together all of the time. Even the foreman speaks Spanish,” García said.