COVID-19 Pandemic Response in a Migrant Farmworker Community: Excess Mortality, Testing Access and Contact Tracing in Immokalee, Florida

Introduction: We aim to estimate the impact of COVID-19 in Immokalee, FL and assess community experiences with workplace conditions, access to testing, sources of information, and contact tracing to inform and strengthen local public health sector efforts in reaching and providing high-quality care to the community. Methods: We conducted a descriptive analysis of data on COVID-19 deaths for Collier County from May-August 2020. We surveyed a cross-sectional, randomized representative sample of 318 adults living in Immokalee from March-November 2020 to assess socio-demographics, sources of information, ability to follow guidelines, and experiences with local programs. Results were compared across language groups. Results: Average excess mortality in Collier County was 108%. The majority surveyed in Immokalee had socio-demographic factors associated with higher COVID risk. Non-English speakers had higher workplace risk due to less ability to work from home. Haitian Creole speakers were less likely to be tested, though all participants were willing to get symptomatic testing and quarantine. Those participants who tested positive or had COVID-19 exposures had low engagement with the contact tracing program, and Spanish-speakers reported lower quality of contact tracing than English speakers. Conclusions: The community of Immokalee, FL is a vulnerable population that suffered disproportionate deaths from COVID-19. This study reveals language inequities in COVID testing and contact tracing should be targeted in future pandemic response in Immokalee and other migrant farmworker communities

Cosecha Voices: Migrant Farmworker Students, Pedagogy, Voice, and Self-Determination

In this article, Stephanie Alvarez, José L. Martínez, Annabel Salamanca, Erika Salamanca, and Roberto C. Reyna share the impacts of Cosecha Voices, a pedagogical approach used with college students from migrant farmworker backgrounds at one of the largest Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the United States. They argue that Cosecha Voices affirms, validates, and humanizes the migrant farmworker experience and can help students not only unpack and document their migrant farmworker experiences but also strengthen their sense of self-empowerment. Utilizing testimonio, students are able to affirm and find strength in their migrant farmworker lifestyle that helps support them through their college journey. This Voices: Reflective Accounts of Education essay centers the voices of former program participants in its analysis of program impact and offers a program description, personal reflections from participants, and future considerations for similar research.

On becoming “essential”: Coronavirus lessons of ontology- from the migrant farmworker and us who consume the fruits of her labor

During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, the migrant farmworker came to be deemed as ‘essential’ worker, thereby complicating discourses of ‘illegality’. This moment presents an ontological paradox, allowing means for examining the simultaneity of discursivity and materiality within the migrant farmworker as subject. Reflecting upon the ‘ontological turn,’ this article presents four lessons of ontology: post-representation, a focus on objects/artifacts, posthumanism and the politicizing of ontology, gained from interrogating the unraveling of discourse about the migrant-other in the time of coronavirus. These lessons coalesce in the entwining of the powers of discourse with the presence of the tangible, to understand the profound contradictions between a social structure that doesn’t want the migrant as neighbor and a capitalist economy that needs her as laborer. In closing, the article considers how shifting the gaze inward as consumers and then outwards unto our relationality can be a political act.

Parent-Adolescent Communication as a Protective Factor Against Adolescent Alcohol and Tobacco Use: Reported Narratives From Youth From Latinx Farmworker Families

Due to high stressors and inequities, youth from Latinx migrant farmworker (LMFW) families may experience an elevated risk of early drinking and smoking. Parent-adolescent communication can protect against early initiation, but few researchers have explored this parenting practice in LMFW families. This qualitative study used youth-reported narratives to examine messages LMFW parents convey when discussing drinking and smoking, if these messages varied by age, youths’ feelings toward these discussions, and if these discussions promoted resilience against drinking and smoking among youth. Twenty-four LMFW youth (67% boys, Mage = 13.88, 79% born in the United States) were recruited from a summer Migrant Education Program in Indiana. Using thematic analysis, five themes were identified from youth interviews: (1) mostly older youth used substances, but nearly all youth stated that parent’s expressed disapproval toward underage drinking and smoking; (2) parent-adolescent discussions left youth feeling positive and confident; (3) parents used consejos to communicate about alcohol and tobacco; (4) parents were lenient toward drinking and smoking in older male teens; and (5) some parents did not offer reasons for why youth should avoid drinking and smoking or rules pertaining to these substances. Our findings have implications for research and interventions aimed at fostering parent-adolescent communication in LMFW families about alcohol and tobacco use.

Teachers’ perspectives on communication and parent engagement in early childhood education programs for migrant farmworker children

As early childhood education programs in the United States increasingly serve a growing number of children from linguistically and culturally diverse families, understanding teacher practices to better serve these families continues to be an important focus for the profession. In programs that serve migrant farmworker families, little is known about teachers’ communication practices and ways in which teachers promote parent engagement with migrant farmworker families. This article explores the practices of teachers relevant to family communication and engagement in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs, a branch of Head Start program for farmworker families, mostly of Mexican origin. This study used qualitative methods of in-depth interviews and a focus group to bring forth the perspectives and lived experience of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking teachers working with farmworker families in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Key findings illustrate the role of shared language and culture, mediated language barriers, the reliability of interpreters and written communication, and authentic ways of creating home–school connections with the migrant farmworker community.

On the Road to Discover My Mayan Voice

Dina Hernandez is from Morganton, NC where she lives with her husband of three years and their dog, Bandit. She recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a BA in Spanish (June ‘19). She currently works as a Spanish interpreter at the Good Samaritan Clinic and as a Tele-behavioral Health Coordinator for the Migrant Farmworker Health Program. Her parents are originally from Huehuetenango, Guatemala and speak Akateko. They migrated to the United States in the 70s and from there have created a family here in the US with their five children. Dina is the youngest of her siblings.