On the wall of the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center hangs a picture so small, dark, and faded that you might pass it by without a glance, if you didn’t know to look for it. In the picture, a woman in a full skirt and bonnet sits on the seat of a rusted tractor, orchard trees spread above her head. This woman, Hatsumi Mishimoto, is an Issei (Japanese immigrant to North America) and farmer who settled…
I push the bell on the front door of Bessie’s green, Hood River farmhouse and count to sixty, but am met with no answer. The only audible noise is a faint knocking in the distance, a sound I attribute to the farm workers lining the surrounding country roads. I ring again and wait another minute before deciding to try my luck at the back door. As I walk around, I hear the knocking again, louder…
“Hello, I just want to introduce myself. My name is Emma and I am conducting a research project, traveling around the country and collecting stories from immigrant women in agriculture. I heard about your market and was wondering if there might be someone here I could talk to.” It was not my normal way of acquiring research subjects. Usually, these conversations materialize after a couple of emails back-and-forth, a forwarding to a co-worker, a referral…
Adelante Mujeres means “women rise up,” an apt name for an organization invested in empowering and educating low-income Latina women and their families. Since 2002, Adelante Mujeres has lead programs in early childhood education, Latina girls empowerment, conflict management, sustainable agriculture, small business development, and healthy food access. I had the pleasure of volunteering with the Adelante Mujeres Sustainable Agriculture Program during one of their CSA packing events, and plan to volunteer with them again. On…
The first time I wondered if I knew America was when I moved to Iowa from Connecticut for college. I couldn’t remember the first time I saw the ocean, but looking out over the endless fields of corn and soybeans for the first time seemed as close of a comparison as I could imagine. In Iowa, billboards advertised tater-tot stuffed cheeseburgers and the only vegetables I could discern in my veggie omelet were canned…