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January 5, 2011 in City
Vestal: Project pairs photography with social action
Tells farmworkers’ stories as they struggle to find housing
Lupe Cortes, left, a health promoter with the Quincy Community Health Clinic, looks at photos taken by Cristian Ramon as the pair document health issues in their community on March 26 at a trailer park in Quincy, Wash., as part of a project called Photovoice.
(Full-size photo)
A couple of years ago, when Kathy Hirschel started as an outreach worker at the health clinic in Quincy, Wash., she was shocked by what she saw as she visited the families of migrant workers.
A mom with an infant and a young child, living in a single-room trailer. That seemed cramped until she came across a family of six living in a trailer the same size. Mom, dad and the two youngest kids slept in the bed, and the two older ones slept on the couch. Wherever she went to visit families, she saw similar stories. Uninsulated homes with space heaters. Families doubled and tripled up. Paper-thin walls. Clothes stashed under beds. Electrical hazards.
“It was really, really – wow. Bad,” said Hirschel, a 29-year-old who emigrated from Peru five years ago. “It was a shock to see the conditions they were living in.”
So when the clinic and a Washington State University professor were launching a project to identify crucial issues among the region’s migrant workers, Hirschel and her fellow promotores – health promoters – knew what they wanted to highlight: housing.
For farmworkers in Quincy, there’s not enough of it. And some of what’s available is astonishing.
The promotores took cameras out into the largely Hispanic community to document the problem. The result is “Photovoice: Housing in the Quincy Valley of Washington State,” a multimedia presentation intended to spur action among activists and decision-makers.
“Basic needs are a huge issue here,” said Mary Jo Ybarra-Vega, a migrant health coordinator at the clinic. “People come in, ‘We need housing. There’s nowhere to live. We’re two, three families in a little travel trailer.’ … We want them to come (work here) but we don’t have anywhere for them to live.”
The collaboration between clinic workers and WSU comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary of one of the more famous pieces of journalism by broadcast news pioneer and famed Cougar alum Edward R. Murrow. In 1960, on the day after Thanksgiving, Murrow’s “Harvest of Shame” shined a light on the wretched conditions of migrant workers – “the humans who harvest the food for the best-fed people in the world,” as Murrow put it.
The differences between Murrow’s report – an old-school bit of broadcast reporting, where the journalist literally stands between the viewer and the subject – and the Photovoice project are stark. In this case, the images, stories and decisions arise directly from people in the community; the Photovoice approach has been used in a variety of social research settings, typically combining photo work with an element of social activism among marginalized communities.
In essence, it’s having people tell their own stories instead of having researchers come in and tell a community, “Here’s your problem,” said WSU communications professor Jeffery Chaichana Peterson.
A few years back, Julie Postma, an assistant professor of nursing at WSU, had been working with the clinic on issues such as public health nursing and discovered the clinic workers had an interest in documenting their work through photos. In the fall of 2009, Peterson got involved and helped introduce the Photovoice approach.
Once the photography was well under way, Ben Shors – a friend and former colleague of mine at the S-R who teaches journalism at WSU – and photography student Tyler Tjomsland helped them edit and shape the final project. (Tjomsland does freelance work for the newspaper, as well.) You can view the results at YouTube and Vimeo; it’s been produced as a DVD, as well.
If the storytelling approach was different from Murrow’s, many of the issues remain the same. We’re still talking about the same problems for migrant and farmworkers – the people who pick your nice, cheap apples.
A third of those people live in overcrowded conditions, according to a statewide survey conducted in 2008 by the Washington State Farmworker Housing Trust. Thirty-six percent reported problems such as rodent infestations or no heat. Forty-two percent paid more than 30 percent of their income for housing. Six percent were homeless.
“We have lots of homeless people,” Ybarra-Vega says in the video. “They don’t call them homeless here. They just call them farmworkers or ag workers or migrant workers. They’re homeless. We need to have and afford them proper housing so they can pick our produce and make a living and help us make a living. Hopefully that’s a win-win situation for everybody.”
Ybarra-Vega, along with Postma, will make a presentation about the project at a forum on migrant issues in February. She says there are efforts to provide more low-income housing in the area, but that a recent 50-unit project built by the Catholic diocese filled up immediately.
Hirschel has been striving to get families into better housing, and she’s glad that a couple of those featured in the project have found better housing.
“They’ve moved out to a new place,” she said. “A really nice place, thank God.”
Shawn Vestal can be reached at (509) 459-5431 or shawnv@spokesman.com.
The draw of the unknowable 
sowinso on January 05 at 8:15 a.m.
The video WSU and the Quincy Community Health Center produced can be seen here: http://planningspokane.blogspot.com/2011/01/housing-in-quincy-valley.html
Orange on January 05 at 8:40 a.m.
Quincy does have plans for more housing. However houses aren’t selling. Just south of the hospital are empty (well overpriced) homes. I heard the city is planning to build low income housing just to the west of the $460K homes. Should lower their value. But hey, more housing is important. Lot’s of available housing in East Wenatchee and Wenatchee. More resources too.
Also, the clinics and the hospital in Quincy are mere waiting rooms for Wenatchee, Spokane and Seattle.
Alot of these “problems” are by choice in Quincy. Film the gangbangers tagging businesses or vandalizing cars.
Albert on January 05 at 9:46 a.m.
This identical format appeared in California during the late 70’s and led the way for the massive “take care of me” programs that have bankrupted the State. The center of the state is now a 3rd world country wherein crime and environmental desecration runs rampant. It is shocking.
Illegal immigrants are utilized to work within the agricultural format because of their “work for cash” utilization. This of course penalizes the taxpayers who must provide free education, medical, and other benefits to these folks. California is again on financial overload because of these “freebies”.
California is a prime biz plan for Washington to study. I read an article from Google news about a week ago wherein 3000+ businesses are leaving California per week. Jerry will destroy what is remaining, however the illegal immigrants continue to swarm into California, stand on the street corners for a daily cash job. By admission the president of the student body at one of California’s major universities is an admitted illegal. My wife is a former elementary teacher from the San Bernardino system. In her final year of teaching (1993), there were 7 languages spoken in her 1st grade classroom, and 75% were illegal - however “one could not ask” - of course.
Keep this in mind as we allow this DADT format of illegal immigration to blossom in Washington. The proverbial handwriting on the wall is imminent. This is reality - not bigotry or prejudicial judgment - please!
MrNatural on January 05 at 10:19 a.m.
Hmmm?…
Hispanic versus White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.
Haves against Have Not’s.
Impoverished against The Rich.
Indigent versus Wealthy.
Migrant versus Resident.
Illegal versus legal.
When did these labels, these categories exclude people from all just being human beings?
Why is a line drawn that permits such suffering, such indifference, such turmoil?
What does it mean to be civilized?
misjustice on January 05 at 10:58 a.m.
“…Murrow’s “Harvest of Shame” shined a light on the wretched conditions of migrant workers – “the humans who harvest the food for the best-fed people in the world,” as Murrow put it.”
For shame. We need these workers to do the agricultural work, to do the hard back breaking work that we are unwilling to do, in order to supply our dinner tables with “affordable” food. And we, seemingly, have no problem with them living in substandard conditions, conditions which we would not tolerate for ourselves. Instead, we wrongly blame them for our economic woes and deny their contributions, their labor which in part allow us to maintain our standard of living.
Seems like we have always need a scapegoat, a people to blame. In the early 1800s it was the Chinese and the Irish; brought here to build our railroads and work as domestics in the households of the rich. And then demonized as the “other”, as subhumans not worthy of living amongst us; instead relegated to shanty towns.
Is this mindset, in part, because this nation’s great wealth was made possible by the enslavement of others? Is it because since our nation’s founding we have always used others deemed “less than” to do our dirty work? To work the fields, and build our infrastructure, and do work that we deem beneath us? Is this disdain of the other imprinted upon our collective DNA?
A Harvest of Shame? Indeed.
MrNatural on January 05 at 11:12 a.m.
Well said mj…Many years ago I worked on a pesticide exposure project and it truly was deplorable and unconscionable as to the exposures these farm workers were subject too.
I met some very nice loving and caring migrant families who in my mind were more principled and polite than any I’ve ever met.
Albert on January 05 at 11:32 a.m.
Good morning again, as you all know, I seldom log in a “second time”, however some “thoughts” for your consideration please.
Have you gazed upon the labels at the local markets wherein you purchase produce? A good majority of our consumer goods, including produce, originate from OUTSIDE the United States. The article cited from Google news, indicated that the produce farms in CA, mostly located within central CA are now closed up because of the lack of water. The produce from CA is almost non-existent according to this report I read on Google.
Good friend Mr. N, this has absolutely NOTHING to do about race…it’s misinformation that brings forth a response like yours.
The produce growers are no longer in the U.S. - check out your shopping isles for verification. Slave labor is China, Mexico, South America, Central America, and not the U.S. Again PLEASE let’s not talk race here…let’s examine South Los Angeles, Detroit, the Bronx, and even some parts of Spokane for “conditions”. Poverty is everywhere and not confined to a “few” reported farms as per a student’s video.
We need to address the homeless, unemployed, and hungry populace throughout the world. It’s not a fun subject - just look around downtown, at the Union Gospel Mission, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and under the Monroe Street Bridge. Need to help? Start locally. I’m sure Chef Gus can put you to work.
MrNatural on January 05 at 12:22 p.m.
No problem Albert. I see what you see and also see some things a little differently. Point taken.
I am guilty of some generalization when I use it to counter generalizations on assumptions about migrant farm workers-Hispanics-immigrants. I do not like it when someone expresses distain for race/culture/status as a drain on “Tax Dollars”…to me people are more important hence my questions on why we label or categorize people.
Interestingly and maybe Chef Gus can chime in is that the demographic at UGM etc is quite different than the demographic illustrated in the story especially “citizenship” and I agree totally that charity begins at home (locally)
Can’t say about California’s condition except to say I believe there are multiple factors affecting its farms and produce in winter mostly comes from abroad. I just hope these farms have the same environmental standards that we have in the US (ha!) so I buy organic when I can but not always.
Bottom line is I cannot turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to the conditions these people face much less criticize or marginalize them.
misjustice on January 05 at 12:28 p.m.
Interesting that Catholic Charities are recommended as a way to address poverty, given that Catholics were once as hated and despised as the Mexicans are now…a part of our history which I doubt that many are aware of. Samuel Morse, the inventor of the Morse Code, was a vocal opponent of “illiterate Roman Catholics” and his was not a lone voice. Nativism and Protestantism opposed all things Catholic.
The following excerpt chronicles, in part, our checkered history of Nativism and hatred of immigrants.
“A widespread anti-immigrant backlash fueled nativism during much of the nineteenth century. While we often think of the great waves of immigration taking place at the end of the nineteenth century, the U.S. population was expanding quickly between the 1820s and 1860s. In the mid 1830s distrust of immigrant foreigners was so intense that native-born Protestant political activists in New York formed the New York Native Democratic Association. Their primary targets were Irish Catholic immigrants. In New England, Samuel F. B. Morse warned that the “evil of immigration brings to these shores illiterate Roman Catholics, the tools of reckless and unprincipled politicians, the obedient instruments of their more knowing priestly leaders.”16
“Another wave of nativism crested in the mid 1850s with the appearance of the Order of the Star Spangled Banner known popularly as the “Know Nothings” because the secretive group told its members to say they “knew nothing” about the organization. From its base in New York State the group eventually recruited hundreds of thousands of members nationwide.17 The Know Nothings’ appeal was based on their ability to name immigration as the single cause of the structural changes in industry that were making skilled positions obsolete.”18
“The Know Nothing movement collapsed as quickly as it had emerged, and by 1857 was rapidly disappearing from the national political scene. Nativism retreated but did not vanish. After the Civil War, nativist themes were woven into the “middle-class reform movements” of the late 1800s, and “crusaders for temperance and for women’s rights assailed the immigrant’s subversive, European attitudes on these problems.”19
“The passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act resulted from nativist organizing. Chinese immigrants were also targets of violence from the West Coast to the Rocky Mountain States. Antipathy toward Chinese, Japanese, and Indian immigrants flourished nationwide well into the first decade of the 20th century.”
continues…
“…scapegoating immigration is an acceptable response to virtually every social, economic and environmental problem, including attacks from abroad. Whether they are criticizing the immigration policy or the immigrants themselves, the goals of these groups are the same: to keep immigrants, 85 percent of whom are people of color, out of the United States. Only then will they feel that the nation can be safe from harmful influences that exist within our borders and are inevitably linked to the external forces that threaten the country. The real threat, however, is that nativism’s basic beliefs obstruct a vision of democracy for this country that attempts to embrace all people. Looking at the history, organizational structure and the relative success that past nativist movements have had in institutionalizing restrictionist attitudes can help us understand the current cycle of nativism and its potential harm.”
http://www.publiceye.org/ark/immigrants/Nativism.html
And don’t forget that our first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, had to assure voters that he would not take orders from the Pope.
I post this, not to throw stones at a particular religion, to demonstrate that our nation has a history of villifing the other. That we now do this to Mexican immigrants is nothing new, sadly.
greenlibertarian on January 05 at 12:35 p.m.
The reports of California’s demise are premature. Yes, they have problems, and the central valley has ALWAYS been a pit. There are still plenty of row crops coming out of California.
cdspokesreader on January 05 at 12:52 p.m.
Having lived in “apple country” here in Washington I can add a little more information to the story. Yes some of the living conditions are deplorable. Because of state laws, the growers are having to provide better accomadations for their workers. Since that law went into effect, many of the orchards have switched over to vineyards- a little more bang for their buck. The growers can’t get unemployed Americans to do the same work for the same money without unions getting involved and driving up the cost to the point that it’s cheaper to let the apples rot on the trees. But it should also be noted, that many of these migrant workers earn enough to live in a little better conditions, but are sending quite a bit of the money they earn back home to their family members who are sometimes living in even worse conditions. It’s a tough problem to solve and I think it’s important to look at it both from the growers and the workers point of view and look at all the factors.
greenlibertarian on January 05 at 12:53 p.m.
“Brewster returns to growing fruit after upheaval from layoffs at orchard
The city of Brewster has returned to normal since facing an upheaval after Gebbers Farms, the Okanogan’s largest orchard and packing warehouse, laid off about 550 workers in late December.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had notified the farm that it would audit their employees’ documents and it would be fined $10,000 for any employee with improper documents.
Families, schools, merchants, churches and the food bank had to adjust.
Brewster, a community of about 2,190, was founded in 1910 at the confluence of the Columbia and Okanogan rivers. The first settlers were cattle and sheep ranchers, followed by miners and loggers. With dams and irrigation, the fruit industry developed.
One orchardist described ICE’s action.
“Instead of doing a raid in the fields, ICE went after employers. Gebbers was one of five in Washington and 300 across the country that were challenged,” said a Brewster orchardist who runs a small orchard with her husband. “ICE looked at their books and documents and gave the names of those who had improper documents. It gave Gebbers a month to lay them off.
“It made a big splash, but things have not changed,” she said.
The orchardist, who attends St. James Episcopal Church, explained the dilemma orchardists face in hiring workers: “We are limited in what we can ask applicants. We can’t ask them if their documents are fake. If they appear good, we hire them.
“We can call Social Security to verify their social security numbers, but it’s hard to reach anyone on the phone,” she said.
With 75 percent of the students in school being of Mexican heritage and with many Mexican merchants, she noted, “when they are in trouble, we are in trouble.”
Farming there more than 50 years, the orchardist and her husband began when Brewster was a white, rural community with few Mexicans. At first, many who worked on the farms were transients. Then young college people came to live off the land. During hard times, senior citizens came and lived in trailers. During the Boeing strike, Boeing workers came.
“Mexicans have been steady, good workers, coming to support their families in Mexico,” she said. “In 1985, many gained legal status through an amnesty and settled, but many of those are now older. Orchard work is skilled labor, requiring long hours of hard work, so we pay them well.”
Use of Brewster’s food bank more than doubled during orchard layoffs
Brewster’s food bank, housed at St. James Episcopal Church, went from feeding about 100 families a week to 250 families by February, said Mike Lundstrom, the food bank’s director and a member of St. James.
Two days after Gebbers Farms laid off 550 employees, Mike saw Catholic Bishop William Skylstad in town.
Soon the food bank received funding from Sacred Heart Parish in Pullman and food donations from other Catholic parishes in response to the bishop’s Lenten appeal.” (continues)
“Mike said that some of those people filled jobs and some of those who had been laid off updated their IDs so they were acceptable and could be rehired.
Counter to the concern often repeated in media that Mexican workers are “taking our jobs,” he said the orchardist reported that no white members of the community, which has 10 percent unemployment, applied for the jobs.
Mike has empathy for young people who crossed the border with parents when they were babies or toddlers and lack legal status. One teen picked up for a traffic violation was deported to Mexico. He did not know the language or know anyone there. He has since returned to his family.
Mike said the community’s experience is an example of why the United States needs a guest worker bill.
“It has to happen or we—white middle-class Americans—will not be eating,” he said.”
http://www.thefigtree.org/may10/050110brewster.html
Gcortes99 on January 05 at 10:29 p.m.
Many of you guys need to look around and thank God for what he has given you!!! These people don’t have the resources to meet their basic needs. No matter where they are born, these people are human. They need to eat and live in a safe place like many of you do. They come to this nation looking for a better life. In fact everyone in this country is an illegal!! Native Americans were the first to came to this land. So don’t be a hypocrite and say you have all the rights!!! They all pay taxes, or are you going to tell me that when they go to the store, they are charged differently depending upon their legal status?
Everyone should be thankful for these hard working people! They are the ones who work hard to make it easier for you to eat the food you ate today. Or are you going to tell me that you could the job they do? Please release and analyze the words that come out of your mouth.