In the United States, migrant farm workers are often the lowest paid workers in a multi-billion dollar agricultural industry, and are also often provided substandard housing which lacks the space and basic necessities to live in dignity and hope. After a few years of hard labor and sacrifices, some of these farm workers, called seasonal or resettled farm workers, decide to lay down roots in rural communities around the country where they obtain more stable, year-round work and thus need more permanent homes to raise families and be part of their communities. This thesis documents the research and conceptualization of farm worker housing, a community center and a chapel for these farm workers. The idea of space, not only as a physical entity but also as a place for events, interactions, and as an enabler of community and progress are the specific areas of study that will drive my research and process. My belief is that Architecture's ultimate goal is that it should be relevant to our daily lives, our dreams and aspirations, that it become a stage for our hopes and dreams, a space to enhance our lives, to serve but not get in the way, to uplift and to recharge our minds, our bodies and most importantly, our souls. I kept these thoughts in mind as I embarked on a journey filled with hope, frustrations, discovery and clarity. This study is of an Architecture that is not only responsive to the land and the environment, but also to the lives, work, community and culture of its inhabitants; that a place farm workers can call home will emerge and help elevate the living conditions and nurture the continuing narrative of farm workers in America. / Master of Architecture

This study investigated the impact that sandplay therapy sessions had on Mexican farmworker women's mental health status and resilience attitudes. The participants of this study were 40 women who were born in various states in Mexico and presently reside in rural Central Florida. Twenty women participated in the control group and twenty women participated in the treatment group. The impact sandplay therapy has on participants' mental health status was measured by Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45), which assesses progress in therapy; and Resiliency Attitudes Scale (R.A.S.), which determines resiliency attitudes. The study also includes twenty participants' transcriptions of their individual sessions to illustrate the experiences of Mexican farmworker women with sandplay therapy. Pre and post-tests revealed a significant impact on mental health status and resiliency attitudes on the treatment group. In addition, participants also reported their own conceptualization of resilience that points to the integration of social networks, community resilience, solidarity, and hope.

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Farmworker ministries provide essential goods and services as well as spiritual support to migrant farmworkers living abroad. While faith-based organizations and/or ministries are key to supporting migrant and/or refugee populations in the U.S., scholars have conducted little research on these institutions, especially those that seek to encourage the agency of those they serve. To address this gap, this study investigated a political capacity-building project conducted by the Valley View Farmworker Ministry in the summers of 2015 and 2016. That initiative sought to increase engagement and leadership of the workers that Valley View serves, to increase the Board of Directors (BOD) understanding of the farmworkers' lives, and to enhance farmworker influence on that Board's activities and decisions. The author undertook five months of fieldwork with Valley View in 2016 that included review of key documents, and completion of twenty-three interviews with a sample of farmworkers, Board of Directors, and employees. The study utilized an intersectional, participatory (Fraser, 2009) theoretical framework to analyze the justice implications of the Ministry's efforts to address the political, cultural, and economic disparities among the project's participants. The results contribute to studies on community-based research with migrant farmworkers, theoretical discussions of participatory development, and analyses of the enduring power of the agrarian imaginary, the image of the small-scale, white, male grower, to thwart such initiatives. It also builds on arguments regarding how to increase participation of farmworkers in the alternative agri-food and sustainable agriculture movements. This analysis concludes by exploring the social tensions often associated with participatory development and offering recommendations for increasing worker engagement and leadership in farmworker ministries and for confronting the agrarian imaginary. / Ph. D.

On-farm apprenticeships are gaining momentum as an important strategy for beginning farmer training. They are also a space for identity work and rehearsal of alternative agrifood movement practice (AAMs; MacAuley and Niewolny, 2016; Pilgeram, 2011). AAMs embody and recursively construct values of biophysical sustainability, food quality, egalitarianism, and agrarianism (Constance, Renard, and Rivera-Ferre; 2014). However, AAMs have been critiqued for disproportionately representing upper- to middle-class white cultural norms (Allen, 2004; Guthman, 2008a; Slocum, 2007), for romanticized agrarian ideology (Carlisle, 2013), and for mechanisms reproductive of neoliberalism, which buttresses the dominant agrifood system (Guthman, 2008b). These AAM discourse elements are expressed in on-farm apprenticeships. On-farm apprenticeships are variably understood as beginning farmer training (Hamilton, 2011), as inexpensive farm labor (MacAuley and Niewolny, 2016; Pilgeram, 2011), and as sites of tension between economic and non-economic attributes (Ekers, Levkoe, Walker, and Dale, 2016). I illuminate these dynamics within on-farm apprenticeships through the complementary theoretical lenses of cultural historical activity theory (Engeström, 1999), cognitive praxis (Eyerman and Jamison, 1991), and cultural identity theory (Hall, 1996). I employ critical ethnographic case study methodology to explore issues of power, social reproduction, and equity. I conducted 53 days of participant observation, worked alongside 19 apprentices on six farms for 37 days, conducted interviews (n=25), and completed a document analysis (n=407). I observed white spaces and class-based work values re/produced, mediated by AAM discourse. Furthermore, I observed three distinct objectives within the activity system: beginning farmer training, inexpensive labor for farms, and an authentic farm lifestyle experience. In contrast to the first two, this third objective, the authentic lifestyle, resists market-based logics. Instead, logics that did govern behavior include membership in a movement; an ascetic bent; the valorization of farmers and the authentic farm lifestyle; alignment with clean, healthy, and dirty parts of the job; and communitarianism. These logics point towards the creation of a third type of nonmarket/quasimarket space (Gibson-Graham, Cameron, and Healy, 2013). I describe several considerations for on-farm apprenticeship to lead to greater equity, reproduction of viable small farm labor models, and stabilized and legitimate nonmarket understandings of what makes on-farm apprenticeship function. / Ph. D.

Vermont is a largely rural and homogenous New England state not often thought of as a destination for Latino migrant farm laborers, but in recent years dairy farms have begun hiring Latino workers; there are now an estimated 1200 in the state, although the exact number is unknown (Baker, 2013). As the dairy industry is the largest contributor to sales from agriculture for the state, these farmworkers play an essential role in Vermont’s economy (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2014b). These migrant dairy farmworkers hail primarily from Mexico, with a small fraction from Central America, and lack sufficient documentation to work and live legally in the U.S. Myriad stressors are inherent to both dairy farm labor and living as an illegal immigrant. In a state like Vermont so near the Canadian border, where federal immigration officials have jurisdiction, there is an additional layer of risk. This thesis explores the social, political, geographic, and economic context of Vermont as it relates to the experiences of stress for Latino migrant dairy farmworkers in the state. In addition to reviewing the literature to better understand of the context for stress and stressors affecting migrant farmworkers the U.S., this thesis uses information from a survey administered to Latino migrant dairy farmworkers in Vermont. This thesis utilizes the Migrant Farmworker Stress Inventory (MFWSI), a survey instrument designed to assess the types and severities of stressors inherent to migrant farmwork. This survey is supplemented by questions targeting Vermont-specific stressors for migrant farmworkers. Demographic characteristics reveal Vermont’s Latino migrant farmworkers to be mostly Spanish-speaking males from Mexico or Guatemala in their late 20s, and although over half the population are married/in a partnership and have children, less than half those farmworkers live with their partners or kids. Among these farmworkers, 36% exhibit “caseness,” for stress, i.e. degree of stress correlated with poor mental or physical health outcomes defined as a score of ≥80 on the MFWSI. The mean stress score for this population is 74.55, above the average for studies in the literature using the MFWSI. Significant stressors from this study include those related to social isolation, language barriers, and migration and legal insecurity. Factors contributing significantly to overall stress or more extreme levels of specific stressors include: living closer to the Canadian border, getting surveyed in cold months, being Guatemalan, being in a marriage or partnership, having contact with health clinics, getting paid lower wages, working longer hours, not having family or partners on the farm, having a previous farm injury, having a Driver’s Privilege Card, and not having contact with various organizations that help migrant farmworkers in Vermont. Exploratory questions reveal that keeping busy and socializing are the main ways farmworkers reduce stress in their lives, but that having a work permit/legal status, or being able to be with family would most reduce their stress. This thesis concludes with suggestions for increasing support for organizations that provide essential services to migrant farmworkers, like health services, ESL and education, and advocacy for improved labor conditions. Continued research should use the insights gleaned from this thesis to explore further strategies for coping with the stressors prevalent amongst Vermont’s Latino migrant dairy farmworkers.

The prevalence of hypertension (HTN) is high in Latinos (Latino/Latina) Americans due to social and ecological factors. Increased migration of Latino migrant/seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) to the U.S. augments the social, economic, environmental, and psychosocial factors associated with health and illness. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory was used to guide this study. The purposes of this cross-sectional, correlational study were to explore Latino MSFWs’ adherence to HTN treatment (medication adherence, blood pressure [BP] self-care, and BP control) and to examine the influence of BP knowledge, perceived stress, acculturation, health literacy, and health care access (HCA) on adherence to HTN treatment. A total of 45 Latino (mean age 45 + 9) MSFWs receiving HTN treatment participated in this study. Spanish and English questionnaires were available for participants to measure adherence to HTN treatment and the five independent variables. Analysis included correlations, t-tests, hierarchical multiple regression, and hierarchical logistic regression. The majority of MSFWs were from Mexico, female (55.6%), had less than a 6th grade education. Most (82%) of the MSFWs had uncontrolled BP, and were not adherent to medications (42%), even with high BP knowledge scores (M = 6.5 ±1.3). MSFWs perceived a high level of stress (M = 16 + 6.9), low acculturation level (Anglo orientation: M = 2.9 + 0.9), and no employer-provided health insurance for personal illnesses or injuries (93%). Blood pressure knowledge, perceived stress, acculturation, health literacy, and HCA accounted for 49% of the variance in the BP self-care; however, only higher BP knowledge was a significant predictor of better BP self-care (p < .001). Furthermore, acculturation was a significant predictor of BP control (p < .01). This study explored select determinants of adherence to HTN treatment in Latino MSFWs in a culturally informed way. Although BP self-care behaviors appeared to be a consequence of BP knowledge, this study found low medication adherence in Latino MSFWs and uncontrolled BP explained by the two predictors, acculturation and health literacy. Perceived stress and health care access did not influence the adherence to HTN treatment. MSFWs had poor BP control and HTN treatment adherence. A culturally appropriate educational program is needed to help the MSFWs adherence to HTN treatment.

Oral health is an important aspect of overall health, but many vulnerable populations such as migrant farmworkers are without access to oral healthcare. Although some non-government organizations such as faith-based organizations have attempted to fill gaps left by government and private sectors, a lack of a dental safety net creates limited access to oral health services for migrant farmworkers. Access to care is further constrained by structural factors including low wages, migration route, and high costs of care. Building off a critical medical anthropology approach in understanding oral healthcare access, I argue that limited oral health access for migrant workers in the Tampa Bay area is the result of economic constraints and not cultural beliefs or educational shortcomings. This research therefore demonstrates the social determinants of oral health, and how social disparities can become embodied in marginalized groups such as migrant farmworkers.

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