Latino Farmers Overcome Challenges to Find Success in Agriculture

In partnership with: Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development

Life wasn’t easy for Raul Gomez as a child after immigrating to the United States from Mexico when he was five years old.

“My dad had been in the States since the ’80s, harvesting peanuts and tobacco in Georgia and citrus in Florida,” Gomez says.

When his father became legalized under President Ronald Reagan’s amnesty act in 1986, it opened the doors for Raul and his mother to join him.

“My first experience in agriculture was in the Grand Rapids area, where my mom and dad were harvesting apples,” he recalls. “After that, they started doing cherries. My first three years in the U.S., we moved around a lot between Michigan and Florida. It was chaotic because I didn’t speak English yet. We would live in Michigan from spring through mid-fall for apple season and then move to Florida the rest of the year to harvest citrus. Moving around made it hard to make friends and made keeping up with school more challenging.”

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A Permanent Home in Michigan

Life got even more challenging when Gomez was 7 and his father died of a brain tumor. When he was 8, Gomez’s mother began working for Joshua and Barb Wunsch at Wunsch Farms in Traverse City on the Old Mission Peninsula. The future started to look brighter.

“We rented a place to live from the Wunsch family and we stayed in Michigan permanently,” he says. “I grew up here and went to school here, and we became very close with the Wunsch family.”

So close, in fact, that Joshua Wunsch treated Gomez like a son, even putting him through college. Wunsch’s son, Isaiah, and daughter, Adele, became Gomez’s best friends.

“I’m excited and overjoyed to have my own piece of property with sweet cherries and apples, because my goal was always to have my own farm.”

– Raul Gomez, farmer

Joshua Wunsch passed away in 2018, but the connections he helped Gomez make in the Michigan agriculture community have proven invaluable in his career. Gomez now works as a managing partner (along with Isaiah Wunsch) for Third Coast Fruit Co., a division of Wunsch Farms specializing in apples and cherries. He is in the process of closing on his own farm, located right across the road from Wunsch Farms.

“I’m excited and overjoyed to have my own piece of property with sweet cherries and apples, because my goal was always to have my own farm,” he says. “There are quite a lot of challenges for Latino farmers in the U.S. because most farms are passed down from generation to generation. It’s harder to be acknowledged as a player in the game if you’re Latino or to get opportunities that come easier to some people. Joshua Wunsch gave me the tools to be successful and helped me make connections with people in agriculture.”

Growing a Farm From Scratch

Severiano Garcia of Bangor knows the struggles Latino farmers face all too well. He and his wife, Margarita, and their children, Israel (13) and Raquel (11), moved to Michigan in 2016. Before moving to the U.S., Garcia worked in agriculture for many years in his native Mexico, but breaking into the American agriculture industry has been tough.

“Right now, I do own 10 acres of land, but my farm is small,” he says. “I’m farming 1.5 acres right now. I grow tomatillos, strawberries, two kinds of potatoes, three varieties of beans, tomatoes, chiles and corn.”

Garcia has struggled to grow his farm because of the exorbitant price of machinery and chemicals, all while earning very little from his small operation. Despite having little help and financial hardships, he continues to strive for his family.

“My goal is to farm 3 acres in 2021 – double what I’m farming now.”

Even in the face of overwhelming adversity, Garcia has cultivated a loyal following. He sells his produce at local markets and through Facebook, and buyers are always eager to purchase it.

“The people buy everything I grow,” he says. “The language barrier isn’t really a problem for me because the Americans always try to understand us, and they appreciate me because I work hard.”

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Helping Latino Farmers Succeed

Dr. Rubén Martinez works as director of the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University, which helps integrate Latino farmers into the agriculture industry. Martinez observes that Garcia’s struggle is common among minority farmers. According to Martinez, the number of Latino farmers in Michigan has increased from about 700 in 2007 to about 1,110 in 2022 (when the last ag census was conducted).

“Nationwide, Latinos are one of the fastest-growing minority groups in agriculture,” Martinez says. “They tend to have modest-size farms, mostly between 10 to 180 acres. Many are part-time farmers working elsewhere while they try to get their farm started.”

A major challenge for Latinos when trying to make connections in the agriculture industry is a culture gap that has nothing to do with language, he says.

“A lot of agencies in agriculture haven’t developed multicultural capabilities to serve all populations,” Martinez explains. “Their view is, ‘We are here to serve you if you walk through our doors,’ but in Latino culture, it is necessary to get to know a person before you get down to business. Americans are more task-oriented, while Latinos are more people-oriented.”

Mentors, like Gomez had in the Wunsch family, are vital in helping minority farmers find success in agriculture.

“Latino farmers need experienced farmers who can take them under their wing, develop relationships and network with other farmers,” Martinez says. “One-on-one mentors who can help them in areas like farm management, record-keeping, marketing and business plans.”

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Also, Martinez believes agricultural agencies both at state and federal levels need to continue to adapt to help build capacity to work with Latinos and promote sustainable farming.

“Everybody will have to learn something to sustain our food system,” Martinez says. “We don’t want this nation to become dependent on food imports. We have to recognize all people have something to contribute, and we have to harness the talents of all people to support the future of our country.”