Amanda: Welcome to the SPU Voices podcast, where we tell personal stories with universal impact. I’m your host, Amanda Stubbert, and today we sat down with Alexia Estrada. She’s Class of 2020 and the granddaughter of farm workers, also the director of operations at Semillero de Ideas, a nonprofit centering around farm workers as the leaders of innovation. She spent her summer running an innovation challenge, speaking with farm workers about their ideas of how to make the cherry harvest safer and more efficient for themselves and the growers. In August, they presented the winner with the chance to patent his product and reap the rewards of his own invention. Alexia, thank you so much for joining us today.
Alexia: Thank you so much for having me, Amanda. I am super excited to chat with you today.
Amanda: Well, first of all, tell us about this innovation challenge.
Alexia: Yeah, so this innovation challenge started in the summer, like you mentioned, and it was really exciting because we got to do outreach to a lot of different communities here in Eastern Washington. I spent hours and hours out in front of supermarkets, at flea markets, stopping at the ATMs when people were getting paid — because there’s a long line of H-2A workers — and just inviting people to share their expertise that they have on ag [agriculture]. This innovation challenge started really with centering farm workers as the experts, and from there we received over three dozen ideas from process design to tools to just basic, simple changes that could be made to really improve the quality of life for farm workers. Through this challenge, our winner was a man named Luis Alejandro Barrera. He is from Nayarit, Mexico, and he came as an H-2A worker and was living in Mattawa, Washington. I don’t know, do you want me to get into everything that he did, or is that another question? (laughs)
Amanda: I would love to hear about everything he did, but let’s back up one little bit, about just this whole concept of going to the workers to find the innovation, asking the people who actually have been doing this work for generations what they think would make life better. Because, surprisingly, this is actually kind of a new idea.
Alexia: Yeah, I know. I was really shocked with that, too, when I was talking to our executive director. So my boss — he hates it when I call him my boss, but (laughs) — but I was talking to him, I was like, “This seems really basic, Eric. I don’t know, like, it isn’t really brand new. You go to the people who are working.” He’s like, “I know, but you’d be very surprised. People are not asking farm workers.” Through my experience, I learned farm workers are really not used to being asked, because when we were doing the innovation challenge, there was a lot of skepticism, too, in our community.
But all that to say, Eric is our executive director, and he and another farm worker named Josefina helped found this nonprofit because they noticed that a lot of work that’s being done right now with the farm worker community is very reactive and not proactive, and it also started with just the observation of big tech coming into spaces and providing solutions that they thought would help benefit farm workers, and … Well, not even benefit farm workers. They just talk about openly replacing farm workers. And what does it look like now that big tech and ag tech is really trying to create robots that replace farm workers? And then what will that mean to our rural communities? So it really came from a place of, these are not necessarily the answers that need to be answered. I don’t know if that makes sense, but we thought, “What if we actually went to farm workers and asked them what they needed instead of asking to replace them?”
Amanda: Right. Instead of going to, “Let’s build robots that a hundred years in the future will do all of this work,” what can we do tomorrow to make the picking, the growing, the whole process more efficient and actually better for the farm workers and the growers?
Alexia: Exactly. Exactly, and I think when Eric and Josefina invited me to be a part of this project, I went back to my experience when I worked in the fields one summer — and I know we’ll talk about that in a bit too — but I left that summer realizing that my co-workers that I was thinning apples with were the smartest people that I knew. And so it was a no-brainer to really go back and ask them for advice like I did when I was working that summer in the fields.
Amanda: But like you said, there was a lot of skepticism because people who live in the U.S. and English is their second or fourth or 10th language, they’re often seen as not as intelligent, and as farm workers I’m sure they are not being asked for their opinion very often.
Alexia: No, and there’s a lot of fear, too, with even sharing an idea, because your job as a farm worker is to show up and pick. It’s not to give your opinion. It’s not to try to improve things. It’s not to be innovative. It’s to just really be the hands that pick the fruit. We’ve had farm workers that said, “Well, no one’s asked me my idea. Nobody wants to hear my idea.” And so it’s a big shift when we show up and we’re like, “Actually, we know that you’re the smartest person who knows what problems you’re dealing with. Of course we want to hear your idea.” And the way that even the body just changes in how it’s postured is wild. Even when you do have growers who want to show up and say, “I know there’s smart people in my orchards and I know there’s smart people working for me,” they can show up and ask farm workers, but no farm worker’s going to tell the main boss, “Hey, this is actually wrong and this is actually wrong.” They’ll show up and be like, “Oh, everything’s great. We’re doing fine.” Because there’s not that bridge of trust there. And so something as an organization that we’re really trying to work on is, how do we build that trust and build that bridge so growers can get honest feedback and farm workers can learn that there are some growers who really do care about them and making their work easier and better?
“[T]here’s a lot of fear, too, with even sharing an idea, because your job as a farm worker is to show up and pick. It’s not to give your opinion. It’s not to try to improve things. It’s not to be innovative. It’s to just really be the hands that pick the fruit. We’ve had farm workers that said, ‘Well, no one’s asked me my idea. Nobody wants to hear my idea.’ And so it’s a big shift when we show up and we’re like, ‘Actually, we know that you’re the smartest person who knows what problems you’re dealing with. Of course we want to hear your idea.'”
Amanda: For sure. I think that is a good segue to the winner of this year’s innovation award. Can you tell us about his design?
Alexia: Yeah. This season we focused on the cherry harvest because it was just the time that we put the innovation challenge out. He actually had created a harness and this harness … Well, let me back up a little bit. The original harness that folks are given is like a seatbelt strap. So the next time you get into your car — if you have one — feel what that seatbelt strap feels like, and that is what farm workers have around their shoulders for multiple hours a day.
Amanda: To hold the bucket that they fill with cherries.
Alexia: To hold the bucket that they fill, yeah. And what Luis shared with us is, yes, in the morning you’re picking, picking, trying to make your profit. But by the end of the day, you’re not even picking anymore, you’re just managing pain, because that seatbelt strap, is what I’ll call it, but the straps to the harness that are given, they dig into the people’s skin, and so what you get is a lot of just … There’s bleeding at times. People will layer up, so in really, really hot weather you’re layering up with two sweaters just to keep that strap from digging in.
Amanda: As the bucket gets heavier with the cherries.
Alexia: As the bucket gets heavier, exactly.
Amanda: So you almost don’t want it to get heavier because it hurts so bad.
Alexia: Exactly. Exactly, and so Luis actually created a harness that has padding in it that he made from a used backpack and a couple other materials and clip-ons. He had been working on this harness for three years.
Amanda: Wow.
Alexia: He has been using this harness for three years in the fields, and nobody noticed. I think that was something that really struck me and was really impactful to me is, how can somebody have something that’s working for them, and he shared that it improved his efficiency by up to 25%.
Amanda: Wow.
Alexia: And so for him to be able to work faster, and no one recognized that. No one saw it. That disconnect is what we talk about. But when we met Luis, we were at the flea market in Mattawa, and he was with his group of H-2A workers. They kind of tend to travel in groups because they’re taken with a van as a group to different places, different outings. But he first stopped by and we shared our innovation challenge and were taking ideas and all this stuff. He asked a few questions and he walked away. And then moments later, he came back and he was like, “Oh, I do have an idea.” I love to share this part because I just think about how much courage that had to have taken, to come back and say, “I have something and I want to offer it and I want to share it and put it into the world,” not knowing who we were, not necessarily knowing where this path was going to take him.
And now we’re working with Luis to get a patent on it and improve it. We did some workshops with him afterwards to kind of go back and forth, because as you said, any good idea needs feedback and needs different points of view. And so I sat with him and was like … He was telling me all the ways that it improves his quality of life while he works, and I was like, “Do you think it also impacts mental health in some ways?” And he said, “Can you explain more?” And I was like, “Well, as a woman who wears heels,” I was like, “by the end of the day, I’m a really cranky person.” (laughs) “When I go out, it’s like it’s not fun because I’m really uncomfortable. Do you think that’s the same way with the harness? By the end of the day you’re just super negative? Do you think you’d pick more and be more positive and just be able to be more efficient because you just feel better?” And he was like, “Oh, my gosh, yes. Totally. That totally makes sense.” He was like, “You’re absolutely right.” And so it’s been really cool to have different voices and different people sit at the table with him as he works to manufacture and patent and all that stuff. That’s where we’re at right now with Luis.
Amanda: You just think of the ripple effect. Years ago, we had on our show the co-founder of Landesa, that works on land rights for indigenous peoples worldwide. One of the things they didn’t really anticipate, necessarily, is that when the male and female together in the family share the ownership of the land, things like teen pregnancy and spousal abuse and all sorts of things go down. And I could imagine in this same scenario if you are with your entire family picking cherries and everyone is in physical pain by the end of the day, that has to impact how you treat each other, how you are as a family.
Alexia: Yeah.
Amanda: And if a simple vest is going to change how your entire family fares by the end of the day, that has to change your family dynamic.
Alexia: Most definitely. We’re excited to see some of these small — it feels like a small change, right? It’s not a robotic arm or some drone that’s picking these apples, but it is a really impactful, meaningful change, not only in the lives of farm workers, but also for the grower, who will be able to get more at the end of the day. And just also kind of that conscience, I hope, that people are not struggling as much as they used to be.
Amanda: Right. Right. And it is that win-win-win, right?
Alexia: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: Like the grower, it’s not that we have to take the productivity down to make the workers have a better life. It’s like, no, everybody wins.
Alexia: Yes.
Amanda: Productivity goes up as the farm workers have a better life. All just by simply listening to the people who actually know what they’re talking about.
Alexia: (laughs)
Amanda: Like you said, it’s crazy that this feels like a new idea.
Alexia: Yeah. (laughs)
Amanda: You are a fairly recent college grad.
Alexia: Yes.
Amanda: Let’s go back to what led you to this very specific, yet incredibly fascinating work.
Alexia: This is what’s so fun and funny to share to me, but anyone who has grown up in a rural community or in an ag community, daughter of farm workers or just has that in their family, knows that they’re not encouraged to go into ag. It’s not a thing to go back and start working in the fields.
When I went to SPU, I was an Ames scholar, and that Ames — shout out to the Ames family. Thank you, guys, so much for that opportunity. I was given a mentor, and through that mentor, I was connected to Dr. Neuhouser, and that summer of my freshman year there was a lot of political stuff going on, and I found myself really sharing about my community and where I come from and what I know to be true. And then as I reflected on that some more, I was taking “Race and Place” by Dr. Leong. Everything has really accumulated. It’s like SPU really just tends to find ways to … Or I guess you’re just learning. Maybe it’s just part of the college experience. (laughs) But I learned that, “Oh, my gosh, my family has been doing this and I have no idea what it feels like. I don’t know what it’s like to pick an apple. I don’t know what it’s like to work in the field.” And so I talked to my Ames mentor and I was reflecting with her about it, and she said, “Well, what if you did an independent study? What if you got to go back into the fields and just talk about what you learned?”
So I met with Dr. Neuhouser, decided that I was going to come back home, thin apples for the summer, and I didn’t end up actually taking credits for it because it just felt like I had already learned so much I didn’t really need anything else. But I showed up that summer, woke up at 4:30 in the morning, started learning how to thin apples. It was the hardest work I’ve ever experienced. And I’d be there and my coworkers would say, “You literally don’t have to be here. You are a college student. Go do something else.” I was like, “No, no, I want to be here. I want to learn.” And by the end of that summer, like I said before, I realized I was surrounded by the smartest people ever, and I felt so proud. Oh, my gosh, I could cry. (laughs) I felt so proud to be part of where I come from and so proud of my family and so proud of my grandparents and so proud of everyone who just provides that food to our table. I can never look at an apple the same. Every time I see them, I’m like, shoutout. Shoutout to Doña. She’s out there, you know. Just experts, you know?
“But I showed up that summer, woke up at 4:30 in the morning, started learning how to thin apples. It was the hardest work I’ve ever experienced. And I’d be there and my coworkers would say, ‘You literally don’t have to be here. You are a college student. Go do something else.’ I was like, ‘No, no, I want to be here. I want to learn.’ And by the end of that summer, like I said before, I realized I was surrounded by the smartest people ever, and I felt so proud.”
And so through that experience, we did the [SPU] Day of Common Learning and I got to share with my peers and different students that showed up. Dr. Neuhouser created that space for me to talk about my experience. And then senior year, through the GDS [Global Development Studies, now International Sustainable Development] major we have a social venture project, and somehow found myself again (laughs) working with the farmers — because that’s not really the direction I had planned to go in. Worked with the farmers, went to Mexico. My grandpa’s a farmer out in Mexico, and we looked at what it would look like to provide solar water pumps to farm workers in Mexico. And so did that.
So then graduated, came back, started working as a community organizer in my hometown, and got offered this opportunity. And because of the work and the foundation that I was able to build at SPU and those opportunities, it was a no-brainer to hop onto this project and this nonprofit as the director of operations.
Amanda: I love this path of your parents and your grandparents worked so hard so the next generation can have more choices, right? Can have a better life, as we always say. And yet better doesn’t necessarily mean different.
Alexia: Yeah.
Amanda: I love that you went away going, “I’m never going back,” right? Because that’s what you were taught.
Alexia: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: But then you’re able to come back with these new ideas and new ways of doing things that are actually going to help an entire generation of farm workers. I love the respect that you have, because I think sometimes a new generation can almost have contempt from where their parents and their grandparents came from if it’s not a place that society sees with a lot of respect. That’s just so heartbreaking. We should always … It’s “Yes and,” right?
Alexia: Yes.
Amanda: That’s what we always learn in theatre. It’s “Yes and.” It’s not anti your past. It’s “Yes, that was my past and I’m going to make it better.” That’s what I love so, so much about your story.
Alexia: It’s been really exciting just to think about where I thought I was going to be and where I’m at now. I don’t think I would have been able to do that had it not been for the professors who really centered community and starting where you’re at. It was really cool to just have that perspective shift.
Amanda: Right, and I think, to me, that is the heart of liberal arts education. It’s not that you can become whatever you want. It’s who are you, and how do you become the most uniquely best part of you that you could possibly, possibly be?
Alexia: Yeah.
Amanda: What has this work taught you that you wish everyone in the general public knew?
Alexia: I think as I’ve been working with farm workers and working to build trust in my community, it’s all about, really, how you show up and how you acknowledge people and how you say “hi,” and how you shake hands and how you see someone walk by and you make eye contact and you say “hello.” I really think it’s those small things that make our communities better and allow organizations like ours to be successful. And the little things also means listening and being observant and paying attention to where people are at. I think my biggest takeaway that I would want people to know is, don’t think that those little things don’t count, because they do and they always will. I think people say that a lot, but it’s true. I think that’s where I really center myself. I might not be able to solve all the problems for this farm worker that I’m working with, but I can say, “Hey, it’s really good to see you again. I’m so excited to get to work. I’m so excited to hear what you have to say today.” Even when we’re talking to growers, you can go in and say a lot of things, but what does it mean to show up and listen and take a step back and say, “Okay, where are you at and why are you where you’re at and what does that look like? And where are you trying to go?” Those little things do make a big difference.
Amanda: Yeah. Even just going into a grocery store, we aren’t grateful for the apples and the grapes and the oranges until they’re gone.
Alexia: Yeah.
Amanda: Then we’re like, “Wait, where is my fruit?” (laughs) Right?
Alexia: Yeah.
Amanda: But when it’s there for us because it’s there for us every day, I think it’s all too easy to remember that this is available to us through the blood, sweat, and tears of real human beings.
Alexia: Yeah, and every time you go in the grocery store, you don’t look at that apple the same. Someone touched that apple. It went through a whole process. Someone cared for that apple from when it was just a little seed. Someone really watched over that so that you could have it.
Amanda: That’s so true. I’m going to make sure that I have that in my mind every time I’m in the fruit and vegetable section of the grocery store from now on.
Alexia: Yes.
Amanda: Well, Alexia, I know you’re just beginning on this career path, but what’s next for you? What would be the big dream?
Alexia: Well, I am still going to be working to expand our programs at Semillero de Ideas, and aside from that, too, I’m working on opening up a coffee space/art gallery — it’s called Café con Arte — in downtown Pasco, here in my hometown. Downtown Pasco is a predominantly Latinx community, and it has a lot of history behind it. There’s a lot of history there. But all that to say, we really want it to be a community space that celebrates culture, celebrates community and who we are, and it’s going to be an art gallery as well that celebrates local artists and brings in diverse folks from different backgrounds. It really started as knowing that my community’s third places and places for people to connect, and when I moved back home, it was also during the pandemic, and it was just really lonely and hard to meet people. And so this space kind of came out of that loneliness in some ways, wanting to create places for people just to hang out and meet and talk over some coffee.
Amanda: So community, right? Community. I feel like that’s the heart of what you want to do.
Alexia: That is, 100%.
Amanda: It’s making sure that your community has space for community.
Alexia: Yeah, yeah.
Amanda: Which a lot of us take for granted, I think.
Alexia: What’s really awesome is that we did a Kickstarter to get this coffee shop going, and so many people donated to this Kickstarter. We raised a lot of funds and we’re really excited. We’ll be open in the next few weeks. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come by. It might be better than some of those Seattle coffee shops. So (laughs) come on over to the east side.
Amanda: If you’re in Pasco after Christmas 2023, come by.
Alexia: Yep.
Amanda: I love that. I love that for you. And I hope everyone who’s listening will be, if nothing else, in prayer and support of creating communities just like that where people can share their ideas with each other, can ease each other’s burdens, really, and go home happier families.
All right, Alexia, here we go with our famous last question that we ask all of our guests, and I’m super excited to hear your answer to this. If you could have everyone in Seattle do one thing differently tomorrow that would make the world a better place, what would you have all of us do?
“I think as I’ve been working with farm workers and working to build trust in my community, it’s all about, really, how you show up and how you acknowledge people and how you say ‘hi’ and how you shake hands and how you see someone walk by and you make eye contact and you say ‘hello.’ I really think it’s those small things that make our communities better and allow organizations like ours to be successful. And the little things also means listening and being observant and paying attention to where people are at. I think my biggest takeaway that I would want people to know is, don’t think that those little things don’t count, because they do and they always will.”
Alexia: Ooh. (laughs) I think I would have everyone just say “thank you.” The person that’s checking you out at the grocery store, what does it look like to say “thank you” to them? “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it today.” The person bagging your groceries at Trader Joe’s, “Thank you.” The janitor that’s walking around SPU right now, just say “thank you,” because the world really does go round because of these people, and the people in positions that we don’t always thank. That acknowledgment of their work, I’ve seen how it impacts my own family. My grandma used to clean hotel rooms. My dad is a mechanic, and so those jobs, I don’t know, just saying “thank you” really does make a big, big difference.
Amanda: Well, Alexia, thank you.
Alexia: (laughs)
Amanda: Thank you for the work that you’re doing, and I really mean that. Giving back to your own community, even the choice to go back one summer and pick apples so that you wouldn’t do this work without actually having some understanding of what day in and day out looks like. Thank you for the work that you do.
Alexia: And thank you, Amanda. (laughs)
Amanda: And thanks for coming on our show today.
Alexia: Yeah, awesome. Thank you. And I hope everyone has a great day.
