When I was I kid I wanted to grow up to be a race car driver, a cowgirl, a private detective, an interior designer, and the first woman President. When at Millsaps College my career dreams became a bit more pragmatic as I considered being an accountant or civil servant. During Divinity School at Duke, I was drawn to the Jewish judge and prophetess Deborah and wondered how to go about having that job. But as I began to explore work opportunities, aside from the short stint I did at the factory where my mom worked for 50 years, I started to navigate toward social justice jobs in the nonprofit sector. I mostly worked with women experiencing homelessness in Jackson, MS, St. Louis, MO, Wilmington, DE, and Durham, NC, before finding SAF.

I began as an intern in 1993 with the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry and then was hired as SAF staff in 1994. When I first explained my work with SAF to my very religious grandmother, she began telling folks in her community that I was a missionary to farmworkers.

Often when folks ask what do you do?, I stumble a bit over my response. You’d think that after 25 years I could easily respond without hesitation. But I always pause. SAF has afforded me so many opportunities to do so many different things, that I find myself wondering what will connect most with the asker.

Should I tell them that I spend most of my time talking – meeting folks to share about the work, supporting co-workers to do their work, and presenting to students? What about saying I’m a writer – I write grant applications, funders’ reports, academic articles and, well, a lot of emails. Or should I focus more on the accounting - managing finances, creating budgets, preparing for the annual audit – something concrete that my dad would be proud of? Or what about my role as a mentor to young people who are just starting out in the farmworker movement? Or what if I share that I’m a facilitator that leads discussions about the history and current state of agricultural workers and how we need to make systemic change to upend the capitalist system that is propped up by racism?

You can see my dilemma.

I recently came across my mom’s birth certificate when looking through some of her important documents. I was struck by the inclusion of both “usual occupation” and “industry or business” at the bottom of the certificate, a practice that I learned changed after 1968 when education level became an alternative to occupation in determining socioeconomic status.

Under my grandfather’s usual occupation it says farm laborer and for both parents, the industry or business says cotton raising. I have of course known that my grandparents worked in the fields as that is part of why I was drawn to SAF and have stayed for so long. I know that they were sharecroppers that benefited from a government program (that mostly affected white sharecroppers) in the 1930s that allowed them to get a loan to purchase their own land. I grew up on that 100 acre farm in the MS Delta. But somehow seeing the occupation of farm laborer on the birth certificate made me pause.

What does it mean to have your work codified on an official document that the government believed would determine the health of your child? How long have we known that socioeconomic status is a social determinant of one’s well-being? And why haven’t we done something about this?

Having spent 25 years learning that the occupation of farm laborer can indeed affect the well-being of a worker’s life, as well as that of their family, I am taking pause. My work with SAF has determined my well-being. As a result of SAF I have moved from being working class to middle class. I now have full paid health care, vacation, sabbatical and retirement. I have what I seek for others - a world where one’s occupation does not necessarily determine one’s well-being.

While I didn’t pursue any of those early career plans, I do drive fast when going down east to visit farmworkers, I did get the chance to meet the President (Obama of course) when he honored the legacy of César Chávez, I really do love budgeting, and I strive to be an ascetic activist that is committed to action and reflection. Through SAF I have worked with over 1000 young people, many whose parents’ occupation is farm laborer. I’ve supported them to live into their multi-dimensional selves and discern their calls. I’ve pushed them to see the world differently and to act on that understanding. I’ve challenged them to pursue social justice careers.

Now that I have taken a pause, I hope you will join me as I continue my occupation of talking, writing, accounting for, mentoring, and facilitating change in our communities.

“I think that one day the labor of farmworkers will be valued.”–Rigoberto, farmworker in NC