Recap
In February’s Public Health+ Season 2 webinar, we sat down with Nezahualcoyotl (Neza) Xiuhtecutli, the General Coordinator for the Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF), the largest organization of its type in Florida. Facilitating the conversation was Roxanna Chicas, an assistant professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. Roxanna and Neza have worked together for 6 years through a research partnership between FWAF and Emory University.
Neza comes from an anthropology background and began his formal career in advocacy work while conducting fieldwork for his PhD dissertation. However, his passion was rooted in his family's history. Neza was inspired by his grandfather, “a person who always wanted to improve working conditions not just for himself but also for those around him” and his father who further exposed him to the living and working conditions of farmworkers. To Neza, working with FWAF felt like a calling.
FWAF began as an organization that not only tried to improve the poor working conditions of farmworkers, but also to empower workers themselves to organize. The organization continued to grow in response to the need to address health disparities in this community.
“FWAF has been a lifeline to many agricultural communities… not just advocating for them FWAF really empowers and helps them develop [skills] to advocate for themselves.”
However, in their early advocacy work, they hit a wall in trying to persuade policymakers to focus their attention on the many needs of these communities. While they didn’t have numbers, they had stories.
“It was at that time that we realized that if we were going to change any minds, we have to come up with some real data.”
And thus, a symbiotic partnership between academia and advocacy was born. The data produced through research conducted by Emory University and other academic institutions allowed FWAF to not only spread awareness about the adverse health outcomes related to working conditions, but also helped leverage tangible proof to influence policy.
Looking into the future, Neza hopes that national standards will be created that further protect farmworkers and immigrant workers will have a clearer path to citizenship.
Reflection
Where Data and Storytelling Meet
Within the intersection of public health and advocacy, we can see the intersection of data and storytelling. There are numerous benefits to scientific research that produces compelling data. However, data is just data unless you are able to use it to tell a story. Here is where advocates come in. Advocates act as storytellers by using data, their connections to communities, and many times their own lived experiences, to synthesize compelling stories that can be used to inform legislators and policymakers. Advocacy becomes a more powerful tool when it’s backed by evidence-based research.
“Regulators and lawmakers, anybody that was in those positions to make the rules, would go ‘ I hear you but show us the data.”
Community-Driven Advocacy leads to Community-Driven Research and a Healing Relationship
One of the biggest lessons was how community voices were centered throughout the partnership. When doing research with communities, members need to be involved from day one. This is especially crucial when working with communities where trust has been violated due to historical exploitation by researchers. However, like with Neza and FWAF, working with advocates and trusted community partners can help mend this broken relationship.
“For so long, researchers have gone into communities and have directed the focus on the research and here is FWAF who came in and said no, what we really want to focus on is heat.” As opposed to the original intention of the Emory team who wanted to research the effects of pesticides.
Here, FWAF and the farmworkers advocated for themselves, knowing what their needs were. Listening was the key for Emory researchers to build successful partnerships. It may seem like a no-brainer but it ultimately took community-driven advocacy to create collaborative community-driven research.
Policy Change
In public health, sustainable change can only be achieved by having a strong foundation of policies in place. Some may agree with this and others may disagree. Think about it this way: policy has the power to provide funding, to mobilize action on a national level, and to create national standards. It provides a foundation to justify the work we do on the ground, but it is also up to communities, organizations, agencies, and individuals to actually push forward change. The work needs to happen on both ends for sustainable change, and at the center of it all are advocates who push for equitable policies while also empowering communities to mobilize.
With the work that the Emory research team has conducted, we hope to see policy change emerge from the advocacy conducted by FWAF surrounding regulations to protect workers from extreme heat.
Interested in learning more? Check out FWAF’s current research projects here.
Writing By –
Emily Zheng, Public Health Innovation Analyst at Orange Sparkle Ball
Emily is a Master of Public Health student at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. She is part of the Behavioral, Social, Health Education Sciences department and is also pursuing a certificate in Social Determinants of Health.
Liris Stephanie Berra, Public Health Innovation Analyst
Liris is a Master of Public Health student at Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. She is part of the Global Health department, pursuing a concentration in Community Health Development and a certificate in the Social Determinants of Health.
