Meet Jose L.

Yakima, Washington is considered a rural community. Not as rural as some of our neighboring towns, but we do serve a population here that is underserved — not just in mental health services, but overall with the type of care or resources available to them. We have a large population that is made up of agricultural workers. We also have a large population of Native Americans who belong to tribes.

I grew up working in the fields with my parents in agriculture.

I was born in Mexico and my parents brought me over to the U.S. First generation college education, educated here, and I grew up working in the fields with my parents in agriculture.

We are resilient but we forget about our mental health.

 In thinking about COVID or I talking about COVID, something unique that I think the community that I belong to — others might not realize this — I think our ability to think that we are resilient and that we are,it gives us that motivation to think that we can get through this. We’re going to keep working. We’re going to take care of our own. We’re going to take care of ourselves physically, financially. We’ll get through it.  

 But we forget about our mental health. We forget that it’s not just us physically having to get through something. It’s our mind getting through that crisis, as well. Culturally speaking, we don’t talk about that. We’re just not used to talking about how we’re not OK and how we’re not doing well. We just try to bury it and come up with explanations as to what we’re experiencing. And oftentimes we start to see that down the road and with an increase in drinking or an increase in domestic violence or relationship issues, as well. It’s just, I think, understanding that we have never really taken care of our mental health issues will help kind of open the door to talk — to talk to our community about this. This is important. This is real. We have to take care of this piece. 

We just try to bury it and come up
with explanations as to what
we’re experiencing.