After decades helping farmworkers in Yuma, she pivoted to help asylum seekers
Emma Torres said she decided to go back to school when she was 24, when her first husband died, leaving her a 4-year-old daughter and a 3-month-old baby to raise. She hadn't even finished elementary school.
Born in a migrant farmworker family, Torres started working at farms in California when she was 13, didn't speak English and didn't even know what leukemia was when her first husband died of it.
"My whole life turned upside down," Torres said. "When I became a widow, then I realized I have to go to school. I have to do something. I have to learn so that I can teach my kids."
Torres, now 63, is passing her knowledge to people who have a background similar to hers, a migrant from Mexico and a farmworker who moved between the U.S.-Mexico border frequently in her childhood.
Improving low-income farmworkers' lives
Torres is the executive director and co-founder of Campesinos Sin Fronteras, or Farmers Without Borders, an organization dedicated to helping farmworkers in Yuma County.
In Torres' office in Somerton, certificates of her bachelor's and master's degrees, some awards to honor her contribution to the border community, and her family's photos were hung on the wall.
Children born in migrant farmworker families usually don't have consistent education or social activities since they move and work between farms across the border with their families.
"The kids, a lot of time, get lost in the system," Torres said.
Knowing too well what challenges farmworker communities face, Torres and some of her friends and family members founded Campesinos Sin Fronteras in 1999 to help farmworkers improve their lives.
"Latinos, we have our high work ethics, you know. We believe in hard work. We believe in self-sustaining. We believe in helping ourselves to thrive and succeed," Torres said.
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Her team provides health and hygiene knowledge to farmworkers, helps farmworkers apply for visas, and holds support groups to take care of their mental health since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, among other services, according to the organization.
"We wanted to eliminate barriers, the economic barriers, educational barriers, linguistic barriers for them to be able to succeed in this country as they come, or we come to this country to pursue an American dream," Torres said.
The organization now has two offices, in Somerton and San Luis, to serve the Yuma community, Torres said.
Couple grateful for help from Campesinos Sin Fronteras
Elsa Esparza and her husband, Oscar Esparza, are grateful to Campesinos Sin Fronteras for helping them apply for grants to remodel their house, Elsa Esparza told The Arizona Republic. Both are retired farmworkers in Somerton.
The interview with Elsa Esparza was interpreted from Spanish to English by Liliana Cruz, the farmworkers service coordinator of Campesinos Sin Fronteras, in the Esparzas' house. Cruz said they're two of about 12,000 the organization helps each year.
The house was in bad condition before it was repaired.
They tried to apply for grants through another person to get help for the home, but the only thing that happened was that their identities were stolen, Elsa Esparza said.
But then they found Campesinos Sin Fronteras, which helped them renovate the home. Now, they have big smiles when showing their renovated house.
"She's very polite, humble," Elsa Esparza said about Torres.
"People come to us for just about any, any information they may need or any service and then (if) we don't have them, we connect them to services and we ensure that we help them," Torres said. "We kind of serve like a catalyst. So, they come to us and we just do it."
"We've been doing this for so many years that we have the trust of the community," Torres said. "They know that we would, we will help them and we will protect their rights. ... They're treated with dignity and respect."
A new service helping asylum seekers released in Yuma County
It was cold and windy when asylum seekers, including women and children, were released from a bus on Feb. 26 in Yuma County, Torres said. She got a call and was asked if she could help.
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"The first week or so it was so chaotic because we didn't, we didn't really know what to do, or how to do, and for how long this was gonna take," Torres said.
Torres and her team found places for the asylum seekers to stay and arranged for them to do COVID-19 tests.
The organization has been helping asylum seekers released in the area since.
Different from the migrant farmworker community, some of the asylum seekers are from Cuba, Brazil, Romania, India or other non-Spanish-speaking countries, Torres said.
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After the asylum seekers tested negative, the organization sent them to the Casa Alitas Welcome Center in Tucson and the Galilee Center in Mecca, California, two shelters Campesinos Sin Fronteras has cooperated with before. If they tested positive, a health care center would take care of them, Torres said.
The organization has grown to serve the whole community, even if they're not farmworkers, Torres said.
"Any new immigrant … or legal residents or citizens whomever we live in this side with, we provide their services."
Colleague calls Torres 'a true community leader'
Fernie Quiroz, 48, who has known Torres for more than 20 years, described her as "a true community leader in our community."
Quiroz is a Yuma resident, a son of migrant farmworkers and the director of the Arizona California Humanitarian Coalition, which Torres and her friends established to help the asylum seekers in February.
"Emma has always been at the forefront," Quiroz told The Republic.
"She has the biggest heart in this community, always stepping forward, always wanting to assist whether it's for the farmworker community, for individuals that are seeking assistance in our community," Quiroz said.
"We could not be able to do something like this without someone like her," Quiroz said. "Her experience for guidance, her knowledge is an asset that I'm proud to call my friend."
Liliana Cruz, the farmworkers service coordinator and Torres' assistant, said Torres is a great leader.
"She's just not like, talk. She is a doer," Cruz said. "That's what I like about her."
With the trust from the community and the responsibility on her shoulders, Torres said she sometimes feels exhausted.
"You just get tired. And you, you hope that somebody else will take the lead. But again, leadership brings, you know, has responsibility attached to it," Torres said.
"I've been doing this for so long, for so many years, that I cannot just drop out unless I retire. People don't believe me that I will retire," Torres said, laughing and then imitating the amused tones of people saying, "You're not gonna retire."
"When people see you as a leader … you can't afford to just, drop out," Torres said.
Reach breaking news reporter Peiyu Lin at Pei-Yu.Lin@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @peiyulintw.
This story is part of the Faces of Arizona series. For years, people in Arizona’s diverse communities have said they don’t see themselves reflected in the newspaper, and that they want to see more good news about their people. These profiles are a step in that direction. Have feedback or ideas on who we should cover? Send them to editor Kaila White at kaila.white@arizonarepublic.com.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Faces of Arizona: Campesinos sin Fronteras leader helps asylum seekers
