In 2021 the Vermont Folklife Center published The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont Drawn by New England Cartoonists, our Vermont Reads choice for 2022. The book consists of English language comics created by the El Viaje Más Caro Project, a health care outreach effort of the Open Door Clinic and University of Vermont Extension Bridges to Health that uses comics as a tool to address the overlooked mental health needs of Latin American migrant workers in Vermont.
In this presentation, Andy Kolovos from the Vermont Folklife Center and Julia Grand Doucet from the Open Door Clinic provide an overview of the goals of the El Viaje Más Caro Project, the collaborative methods that define its approach, and insight into the lives and experiences of the workers whose labor supports the continued viability of dairy farming in Vermont.
