The Most Costly Journey is the Vermont Reads book from July 2022 through June 2023. It’s an anthology of comics that depict the oral histories of migrant workers who traveled from southern Mexico and Central America to work on Vermont farms.
Throughout the program year, we’ll create and post videos here to reflect upon the book and deepen your study of The Most Costly Journey.
Over 1200 migrant workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and other Latin American countries labor on farms and for businesses in Vermont. Their stories are not often heard. With the help of the Open Door Clinic, we spoke with several of these crucial workers. Some wanted to conceal their identities.
Three people central to the creation of The Most Costly Journey discuss migration, farming, mental health, cartooning, and the Latinx farmworker experience in Vermont.
This video about the making of the pamphlets that became The Most Costly Journey includes a conversation between Vermont farm worker “El Enmigrante” (the immigrant) and cartoonist Marek Bennett about collaborating on his story.
Poet Sarah Audsley joined us at the Taconic Mountains Ramble State Park for Words in the Woods.
Humanities Camps are filled with reading and writing projects, field trips, and outdoor activities.
We won a 2020 Schwartz Prize for best public humanities programming in the U.S. for Vermont Reads 2019: “March: Book One.”
We supported Historic New England’s “More than a Market” project that explored the experiences of new Americans through food markets.
Our free public events help bring the power of the humanities to communities across Vermont.
