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Migrants' advocate knows field
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer
The oranges seemed so pretty from the road. Eleven-year-old Diana Sanchez smelled the rich perfume from the groves as she and her family sped south from Ohio to a new home in Florida. The rows of dangling globes dazzled her. "Little did I know that was going to be our means of survival," said Sanchez, now 34. Her family soon joined the ranks of seasonal farm workers in the fields. That's where she stayed for years, both in Plant City and Dade City, scraping by with her family in a hardscrabble life of long hours and little sleep. "I remember the sun being so hot," she said. But she climbed out, taking college classes. She never forgot what she saw, the conditions she lived through. She spent the next 12 years in social services in Dade City on health issues affecting migrant workers. Now Sanchez has the chance to affect the health and lives of migrant workers nationwide. She has been appointed to the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health. The only member from Florida, Sanchez will join 14 other appointees from across the nation and Puerto Rico. The council advises policymakers in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The first two topics she hopes to tackle: better prenatal care for women in the fields and more public awareness of the dangers of pesticides to workers. Her own experience, she thinks, will lend credibility to the advice she'll give national officials about families on society's fringes. "I'll be able to be their voice," she said, "and say, 'I've been there."' Missing the prom It started with strawberries. Then it was tomatoes and eggplant and oranges and cucumbers. "It got to the point my dad had to put all of us out there," she said. She and her six siblings spent years toiling in the fields. When she was 15, the family moved to Dade City from Plant City. Sanchez went to school, worked a clerical job until 5 p.m. and then returned home to change into work clothes. She'd labor in the fields until 7:30 p.m., then return home to help her mom cook dinner. Then homework. Her head hit the pillow around 1 a.m. Every day was nearly the same, except Sundays, when they didn't work. "I know what it's like to go to sleep tired and wake up before sunrise," she said. Her junior year of high school, while working for her father, a row of limousines passed by with honking horns and screaming passengers. What's all the racket? her dad asked. "Daddy, this is prom night," she told him. The next year, her father made sure she got to attend her senior prom. After high school, she worked part-time in a doctor's office and in the fields. She wanted more. "I saw how my parents were still barely making it," she said. 'A lot of good work' Sanchez attended Pasco-Hernando Community College and became a certified nursing assistant. She took a job in 1991 working in obstetrics and midwifery for the Community Health Center in Dade City, run by nonprofit Health Resource Alliance. For the next eight years, she helped migrant and seasonal agricultural workers. She has remained a board member of Health Resource Alliance, which nominated her for the position on the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health. "She has done a lot of good work in the community," said Ronald Melancon, executive director of Health Resource Alliance. Her term begins immediately and runs four years, according to a letter she received in February from Tommy Thompson, the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services. Council members meet quarterly. Four years ago, she was lured away to help launch Healthy Families Pasco, a nonprofit agency whose members visit new moms to promote child health and development as well as life goals for the parents. She advanced from a "resource mom" who works with new parents to a "family assessment worker" who introduces struggling parents to the agency's benefits. At times, she wants to cry at the reaction she often gets when she asks new mothers about their five-year goals. They look startled and say: "Nobody's ever asked me that before." Providing help Marisol Arellano wore a loose white blouse with gold designs over her slightly protruding belly. The 17-year-old is four months pregnant. Sanchez met her with a warm grin. Arellano explains her situation, how the bills are piling up for her and her 26-year-old fiance, the father of the baby. He's supportive, she said. "That's important that he's involved," Sanchez told her. Sanchez gently asks her a series of questions: How old do you think your baby will be when walking and potty-training? What were your parents like? Have you ever had suicidal thoughts? Unlike some of the other young women Sanchez meets, Arellano has goals. She plans to attend Saint Leo University in the fall on a scholarship and become an elementary school teacher. Sanchez explained to her how a resource mom can help. "She's your friend, she's your mentor, whatever you need her for," Sanchez said. Elda Rodriguez received that help from Sanchez. The 27-year-old mother of three from Zephyrhills had Sanchez as a resource mom for a year. Sanchez helped her get English lessons, search for a house, get to doctor's appointments. "When you need help, she's there," Rodriguez said in Spanish. Sanchez, now of Zephyrhills, thinks a family's health is more than medicine: It's about total well-being. She hopes she can obtain help for migrant workers through her national position. But, as a Christian, she said she believes one can also help through example. She learned that the day she interviewed her sister, who was entering the Healthy Families program. When Sanchez asked her what got her out of the darkest time of her life, her sister said, "You." "That made me realize that character is something you are when no one is looking," Sanchez said. "But she was looking." -- Saundra Amrhein can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is amrhein@sptimes.com
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