Reading was key to saving Lisa’s life.
Meet Lisa Ramirez, EdD.: Lisa was a migrant child farmworker who grew up in a small Texas town of 1,200 people. She faced brutal conditions in all aspects of her life – in her family, in the fields where she worked as a migrant child farmworker, and in school.
At home, she faced domestic violence, mental health issues including suicide attempts, physical abuse, neglect, extreme poverty, homelessness, hunger and more. In the fields, she was exposed to pesticides regularly, forced to work long hours in the hot sun picking cotton, and exposed to exploitive work conditions. At school, she endured a variety of challenges, many unique to migrant child farmworkers – missing school because she had to work in the fields as long as possible each season, not being able to make friends because she moved around a lot, and not being respected by teachers as they expected her to have learned more by the time she attended her class.
Despite the living hell she endured as a child, Lisa found the bravery to leave home to join the U.S. Army where she took to advanced education. She went on to earn her doctorate in education enabling her to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Programs in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education for many years.
What helped her break through from her immense challenges? One thing was reading as she explains in her memoir, Dulcified.
“Reading allowed me to escape the brutal reality that existed in our home. In books I found refuge. In books, I was allowed to be among princes and princesses, in a world where there was plenty of food, bills were always paid and people spoke to one another with kind words in lovely tones. In books, I learned of faraway places, adventurous jobs, and the mysteries of the world like the Bermuda Triangle, Stonehenge, Easter Island and the Pyramids of Egypt.”
Lisa Ramirez is one of the individuals featured in the Migrant Child Farmworkers Now High-Profile Professionals© documentary. See more of her story in the film preview here: