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accessHealthNews.net
August 2024
Volume 10 | Issue No. 87
Jim Torres is the program manager with
Health Insurance Services at Samuel U.
Rodgers Health Center. His family's story
and humble lifestyle shaped his desire
to serve as an advocate for individuals
who migrated to this country. This lived
experience is underscored by grace,
compassion, and understanding – integral
tenets to meeting people where they are
by stepping into their shoes to see life from
their vantage point.
Torres' mother came from a hardworking
migrant farmworker family. An immigrant
from Mexico, they moved around to
places like Texas, the Midwest, and even
as far north as Minnesota, the Dakotas,
and Wyoming. Where the work was, they
were there too. Torres said his mom likened
their lifestyle to the Joad family in the
movie, "Grapes of Wrath."
"You just went where the work was," he
said. "The whole family did. Even the
kids—especially the kids. It was an
interesting life."
They worked hard and saved money
to hold them over until the next season.
They cooked over an open fire, and even
converted what would be considered a
chicken coop into shelter. "They didn't
have much, but they had each other,"
Torres said. "That's a different lifestyle from
what I knew growing up. We weren't rich,
but we certainly had running water, stoves,
heat, and things like that."
His grandfather liked working in the fields
and having some measure of autonomy.
He didn't just work for the money; he also
shared the fruits of his labor. He was able
to work as a sharecropper and use part
of the land to grow his own crops and sell
what he produced.
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"You just went where the work was,The whole family did.
Even the kids—especially the kids. It was an interesting life."
- Jim Torres,
Program manager with Health Insurance Services at
Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center.
