What It Takes: The Resilience in Starting a Farm

A profile of Bernardo Trujillo and Veronica Cruz, the Latino farmers growing their family and their crops at Two Brothers Farm in Middletown, NY.

There is no red barn, white silos or even as much as a sign to indicate the entrance to Two Brothers Farm outside of Middletown in Orange County, New York.

The seven acres are muddy, with standing water still in the fields in many places. Hands on hips, Bernardo Trujillo and Veronica Cruz surveyed what is left of the season’s crops.

“We lost 2,800 tomato plants when the land flooded,” said Trujillo. “Eight hundred more of hot peppers. We lost most of our cantaloupe, most of our watermelon.” Cruz added, “We had a whole plot of winter squash and another of zucchini that were ruined. This whole area here was kale,” she said, gesturing toward a flooded patch of land. “There was just so much rain.”

Bernardo Trujillo, pictured, and his wife Verónica Cruz have started Two Brothers Farm outside of Middletown, NY. As Latinos they have faced many barriers to entry in agriculture, including lack of information and technical assistance in Spanish, difficulty with legal agreements and insurance, as well as racial discrimination and mistreatment. (Jamie Johnson / Cornell Small Farms Program)

Trujillo and Cruz have been farming here for three years, but this is the first year they’ve taken the plunge to quit their day jobs and work full-time here. They have finalized their paperwork to become a registered farm, but they haven’t yet been able to get crop insurance.

Trujillo and Cruz are married with five children, ages 18 years to 6 months. They’re from Mexico and worked nearly 20 years in the apple industry in New York before renting this land to start their own farm. Approximately 70 percent of the agricultural workforce in New York State identifies as Latino. Yet only 606 people identifying as Latino own or operate a farm here, or slightly more than 1 percent of owner-operators in New York, according to the 2017 Ag Census.

Trujillo was a fumigator, drove a tractor in the orchards and became a skilled mechanic along the way. Both come from agricultural backgrounds.

“I grew up in the countryside raising corn and beans with my family,” said Cruz. “I have beautiful memories of Mexico, and I want to pass on what I learned from my parents, so that my kids can have some of the experiences that I had.”

Here in New York State the couple has diversified. They grow tomatoes, carrots, beets, kale, eggplant, cilantro, melons, tomatillos and Mexican cooking herbs such as epazote, pápalo and pipichas. Chickens roam freely under the trees at the edges of the fields.

The couple’s experiences living and working in the United States have been difficult. “We were being treated poorly in the orchard where we were working,” said Trujillo. “We’d been there for a long time already, and I didn’t see any change coming. I didn’t just want to drive a tractor for someone else my whole life. I told my family, ‘We need to leave here, start our own business and be our own bosses and not work for someone else anymore.’”

Cruz added that she faced discrimination from a supervisor and felt undervalued by her bosses. The high stress of orchard work caused Cruz to miscarry. “After I lost the baby, I didn’t ever go back. I told my husband, let’s grow our own food and see if we can make it work.”

In starting their own operation, Trujillo and Cruz have faced many of the barriers to entry that Latino farmers tend to encounter in agriculture in New York. Language and cultural barriers make it difficult for aspiring Spanish-speaking farmers to access information about regulations, permits, tax credits and available state and federal grants. Few service provider offices tasked with supporting farmers with all of these things have employees who speak Spanish. When they do, these bilingual specialists tend to be overworked, responsible for serving multiple underrepresented groups in agriculture.

Accessing land, credit and capital can be difficult. Public and private lenders often require a credit history and collateral that is unrealistic for newer immigrants, in addition to systemic racism that has plagued the industry for two centuries. The USDA has recently taken steps to rectify a history of racial discrimination in their granting of farm loans, but righting the ship is a slow process and uneven in its implementation.

Latino farmers in rural areas can feel isolated and vulnerable to formal and informal U.S. authorities, even when they’ve done nothing wrong. Legal assistance to craft a document as simple as a land lease is expensive, and it is hard in many parts of the state to locate attorneys who speak Spanish or are willing to take extra time with a client to understand the documents they are signing.

Trujillo and Cruz have faced both the systemic and interpersonal faces of racism. Trujillo got quiet when we asked him what was the most difficult thing about his work. “Racism,” he said finally. “We grow everything organic here, and I have had customers get upset about the price of our produce. People have knocked vegetables off of our market table and stormed off. I’ve never seen a white farmer treated that way.”

Cruz said, “You have to have a lot of patience with the customers. Sometimes they get aggressive but most are quite kind.” She takes solace in having the whole family taking part in the effort. “Thank God I have my kids here helping me. From the biggest to the littlest ones, we’re all here working together.”

Cristo Trujillo, 18, works on the farm his family is starting in Middletown, NY and sells at farmers markets in New York City on the weekends. In addition, he studies automotive technology at the local community college. (Verónica Cruz / Two Brothers Farm)

Their oldest son, Cristo, has taken on a lot of responsibility on the farm. In addition to studying automotive technology at the local community college, he drives the tractor on the farm and sells at farmers’ markets in New York City on the weekends.

“Yeah, the work is hard,” he laughs. “It’s hard on your body for sure. But at the same time it’s beautiful to grow everything yourself. Now that it’s market season, you see all of this green and everything you’ve cared for, and see that people like it.”

This year, the family income has been sorely impacted by the flooding. Carlos Aguilera, co-owner of West Haven Farm in Tompkins County, says these extreme climate events will only become more frequent and farmers have to start learning about climate smart practices now to minimize erosion, manage new pests and maintain yields. He teaches others climate resiliency practices through Cornell Small Farms Program Farm Field Days.

“In places like Mexico and Costa Rica, the government pays farmers to implement practices that will mitigate effects of climate change,” Aguilera said. “We have to advocate for that here in the U.S., too. We think we’re advanced here, but in reality we’re 40 years behind what other countries are doing in terms of how climate change is affecting agriculture.”

Trujillo says he works more hours now than in the orchard. Even so, he prefers this lifestyle and is determined to make it work.

“We’re happy,” said Trujillo. “We don’t need to make $100,000 in a season – just enough to pay our bills and keep growing little by little. I don’t have the same stress that I had, and I’m so happy with the freedom of this work. I’m with my family all day, not just a few hours. From 6 in the morning until 8 at night, we’re all together, working together, weeding or picking vegetables or whatever needs to be done.”

The Trujillo brothers sell organic vegetables from Two Brothers Farm, their Middletown, NY family farm, at outdoor farmers markets in New York City. (Verónica Cruz / Two Brothers Farm)

To Trujillo, having his own farm is freedom. “I like this feeling of freedom. To see these plants grow, to nurture them, and to be with my family.” For many Latinos and Latinas in the United States, having their own farm means the freedom to make their own decisions and to be with their spouse and children. It means the freedom to build a future. The freedom they can find in agricultural entrepreneurship allows them to instill values in their children, recognize and develop skills and talents and promote dignity, love for the earth and respect for all of those who work the land.

Mildred Alvarado, director of Cornell Small Farms Program’s Futuro en Ag project, added: “For us, agriculture isn’t just profits. It’s the freedom to smile and not just to cry, to speak up and no longer be silent. Farming is about a responsibility over natural resources and providing something essential to the community.”

Trujillo’s advice to other aspiring Latino farmers is to make all big decisions together. “Always make decisions with your partner,” he said. “And ask a lot of questions before you jump in. I would also say, if there’s someone else who is suffering the same things as me, we can’t worry. We’re all going to make it somehow.”

Mildred Alvarado, Suly Valdez and Jamie Johnson with the Cornell Small Farms Program also contributed to the data collection and interviews for this article.

Author Info: Tim joined the Cornell Small Farms Program in 2023 as the Bilingual Communications Specialist. He is responsible for the multifaceted communications strategy for the Futuro en Ag project, and supports Spanish language online and in-person education.