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Priscilla Meza: From Orchards to Opportunity

Graduating Kinesiology student aims to improve life for farm workers where she grew up.

By C. Brandon Chapman and Thomas Arend
May 08, 2024

Priscilla Meza was raised in a cherry orchard. Or, because it’s Washington state, tops in the nation for sweet cherry production, lots of cherry orchards.

It wasn’t by choice.

See, that’s just what happens when you’re the child of migrant farm workers from Mexico. Priscilla’s parents, Aurelio and Silvia, came to the United States from Huejuquilla El Alto, Jalisco, for the chance at what they felt would be a better life with greater opportunities, if not for themselves, certainly for their kids.

It was Priscilla and her younger brother, Angel.

And the Mezas couldn’t afford childcare.

Various cost analyses show average childcare in Washington state hovering around $1,000 per month. While Washington state has some subsidized options, with sliding-scale copays, these costs still put things out of reach for the Mezas.

So, Priscilla and her brother went to school and then spent more time in the fields and orchards.

This isn’t rare among Mexican agricultural laborers. The United States has federal labor laws that exclude child farm workers from labor protections. Unlike other jobs, a child can be 12 and younger and, with a waiver, legally work in agriculture. At 16, children can work any farm job, including those deemed hazardous by the Secretary of Labor, including during school hours.

That’s not to say Priscilla was being worked inappropriately. But it does speak to the toil that exists in this life and the fact that even outside any expectation of work, Priscilla was no stranger to farm life. In fact, that’s where she grew up.

This story is hardly about money… or a lack thereof. That was simply the primary onus for having the kids in the orchards, sometimes working.

What the story is actually about is something worse: pain and suffering.

Orchards and Observations

From a young age, Priscilla was no stranger to the toil under the intense Eastern Washington sun, even if it wasn’t working.

“Most of the time we would be playing with our friends in the fields,” she said.

As Priscilla grew older, the expectations placed upon her changed from a playful helper to early mornings and dirty hands. And then, every summer when school ended in June, her schedule looked quite a bit different than others. She would wake up before sunrise, head over to the cherry fields, tie a bucket to her chest, and start working. She did that every single day of the week. Then they’d start all over again. Week after week.

“I would climb ladders, fill up buckets, and walk from one field to another,” she said. “Each bucket was worth $3 and sometimes I would do seven, 10, or 15 buckets a day.”

The number of buckets often simply depended on how many cherries each tree had.

The days were long. The work was hard. All of it necessary for their family.

And when that time came for Priscilla to inevitably grow up faster than her school classmates, her eyes were opened in a way she hadn’t necessarily considered. She noticed the workers were experiencing physical pain and suffering from poor posture and repetitive motion.

The Annals of Epidemiology (Volume 24, Issue 4) exposes that an estimated 77 percent of agricultural injuries are not reported.

“I noticed how it affected many individuals tremendously,” Priscilla said. “But they didn’t seek medical services because they were not aware of them or did not want to treat their condition.”

Special people don’t sit back and observe when struggling. They take action. Priscilla is one of those people. From the time she saw toil and pain, she was determined to help her peers.

And that’s where the dream of higher ed comes in. “As a Mexican-American individual with immigrant parents, education is seen as an open door to many opportunities,” Priscilla said.

Angel wasn’t Priscilla’s only sibling. She also had two sisters, Brenda and Leida. But they were more than a decade older than her. While she never really was with them in the fields, she did get to watch them go away to college. They attended Washington State University. In looking up to them and having resolve to make a difference, Priscilla made a goal of doing this herself.

When the time came, she enrolled in the WSU College of Education’s Kinesiology program. Now, not only could she be a positive force among her peers and family, but she believed she could start making substantive change actually helping aid those with labor-induced injuries.

Time at WSU

The Kinesiology program helps students study human movement, as well as its relationship to a person’s overall health.

By the time they graduate, they are well-versed in, among other things, anatomy and physiology, biology, biomechanics, exercise science, mindfulness and psychology of physical activity.

Whether they stop there, or seek an advanced degree, sometimes in Medicine, Kinesiology alumni will often work with athletes, in a medical setting, in a fitness setting, and some in higher education or research work.

Additionally, Priscilla is getting a minor in Strength and Conditioning (as well as a second minor in Entrepreneurship).

In truth, Priscilla anticipates it will be hard to leave Pullman. From the moment she stepped onto the rolling hills of the Palouse, she said she was welcomed with open arms.

“I love the Coug spirit,” she said. It’s my home away from home.”

And, far from only doing classes, Priscilla has had the opportunity to intern for the cross country, women’s golf, women’s swim, and football teams.

Michael Heim, director of the Migrant Education Student Access and Support, as well as the College Assistance Migrant Program, said despite the obstacles Priscilla has faced as a first-generation college student, she has made her college experience a good one.

“Priscilla is very positive,” said Heim, whom Priscilla considers a mentor. “She was always ready to help with a positive demeanor.”

What’s next?

While many of the college’s Kinesiology alumni become physical therapists, far fewer have a desire to head to the Columbia Basin, to the cherry orchards, to do this. Or, in Priscilla’s case, back to the cherry orchards.

But she’s also motivated by the goal she set so many years ago; it has helped her pursue her education with determination and grit and Heim said Priscilla can use the knowledge she obtained from her childhood in her future career.

“As someone who is intimately familiar with farmworkers and the circumstances surrounding families and how their professional work environment affects every aspect of their life, Priscilla is ideal,” Heim said.

“I loved the opportunities that WSU has,” Priscilla said. “I feel prepared and motivated to be a professional woman in the healthcare industry.”

Alas, even some of that will have to wait. At least for now. The lesson about education opening opportunities is still active with Priscilla. A Bachelor of Science simply won’t cut it. She plans to earn a Doctor of Physical Therapy.

“I think that will help me even better educate and assist those with injuries working in the fields.”

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