OPINION: Hispanic Heritage Month is time to celebrate

This editorial was published in the Times-News of Twin Falls.

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The theme for Hispanic Heritage Month this year is “Latinos: Driving Prosperity, Power, and Progress in America.”

We’d contend there are few places across this great country where that’s any more real than right here at home in the Magic Valley. We simply would not be the economic engine we are today without the deep contributions of Hispanic workers and their families — over the last many decades — and it’s why we should come together as one during the next month to celebrate our friends and neighbors from Mexico, Central and South America, and other countries, and further learn about their history and culture.

The agriculture, dairy and food processing industries that make the world go ‘round in south-central Idaho are fully dependent on migrant laborers, and always have been. Twin Falls, Jerome and Cassia counties — without those industries, without those workers — would be little more than desolate desert with an interstate freeway going through it.

That’s not hyperbole.

Consider just this one fact from the Idaho Dairymen’s Association on the state’s $10.7 billion dairy industry: Of all on-dairy jobs, 89% are held by foreign-born workers, hailing primarily from Mexico.

What would our way of life look like in an alternate world without a thriving dairy industry propped up largely by Spanish-speaking workers?

“The success and growth of Idaho’s dairy industry was not achievable without the contributions of a predominantly Hispanic workforce,” Rick Naerebout, CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, said during a slideshow presentation last month in Rupert at the quarterly gathering of Business Plus. “These hardworking, family-oriented individuals have toiled beside our dairy farm families for generations to help build the industry we are today. The Idaho Dairymen’s Association believes that one of its most impactful initiatives revolves around promoting and protecting these talented employees and their families.”

During the same event, Daragh Maccabee, CEO of Jerome-based Idaho Milk Products since 2017, punctuated the reality: “The biggest risk to the milk industry is that we won’t have people to milk the cows.”

Think about that the next time you reach for a gallon of milk at the grocery store or pour your next glass.

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month is not to excuse President Joe Biden’s failure, and that of previous administrations, to secure the United States’ border with Mexico. It is a national crisis that requires true leadership and more than a slogan on a hat.

It’s not a secret that Idaho’s dairy and agriculture industries employ undocumented migrant workers, potentially into the thousands, and that will continue until meaningful reform makes it possible for those men and women to legally enter the country without waiting up to three years for a green card.

They don’t have years to wait. They need to work — and we need them to do the work. Regardless of how any of us feel about the country’s porous southern border, the reality, as Maccabee plainly told us, is that Idaho’s economy can’t survive without migrant workers.

While we know most of us appreciate and understand this reality, not all do. One of them called the Times-News’ Hispanic life and affairs reporter this week, spouted hate and made a threat. We documented the call, reported it and know the caller’s identity.

This caller may believe to be speaking for the majority. Our message to the caller: Your narrow-mindedness is in the minority.

As much as this month is a time to honor Hispanic people and culture, it’s also a time to stand up to racism and hate. In the Magic Valley, like so many other places, it takes all of us — no matter our skin color, our language, our history. There is no place for discrimination here; we’re better than that.

Hispanic Heritage Month, enacted into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, started Sept. 15 on the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days today and Monday, respectively.

The College of Southern Idaho, the state’s first designated Hispanic Serving Institution, will host events in Twin Falls and at its Jerome and Mini-Cassia centers through Oct. 15, the final day of the celebratory month. We encourage you to join in, learn and make new friends.

We are better and stronger as one. Let’s celebrate that for the next month.