Milked, authored by Ruth Conniff, explores the relationships between Wisconsin dairy farmers and Mexican workers. This book focuses on the challenges farmers and workers face as they navigate the current agricultural system.
An excerpt from Worlds Together, an article in The Progressive Magazine, summarizes Milked as a book about the people. The article explains that “Conniff presents what she calls ‘a collection of interlocking life stories of people from opposite sides of the border.’ We meet Mexican workers in Wisconsin who are trying to make enough money to send back home and build houses to which they hope to return. They stay in touch with their families by phone and video chats. We also meet their families back in Mexico who miss them. For most of these workers, the goal is not American citizenship, but to provide for their families through whatever means are most feasible, including doing work that just happens to be essential to the U.S. economy.”
John Rosenow’s advocacy for immigrant workers and work with Puentes/Bridges is highlighted in Conniff’s book. Worlds Together identifies John as a “prominent advocate for the rights of undocumented workers” and “a main player in the book.”
John has been active in Puentes/Bridges for several decades and accompanied a local interpreter to Veracruz, Mexico, in 2001. A passage from Milked recalls a moment during this trip when John met the family of one of his workers, including a daughter the worker hadn’t yet met himself.
“John reached down with his hands the size of milk buckets to shake hands with this tiny girl with tears in his eyes,” recalls Duvall. “They took back pictures of the meeting and plastered them all over the break room at the Rosenow farm.”
For a full review of Milked, read Worlds Together: Ruth Conniff’s Milked explores the bonds between Midwest dairy farmers and their Mexican workers by Bill Lueders on The Progressive Magazine.
