Grimm Family Center for Agricultural Business launching speaker series

Artist, CSUB alum Cuca Montoya to discuss her artwork focused on lives of farmworkers

By California State University, Bakersfield

September 26^th, 2023

Cuca Montoya weaves research and story into her art, melding the two into an exhibit called Bajo el Mismo Sol (“Under the Same Sun”), which captures the sacrifice and survival of farmworkers on canvas.

The local artist will speak about her work when California State University, Bakersfield’s Grimm Family Center for Agricultural Business launches a new speaker series this week that will focus on various aspects of the ag industry.

The series is being funded through a $5 million donation the Grimm family made in 2019 to establish the center on campus.

“One of the objectives of the Grimm Family Center is to be a conduit for agriculture education in Kern County,” said Dr. Aaron Hegde, executive director of the Grimm Family Center. “We’re in the center of agriculture here. It’s central to our identity. A lot of our students also come from agricultural backgrounds. We want to make the community aware of what’s happening with ag both on and off campus.”

Montoya, a CSUB alumna, will speak about Bajo el Mismo Sol and the research she used to create it in a presentation that will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Dezember Reading Room in the Walter W. Stiern Library. There is no cost to attend the event.

“When people think of agriculture, they think of farms and growing food, but agriculture impacts the community in many different ways,” Dr. Hegde said. “This is an artist who has her own experiences with ag labor. We thought she would be a great start to introduce this idea of the importance of farmworkers to agriculture here in the Valley.”

Having lived and worked in rural areas surrounded by the farmworker community, Montoya has heard a lot of stories about what farmworkers have experienced, such as being hospitalized for heat exposure and developing illnesses after being exposed to pesticides. These experiences are reflected in her art.

“Hearing their stories, hearing the community talk about these things on a consistent basis sparked an interest in trying to process what it was they were telling me,” she said. “There are a lot of consequences that come from working in agriculture. They’re out in the fields in bad conditions and often develop chronic illnesses and face a lot of health hazards.”

Montoya conducted research into the health effects that farmworkers have faced. Instead of writing a paper, however, she felt that art would be a better communication tool.

“I just started painting things and incorporating what I was finding in my research,” she said. “I was mostly doing it for me, but I noticed it seemed to be an effective communication tool for my peers.”

Montoya is excited for students to see her artwork at Wednesday’s event and see how they respond to them.

“I’m curious to see what my work is communicating and whether it is going to speak to the students,” she said. “I’m always interested in what different perspectives are out there about the work. Everybody brings a different lens and experience.”

Montoya would like to see her work inspire others to demand change in how farmworkers are treated, both from inside and outside of the ag industry. She believes a lot of the issues present in her work can be addressed but that more attention needs to be paid to them.

Dr. Hegde hopes that students will take advantage of the series and will come away from the presentations more informed about how agriculture impacts them on a personal, individual level as well as how it affects the community.

“On a very broad level, we want to see an appreciation for agriculture and for them to see things from another perspective,” he said. “This is one way of getting to know what experiences people growing the food that we eat endure.”

Presentations in the speaker series will take place three times a semester, on the last Wednesday of each month. The October session will feature President Lynnette Zelezny, who will present a poem about agriculture and will participate in a conversation about the importance of the ag industry.