Leonardo Galvan currently works as an outreach worker in the health program, where he leads a promotores program with farmworkers, inviting workers themselves to be lay health leaders among their peers. Before serving in this capacity at the Project, for 13 years he conducted research projects with Wake Forest University, where he gained experience in research around pesticides and farmworker living conditions. In his free time, Leonardo is director of his church choir and volunteers transporting workers so that they can attend mass.
Leonardo has been a farmworker himself since the age of eight, growing cotton, beans, corn, melons, watermelons, and pumpkins in his parents’ fields. He did his high school studies in Mexico, where he obtained a certificate of [agricultural techniques?]. Afterwards he began studying agronomy in the university, but could not finish his studies there for lack of economic resources. He then saw the necessity of coming to the United States. He was a farmworker in the US for 10 years before becoming involved with the NC Farmworkers’ Project. He worked for different farmers in Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina, in several different crops. In doing this, he gained insight into farmworkers’ lives, and he remains involved in the activities and needs of farmworkers, helping them to confront different barriers that they face.