Warren Catholics welcome migrant farm workers

St. Luke Church raises funds to support 260 men with food, clothes, encouragement

Published: July 25, 2015

By Brenda Clark
El Dorado Correspondent

Guillermo Acuchi

St. Luke parishioners along with Father Eddie D’Almeida, Deacon Jose Luebanos and seminarians David Aguilar and Mark Johns celebrate the annual welcoming Mass for migrant workers in Hermitage on a rainy June 14.

Guillermo Acuchi

HERMITAGE — Migrant workers usually arrive in Hermitage in late spring every year to tend the tomato fields in Bradley County. This year’s heavy rain delayed the arrival of workers and even hastened their departure, according to Guillermo Acuchi, a member of St. Luke Church in Warren.

The church hosts welcoming and closing Masses each year for the workers and also provides grocery sacks with two week’s worth of food and supplies to last them until they receive their first paycheck.

Masses for the opening and closing of the season were held June 14 and July 5 at the Hermitage Apartments where the workers make their home for the season.

Pastor Father Eddie D’Almeida said, “This is my first year with them as their pastor and it was very moving to witness the care and thoughtfulness of the parishioners. It took months of fundraising and preparation to plan the evening, which included Mass, dinner, donated clothing and care packages.”

“The workers do not have transportation to travel the 12 miles to Warren (the closest parish). We came to them, demonstrating our concern for their spiritual well-being and showing some amount of solidarity for their despicable living conditions. They work bending over in the heat and humidity only to return to apartments that are not furnished with air conditioning. Sometimes it is too hot to sleep inside. They sleep outside,” Father D’Almeida said.

Recognizing the needs of the migrant workers led to the evolution of the welcoming Mass from its beginning of sacks of groceries delivered to each of the apartments more than 25 years ago. Former pastor Father Chet Artysiewicz, GHM, said he believed the tradition of taking groceries may have started as early as 1987, and when he became pastor at St. Luke in 2000 he continued delivering the food.

“We would get a bag of groceries and go to the apartments. There would be four, five, six, maybe eight guys in each apartment. We would get a bag, it might have instant coffee, and rice and beans and tortillas,” he said.

Father Artysiewicz said the addition of Spanish-speaking Deacon Arnold Hernandez, CM, added another “phase” to the mission. Arriving in Arkansas in 2002, Hernandez offered his assistance and with his Spanish-speaking ability, he was able to get the community involved.

Father Artysiewicz said, “He got the parishioners to be more connected with these folks. At the end, when we would have a kind of a celebration the last Sunday, they would bring clothes for them to take back to Mexico.”

Raised in the parish, Guillermo Acuchi, now 30, said the parish members have tried to continue helping every year. Low donations and a lack of volunteers have sometimes been a hurdle, he said, even causing it to be cancelled a couple of times.

“Two years before last year we had stopped because we didn’t have enough help and enough [volunteers] to help. But last year we welcomed them and also had a chance to have confession after Mass for them,” he said. “Four or five priests came for confession.”

Because of the need for additional money, the parish began looking for fundraisers.

“Last year we began a beauty pageant, with little girls from our church, ages from 4 to 6,” Acuchi said. “The winner of the pageant was not determined by beauty, but they were all pretty little girls, but by who gathered the most money.”

He said the money raised purchased food and supplies for the tomato workers.

“We had a lot of people donate clothes, men’s jeans, shirts, women’s clothes, shoes and also even stuffed teddy bears.”

He said all of the donations were used.

“Everything that was donated was taken by them, nothing, I mean nothing, not even one piece of clothing was left.”

This year the church added an additional age group to the pageant, raising $2,520.

They handed out more than 260 bags, Acuchi said, adding “only a few were left empty-handed.”

Acuchi said he was excited about the work that has been done, but he said that he was informed that another 200 workers at another location also needed help.