The Mission to Foster Cultural Understanding

by Debbie Bartsch

Mine is a life-long story of navigating cuture by embracing it. Highlights of my journey will bring to light my passion for Latinos, the Latin culture, and why the landscape industry has become my home.

It all started with a box of puppies. Being a young girl growing up in southern small town Wisconsin, we very rarely encountered people who were a color other than white. Kids can be sneaky. My parents would watch the news, not realizing that I was watching it too. News came from the big cities: Milwaukee and Madison. Things were different there. I could see people of color on the news and sometimes the interaction of people that were of different skin colors was very negative and for no logical reason that I could determine at 5 years old in 1970.

The 4-H Fair was a popular event. This is where I encountered the box of puppies. They were all different colors; some of them multi-colored. Color was not important to the puppies. They played, ate, and slept together and gave no thought to the appearance of each other. I got a puppy. She was brown and I named her Cinnamon.

Midway through fourth grade, my father took a manufacturing job in Harvey, Illinois. Grade school there was a very different environment compared to small town Wisconsin. I was the only white student in my class. That was okay as all I needed to do was demonstrate that I was just another puppy in the same box as them. Debbie Bartsch

Respect Starts in School

The Girl Scouts helped me a lot. One girl invited me and my parents to her house for dinner. Although the families were from different cultures and ethnicity, the parents all had something in common: they wanted their children to grow up learning to appreciate other cultures and colors. Later that evening my father told me that I had changed his life forever.

Dad got a better job so we lived in southern Kentucky from 1977 to 1980. School there was very different. There were paddles displayed on the classroom walls. Racial tension was high, especially between African Americans and white descendants of plantation owners. As a white child, I thought it best to not be mistaken as such.

A small African American girl was in my math class. She was having a very difficult time, sometimes crying, so I helped her. A few weeks later she helped me when a group of black girls were about to attack me in the school bathroom. She happened to walk in and stopped them, saying I was the one who had helped her. Then I told them my box of puppies story and it all worked out.

The Chinese Connection

Fast forward to the late 1990’s. While working in the semiconductor manufactur- ing industry, I became a member of the global project management team. Our goals were to implement a global computer system and improve cultural relations. I traveled the Pacific Rim where I was exposed to various Asian cultures, which fascinated me. I embraced and celebrated the differences as much as the people there made me feel welcome and appreciated.

Lost in Translation

My first trip was to Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area in China, a few hours outside of Beijing to teach a class about the new computer system. The students all spoke English, which was considered the international language of business and fluency was required for high-school graduation. That trip is where I first experienced a cultural disconnect. By the third day, I had to ask why McDonald’s hamburgers, pork patties, and fries were magically arriving in the classroom for our lunch. A company driver had been dispatched to go to Beijing and pickup McDonald’s as they thought Westerners (continued on page 14)

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(continued from page 12) would not like the food in the employee cafeteria. I thanked them graciously and asked that we move lunches going forward to the employee cafeteria. This was a fantastic cultural bonding experience.

In Chinese semiconductor manufacturing plants, employees worked in deplorable conditions where they were exposed to toxins. China did not have the equivalent of the Environmental Protection Agency or OSHA and the manufacturing sites often posed hazardous working conditions However, workers made good pay and would send funds home to their families. These factory workers knew the risks and it was extremely difficult for me to sit in the employee cafeteria, engaging in cheerful conversation, knowing that in a few years most of these individuals would be ill or possibly dead. I am forever haunted by this. Enter the Landscape Industry

After the 9-11 attacks, the semiconductor industry changed dramatically and many of us lost our jobs due to shutdowns. I came to realize my thirst for cultural experiences and teaching others, especially of other cultures, went increasingly unfulfilled. In 2014, a landscaper mentioned the company was having difficulty finding a skilled candidate to handle business operations and cultural relations. That’s how I got into the landscaping industry.

Being with an ILCA member company, I was intrigued as to how the association might assist us with Latino cultural relations. The Annual Party and Member Meeting was my first ILCA outing. ILCA was looking for more committee members and one of the committees happened to be the Latino Relations Committee. I approached ILCA’s Executive Director Scott Grams, who quickly ascertained that I did not appear to be Latina nor did I speak Spanish, but I was given the opportunity to participate.

To hear the incredible stories of perseverance, hope, and sacrifice that my Latino colleagues and their families endured to come to the United States in hope of a better life is moving and inspirational. It reminds me of my grandparents who came to this country with the same goals. It reminds of the Chinese factory workers who put themselves at risk in hope of a better life for their families. I couldn’t help the Chinese factory workers, but there is a lot I can do to help Latinos. They need to succeed for our industry to succeed. (continued on page 16)

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As younger Latinos enter our industry, they tend to stay in the U.S. during the landscape industry’s “off season.” Some were raised in households where English was spoken more than Spanish. Perhaps it is not so much a labor crisis as it is a cultural, educational and industry crisis. Instead of having seasonal layoffs, what can we do to engage people that will result in making the business more profitable?

Volunteering=New Friends

I cherish my fellow Latino Relations Committee members, and my Latino coworkers and colleagues. I am proud of what our committee has done to improve cultural relations and educational opportunities for Latinos in the industry, but we can do more.

In November 2020, Bernie Carranza gave a very moving and heartfelt webinar presentation, “Lost in Translation: The Five Things Businesses Should Understand About Latinx Culture.” A successful immigrant, Bernie shed light on common differences and misunderstandings between cultures, but he said it does not have to be this way. This was the catalyst for what became the Latino & Americano Subcommittee. Our goal: Improve the richness and prosperity of the landscape industry through better cultural understanding. We debut at iLandscape 2022.

About five years ago I joined the National Hispanic Landscape Alliance (NHLA). In 2020, NHLA was absorbed by the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP). The NHLA Board became the NALP Latino Landscape Network Advisory Board. In December 2020, I was honored to become a board member. Now I am working to bridge the cultural gap at the state and national levels.

I am the only non-Latino person on the ILCA Latino Relations Committee. The NALP Latino Landscape Network Advisory Board is a mixture of brown, black and white. The more recently formed ILCA Latino & Americano Subcommittee is a cultural mix.

During the December 2021 ILCA Board & Committee Chair Summit, discussion focused on Latino involvement on other committees. We need Latinos to help shape the direction of all ILCA committees.

NALP started something new a couple months ago by dispatching an entourage to visit member companies of different states and the state associations. Good will come from this in the form of joint ventures. Sharing and streamlining resources would be a win-win—to be better able to assist member companies in striving for operational excellence and increasing profitability. With welcoming arms, I hope that NALP will come to Illinois soon and connect with member companies and ILCA.

I have made the landscape industry my home and my passion for helping Latinos continues to grow. All of these things inspire and motivate me to do more. I hope they will inspire you, too.