The Most Costly Journey

The Most Costly Journey is a non-fiction comics anthology of stories told by migrant Latin American farmworkers working on dairy farms in Vermont, and drawn in collaboration with cartoonists from New England (& elsewhere). It is part of a graphic medicine and ethnographic cartooning initiative aimed at addressing the mental health care needs of migrant workers on Vermont dairy farms. The volume features 19 comics adapted from stories recorded from migrant workers that address topics including, loneliness, isolation, separation, depression, substance abuse and other topics. Many of these stories are difficult, even traumatic, showing the sacrifices and struggles of the people whose marginalized labor actually drives the US agricultural system. But they're also joyful -- celebrating survival, family, community, and the ability of each storyteller to direct their own healing narrative. It includes a forward by poet Julia Alvarez, preface by Julia Doucet, introduction by cartoonist Stephen R. Bissette and an afterward by Teresa Mares and Andy Kolovos.