Taking

KAREN DAVIDSON

Compañero, the Spanish word for a male buddy or bro, is laden with more meaning than meets the eye when used between agricultural workers from Central America. It’s a bond forged though long hours of hard work in a foreign country, undertaken to support family and put food on their table.

Such is the case for Jorge Osorio, one of 196 Guatemalans employed by Windset Farms. Since 2015, he’s been making the trek from Santa Rosa, Guatemala each year to work on Windset’s 68-acre greenhouse operation farm near Delta, British Columbia. Boasting a family back home with four young children, he is happy to give them educational opportunities he never had, including learning English.

At Windset, Jorge has, in his own words, “found a place where I fit in, my skills have improved over the years