The Most Costly Journey

Book excerpt: The Most Costly Journey is a non-fiction comics anthology presenting stories of survival and healing told by Latin American migrant farmworkers in Vermont, and drawn by New England cartoonists as part of the El Viaje Más Caro project - a health care outreach effort aimed at addressing the overlooked mental health needs of these vulnerable immigrants. Originally distributed to farm workers as individual Spanish language comic books, this collected edition brings the lives and voices - as well as the challenges and hardships - of these workers to an English-language audience, granting insight into the experiences and lives of the people vital to producing the food we eat.Featuring a foreword by Julia Alvarez (Afterlife), introduction by Stephen R. Bissette (Swamp Thing), preface by project founder, nurse Julia Doucet, and an afterword by Teresa Mares and Andy Kolovos, these inspiring stories grapple with issues encountered by migrant workers everywhere-isolation, separation, depression, substance abuse-even as they celebrate resilience, family, community, and the ability of each storyteller to direct their own healing narrative. The Most Costly Journey is a gripping work that draws together non-fiction cartooning, graphic medicine and anthropology, channeling the skills of health care practitioners, artists and ethnographers into helping alleviate the pain of others.Featuring work by cartoonists Marek Bennett, Angela Boyle, John Carvajal, Glynnis Fawkes, Gregory C. Giordano, Kevin Kite, Kayn Lynch, Shash Mishra, Michelle Sayles, Michael Tonn, Ezra Veitch, Rick Veitch, Tillie Walden, Iona Fox and Teppi Zuppo.