Names of Northfield: Guatemalan Immigrant Combines Rain Forest Wisdom With Academic

Author: Philip Weyhe | Published: January 31, 2017

Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin remembers sitting in his Minneapolis apartment on cloudy, rainy days — a little lost, a little frustrated — reading through a local phone book, determined to learn the pronunciation of every name listed.

“I needed to command the English language, so that I could professionally develop my skills and continue my college education,” he said. “I knew I was so far from being able to do that, it really frightened me.”

Those experiences are now more than two decades in the past. Reginaldo, 49, today, lives in Northfield with his wife, Amy, also 49. They have two grown children, William (22) and Ana Nicktae (18), and one still at home, Lars (13).

While Amy teaches at Prairie Creek Community School, Reginaldo works his small farm, where he combines the wisdom he attained growing up in the Guatemalan rain forest with the academic knowledge he has collected since.

The farm, or the “production unit” as Reginaldo calls it, is funded by the Main Street Project, where Reginaldo is the chief strategy officer. According to the organization’s website, he is “the principal architect of the innovative poultry-centered regenerative agriculture model that is at the heart of Main Street Project’s work.”

Reginaldo’s expertise is grounded in a lifetime of agriculture — whether working the small family farm through adolescence or receiving an education in the subject as a teenager and adult. He attempts to marry those experiences in his work today.

“I thought, ‘what if I could match that reverence for nature and academic knowledge?’” he said. “That’s the kind of thought process we are using in the sophisticated program deployed now in Northfield.”

Wisdom

To understand Reginaldo’s story and perspective, a look back to the rain forest is required.

He actually lived the first four years of his life in the dry region of Guatemala, west of the dividing mountain range. He was the seventh-born child in the family, and they all lived together in a single-room mud house built by his parents. They ran a subsistence farm.

One day, the nearby river crested, and the small dam built up was broken. The crop was destroyed, and the family was forced to immediately uproot.

“It was pretty much life and death, because you would starve without the corn and beans and squash,” Reginaldo said. “So we moved to the rain forest.”

It was the most logical move for the Marroquin family. For years, they struggled with the lack of rain, so where better to go than the rain forest? They would find, though, that the consistent and massive rain fall presented challenges of its own.

For 5-year-old Reginaldo, the dramatic shift in climate and lifestyle was a lot to handle.

“I remember running and trying to find cover every time it rained,” he said. “The forest creates this loud, torrential rain sound. It engulfs and surrounds you before it comes. Then it starts to come down so cold. It’s a really surreal feeling I can’t even fully explain.”

Reginaldo eventually became accustomed to the environment, and he spent his formative years, working the rain forest, learning the best ways to farm amidst a challenging landscape. He didn’t just work, though. His parents also wanted to see their children in school.

“My dad was very smart,” Reginaldo explained. “But he could not read and write. There were many times that could have made a difference for him.”

The family located in a village near a school, allowing the children to attend. However, that meant about a two-hour walk to the small farm, and Reginaldo and his siblings spent considerable time among the trees.

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