Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s Madison office Tuesday to voice their concerns over potential cuts to Medicaid.
The Republican-led Congress is considering significant cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income households. In Wisconsin that includes programs like BadgerCare Plus, which serves children, pregnant people and non-disabled adults, and long-term care programs for people with disabilities and seniors.
The House budget proposal could cut more than $880 billion in mandatory spending from the committee that oversees Medicaid, according to reporting by KFF Health News. While the Senate’s proposal doesn’t specify exact cuts, they plan to offset over $300 billion in new spending, according to NPR.
Dane County resident Laurine Lusk organized the protest because her daughter Megan is disabled and relies on the government program.
“She’s not safe without this care,” Lusk said.
She wanted to voice her concerns over any cuts to her daughter’s care, but she says she struggled to get in touch with Johnson’s office.
In a response to questions from WPR and Wisconsin Watch about the protest and complaints that constituents were having trouble reaching him, Sen. Johnson provided a statement. He wrote: “It is difficult to respond to complaints and protests that have no basis in truth or fact. It is unfortunate that Democrat elected officials are lying to their supporters regarding the Senate Budget Resolution and encouraging them to take to the “streets.” I sincerely hope their actions do not result in violence. My primary goal is to keep my Wisconsin staff safe while enabling them to continue dedicating their efforts to help constituents.”
The Republican senator’s office was closed to visitors Tuesday due to “previously scheduled outside commitments,” according to a sign taped to the office door.
Protesters chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho Ron Johnson has got to go.” One protester held up a sign that said, “Answer your phone, Ron.”
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman faced a hostile crowd last week at a town hall in Oshkosh. When asked about Medicaid, he said cutting the program “would be a mistake,” according to previous WPR reporting. Other Republican lawmakers have come out against cuts to Medicaid.
Dorothy Witzeling drove from Appleton to join the protest. “I am terrified of what I am seeing happening with our government,” she said.
Witzeling carried a sign with a photo of her brother who had Down syndrome and relied on Medicaid for care.
Former Madison alder and former Dane County Board member, Barbara Vedder said she attended the protest because she has a disability and couldn’t live without Medicaid.
“This is what democracy looks like,” Vedder said. “It brings my spirits up to see so many people speaking up because this needs to change.”
‘Not safe without this care’: Wisconsin Medicaid recipients fear budget cuts is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
Experts said they know of no states that routinely audit insurance companies over denying health care claims.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Feb. 18 he wants to make his state the first to audit based on high rates of claim denials and do “corrective action” enforced through fines.
The Wisconsin insurance commissioner’s office and experts from the KFF health policy nonprofit and Georgetown University said they know of no states using claim denial rates to trigger audits.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the national state auditors association said they do not track whether states do such auditing.
ProPublica reported in 2023 it surveyed every state’s insurance agency and found only 45 enforcement actions since 2018 involving denials that violated coverage mandates.
Forty-five percent of U.S. adults surveyed in 2023 said they were billed in the past year for a medical service they thought should have been free or covered by their insurance.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Do states routinely audit insurers for denying health care claims? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced late Friday afternoon that some of its programs funding renewable energy projects are “operating as normal,” but left open the question of whether billions more in loans and grants promised to farmers, small rural businesses and electric cooperatives would be honored.
The day before, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had said the department would continue to review spending under the Biden administration’s sweeping climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, “to ensure that programs are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers” and not “far-left climate programs.”
Among those waiting for clarity are Travis and Amy Forgues of western Wisconsin. About two years ago, the couple bought the Hidden Springs Creamery, an 80-acre sheep dairy nestled in the hills of Westby, Wisconsin. Twice a day they milk 300 sheep to make cheese, including a creamy feta that last year won second place in the American Cheese Society’s annual competition.
As part of their effort to modernize the farm, the Forgueses decided to install a solar array to power their operation. To offset the $134,000 cost of installation, they applied for a $56,000 Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Last year, they got approved for the grant and built the solar array, never doubting that the USDA would pay once the project was completed, as outlined in the contract they signed with the feds.
But last week, the Forgueses said they received an email from the USDA saying the program had been paused, leaving them scrambling to figure out how to pay for the rest of their new solar array.
“You can’t have people spend this kind of money and then just pull the rug from (them),” said Travis Forgues. “I didn’t spend the money thinking maybe I’ll get it back. I spent the money because we had a signed contract.”
The pause was the result of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on his first day in office freezing hundreds of billions of dollars for renewable energy — including REAP.
At least 7,500 farms and rural businesses across the country have received REAP grants from the USDA since 2023, according to a Floodlight analysis of USDA grant data.
On Friday, a USDA spokesperson said some funding for REAP would operate as normal, but only if it came through the Farm Bill. That apparently won’t help the Forgueses or potentially thousands of other farmers like them who had more than 25% of their project paid for by the USDA. That’s the cutoff point where funding from the Farm Bill stopped and funding from the Inflation Reduction Act started.
Since 2023, when Inflation Reduction Act funding became available, the USDA has given or loaned approximately $21.3 billion through programs that could be used to support renewable energy in rural areas, according to a Floodlight analysis of agency data.
The legality of the continued freeze in federal funding remains unclear.
On Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island kept in place a temporary restraining order from Jan. 31 that ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding federal funds appropriated by Congress. Attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia, led by New York, argued that the broad funding freeze violated the separation of powers and several other laws.
The lone attorney representing the Trump administration argued that the agencies were exercising their lawful discretion.
Some programs, like REAP, go directly to farmers looking to place solar panels or wind turbines on their land. Others, like the New Era program, help rural electric cooperatives build renewable energy to lower members’ monthly bills. New Era was not among the programs cited by the USDA spokesperson as operating as normal.
The Yampa Valley Electric Association, which serves Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and parts of Wyoming, expected to get $50 million from the USDA’s New Era program, according to Carly Davidson, the co-op’s public relations specialist.
New Era is the USDA program dedicated solely to renewables that has allocated the most money, more than $4.3 billion in grants since 2023, according to a Floodlight analysis.
The Yampa Valley association was planning to use the money to purchase renewable energy to keep electricity costs low for its members, Davidson wrote in a statement. The project is still in the planning stages, but it would provide both solar generation and battery storage, according to Yampa Valley Electric.
Connexus Energy, Minnesota’s largest consumer-owned electric cooperative, was hoping to use its $170 million in New Era grants to build out its renewable generation portfolio, spokesperson Stacy Downs said. The co-op, which serves over 146,000 customers, still hopes the funds will come through so it can add solar, wind and hydropower, as well as battery storage, Downs said, adding, “We’re still hoping to be receiving them.”
The largest USDA energy program, the Electric Infrastructure Loan and Loan Guarantee Program, offers money to rural co-ops, which use it to expand or upgrade their power grids with new transmission lines and smart-grid technology. That program, which allows for the connection of more renewables, has loaned out $12 billion since 2023.
On Friday, a USDA spokesperson stated that the program was operating as normal, along with four other USDA programs that could potentially be used to reduce carbon emissions: Rural Energy Savings Program, REAP Program with funding appropriated through the Farm Bill, Guaranteed Underwriter Program, and High Energy Cost Grants.
“These freezes seem to be intentionally chaotic and unclear,” said Hannah Smith-Brubaker, executive director of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, a nonprofit that helps farmers adopt sustainable practices and that also receives money from the USDA.
“We are fielding calls every day from farmers who are mid-project, and their contractor wants to know when they’re going to be paid.”
Patrick Hagar, co-owner of Squashington Farm near Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, is feeling that uncertainty. Hagar and his wife purchased a 20-acre farm three years ago in southern Wisconsin, where they grow organic produce.
Last fall, they put money down to purchase a solar array that will end up costing them $50,000, he said. They were promised $15,000 back from the USDA through a REAP grant.
“The vast majority of the fossil fuel energy and carbon outputs are being put forth by a small (group) of really wealthy businesses,” Hagar said. “I don’t think that absolves small farms and small businesses from trying to do what they can.”
But, he added, “It’s frustrating to have a signed contract for something, and feel like, you know, you live in a country where a signed contract doesn’t mean what a signed contract has always meant.”
And it’s not just farmers affected by the freeze. Small rural business owners who qualify for various USDA renewable grants and loans are also waiting to see what happens with USDA’s review of funding — money the agency has already agreed to pay.
Atul Patel, owner of the Holiday Inn in Frackville, Pennsylvania, planned to install a solar system on his hotel costing just over $360,000.
“We would like to be energy independent,” Patel said. “In this area, the lights flicker a lot.”
Patel said he put 20% down on the project and was planning to finish the installation once the weather improved in the spring.
He added, “Our fingers are crossed.”
Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.
‘Chaotic’ USDA funding freeze stalls rural renewable projects is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Gov. Tony Evers' proposed state budget seeks to strip the state Senate of some of its power to block his political appointees from serving on state boards and in state agencies.
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There are sites at local schools, libraries and nonprofits, mostly staffed by volunteers.
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The Republican-led Congress is considering significant cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income households.
The post Federal budget proposals worry Wisconsin Medicaid recipients appeared first on WPR.
Just a few years after President Donald Trump backed a primary challenger against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the Rochester Republican says he and the president are "tight."
The post Despite rocky past, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’s ‘tight’ with Trump White House appeared first on WPR.
Two dozen GOP state lawmakers are asking President Donald Trump to weigh in on whether utilities already doing business in Wisconsin should be given first dibs on building new transmission lines.
The post GOP state lawmakers ask Trump to weigh in on Wisconsin utility proposal appeared first on WPR.
A group of Wisconsin bishops is urging elected officials to reinstate a policy protecting churches from immigration enforcement. They say that "welcoming the stranger" is a core tenet of their faith.
The post Wisconsin faith leaders say churches should remain sanctuaries for immigrants appeared first on WPR.
“Valiant Vel: Vel Phillips and the Fight for Fairness and Equality” hopes to be an inspiration for people of all ages.
The post A new children’s book celebrates legacy of late Wisconsin civil rights leader Vel Phillips appeared first on WPR.
Senators have voted to advance Trump’s education secretary pick Linda McMahon to head an agency McMahon has said she wants to shut down. Education advocates argue this and other federal education shakeups are creating uncertainty in Wisconsin schools.
The post Education scholars say federal proposals are creating ‘mass chaos’ for Wisconsin’s schools appeared first on WPR.
Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard learn about their family histories, which includes stories of soldiers, settlers and criminals.
The post Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr.:The Ties That Bind appeared first on WPR.
Moroccan fish tagine; buying and storing spices; ultra creamy hummus.
The post America’s Test Kitchen From Cook’s Illustrated:Tagine and Hummus appeared first on WPR.
Protesters march in Milwaukee calling for more community control of the police. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
What has become of the city of Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission (FPC) since the passage of Act 12, which traded its policy-making powers over the police department for a fiscal deal with the state? That’s the question the Milwaukee Turners’ – described as Milwaukee’s oldest civic group – sought to answer with hard data.
From June to December 2024, the Turners’ “Confronting Mass Incarceration team” monitored the FPC – itself one of the nation’s oldest civilian-led oversight bodies for police and fire departments. The team monitored the FPC’s meetings, who attended, what attendees did, and how commissioners engaged in the meetings. A white paper published earlier this month, detailing the team’s findings, noted among other things that:
The report states the FPC “appears to serve as a rubber stamp” and that the commission “has failed to secure public trust.” Dr. Emily Sterk, a research and advocacy associate with Milwaukee Turners who worked on the project, explained why the numbers looked the way they do. While citizens can discuss whatever they want during public comment, commissioners can’t discuss anything that isn’t on the agenda due to open meetings laws. “So therefore they just have this practice to, you know, have public comment but then not even address the public that is there,” Sterk told Wisconsin Examiner.
While she understands the legal reason for this practice, Sterk said, “that is, for us, subjectively very troubling when a member of the public makes the time and effort to get themselves down there, go to this meeting which – as we alluded to in the white paper – the regular sessions are very frequently heavily delayed because of the closed sessions that are taking place.” As a result, the commission ends up engaging in back-and-forth discussions with city officials and law enforcement more frequently than the public, whose comments may be left unheard.
Leon Todd, executive director of the FPC, told Wisconsin Examiner that personnel matters such as promotions, hiring or setting recruitment standards “are extremely important.” Todd added, “I don’t think it is necessarily problematic that the FPC spends a goodly amount of time on that. It is part of their core functions. It’s been part of their core responsibilities for more than 150 years…Since 1885 no person has been appointed or promoted to any position in the police or fire departments without the express approval of the FPC board.”
Yet even this function of the FPC has come under fire. In January, the commission was criticized by conservative elected officials, right-wing media outlets and the Milwaukee Police Association after an officer was denied promotion. WISN12 reported that the FPC considered promotions for seven officers, and only denied officer Jason Daering. A couple of weeks later in early February, the FPC reversed its position and voted to promote Daering to sergeant. Prior to the final vote, FPC co-chair Bree Spencer said that the police department didn’t provide a full file, that Daering did not appear for an interview and was unprepared. “So we really encourage, going forward, that people take this process seriously,” said Spencer.
The commission’s voting record was another issue for the Milwaukee Turners. In their report, the group noted that over its monitoring period last year, the FPC took up 122 agenda items, of which 120 received unanimous approval. Only two agenda items – one involving the promotion of a detective and another concerning reappointing a former police officer – received No votes, with both items receiving two No votes. “Given the current practices of the FPC, including closed sessions and lack of Commissioner participation during regular sessions, the public is left unaware of why these aye or no votes were made,” the report states. “We observed an overall lack of transparency when it comes to Commissioners’ voting records. Even if Commissioners are actively participating in deliberation and debate during closed sessions, the public has no way of knowing this.”
Todd also pushed back against the Milwaukee Turners’ claim that the FPC has become a rubber stamp. Harkening back to the pre-Act 12 era Todd, who was appointed by former mayor Tom Barrett in November 2020, recalled the FPC’s record of pushing for police reform measures “that the [police] department did not agree with.” From a ban on chokeholds and no-knock warrants, to approving a policy of publicly releasing video of incidents like police shootings within 15 days of the incident. Those decisions – made when the FPC was led by Chairman Ed Fallone and Vice Chairwoman Amanda Avalos – were “probably, if not the reason, a big reason why the Legislature took away [FPC’s] policy-making authority, because they were acting independently and listening to community members from Milwaukee,” Todd told Wisconsin Examiner.
After the passage of Act 12 in 2023, Fallone and Avalos resigned their positions in protest. Stripping the FPC of its decades-old policy-making powers emerged as a bargaining chip in negotiations between Milwaukee elected officials and the Republican-controlled Legislature. In exchange for targeting the FPC, reversing the Milwaukee Public School district decision to remove school resource officers from its facilities at the request of students and community members, and agreeing to never reduce the police force, Milwaukee was allowed to raise its sales tax which allowed the county to avoid a fiscal catastrophe. Act 12’s law enforcement aspects had previously been proposed as bills favored by Republican lawmakers and the Milwaukee Police Association, which failed to pass.
For the FPC, it seems that many roads lead back to the shared revenue and sales tax deal codified by Act 12. In its report, Milwaukee Turners recommended that Act 12 be amended to return the policy-making powers of the FPC. This state-level solution, however, relies on cooperation from the Republican-controlled Legislature which helped craft, negotiate, and implement Act 12.
In the meantime, the Turners recommend that the FPC bring ideas for policy changes to the common council. “We recommend that the FPC dedicate less of their regular sessions to closed door personnel matters, and instead publicly engage in discussions about new and amended [Standard Operating Procedures] that are brought forth by the [Milwaukee Police Department],” the report reads, adding that “the Common Council might actively invite policy recommendations from the FPC, especially as it relates to the concerns of their constituents.”
Todd told Wisconsin Examiner that the commission adopted a new rule requiring that the police department provide copies of any new or amended policies to the FPC within 48 hours, and no less than 30 days before the policies take effect. When that happens, a communication file is created by the FPC which goes into the regular agenda, and thus becomes public. Todd said that so far, the commission has not sent policy recommendations to the common council.
Todd is considering other ways to beef up the FPC’s oversight capacity. Specifically, he wants to encourage a focus on the FPC’s audit unit as a way of being “more proactive” and “not just reactive.” Todd pointed to an audit on police pursuits, and the police department, Todd said, is also looking to create a vehicle pursuit committee. The commission also continues tracking citizen complaints about officer behavior, as well as progress the department makes in eliminating discriminatory stop and frisk practices as part of the Collins settlement agreement. This year, the audit unit is expecting to do six or seven audits which are unrelated to the Collins settlement, said Todd.
Additionally, an ordinance passed in the common council to ensure the elected body is quickly notified of policy changes.
How the commission attracts more members of the public to attend meetings is another issue. Todd acknowledged that there have been fewer citizens attending public comment after the passage of Act 12. “I think that’s unfortunate,” he told Wisconsin Examiner. “I think that we welcome people to come and express their views, their input.”
The last major policy he could recall passed before Act 12 was the video release policy concerning police shootings and related deaths. Local activists fought for the reform, as did the families of people killed in incidents involving Milwaukee-area police.
Todd said that the FPC still has “soft power” such as through audits, which it can use to influence the police department. “So I’m hoping that we will get more public input going forward,” he said, noting that FPC recently welcomed in a new commissioner, Krissie Fung, from the Milwaukee Turners.
“Our findings highlight the importance of fostering a culture of police and fire accountability within the FPC,” the Turners’ white paper concludes. “By advocating for legislative changes to restore policy making authority, increasing public engagement, and ensuring rigorous Commissioner participation, the FPC can rebuild public confidence and strengthen its capacity to address systemic inequalities in policing.”
“We really hope to continue to provide civilian oversight of the FPC and see what happens over the course of the next few months,” said Sterk, “especially as we continue our lobbying for the amendment of Act 12, as we hope members of the FPC and members of the public do as well.”
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Elon Musk arrives for the inauguration of President Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
A political action group tied to Elon Musk that has sought to influence Wisconsin’s high stakes Supreme Court election canceled a social media ad this week after it featured the wrong person.
The ad by the group Building America’s Future attempted to attack Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate in the race. However the ad featured a photo of a different Susan Crawford. Instead of showing the judge, the ad, which attacked Crawford’s record on crime, featured former Harvard Law School Professor Susan P. Crawford.
Derrick Honeyman, a spokesperson for Crawford’s campaign, said in a statement the ad was a “fraud.”
“Maybe an audit is needed of the staff at Musk’s shady far-right group,” Honeyman said. “Wisconsinites shouldn’t trust a single thing from these guys.”
First reported by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the ad ran for four days and cost $3,000.
Building America’s Future has promised to spend more than $1.5 million on airing anti-Crawford ads in a number of television markets across the state. Another Musk-associated PAC has invested $1 million in canvassing and field operations in support of the conservative candidate, Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel.
Musk’s support of Schimel comes as Tesla has sued the state of Wisconsin over a law that prevents car manufacturers from owning dealerships in the state.
The Supreme Court race will determine the ideological swing of the body. The race between Crawford and Schimel could break spending records for a Wisconsin judicial campaign after 2023’s race set the previous record at about $50 million.
Both candidates have been supported by contributions from billionaires. Crawford has received help from George Soros and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker while Schimel received donations from Illinois billionaire Liz Uihlein, Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks and outside help from Musk.
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After a long flight and a rugged overland journey, Julio Hernandez and dairy farmer Stan Linder approach the Hernandez family home in Mexico. | Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner
TEPANZACUALCO, Mexico — Julio Hernandez wasn’t even a year old when he first visited this tiny mountain village in the Mexican state of Veracruz.
He doesn’t remember the trip he took with his mom, to attend his father’s funeral.
At the end of January, the 21-year-old finally returned. This time his mom stayed at home and he was accompanied by Stan Linder, 83, a dairy farmer his father Federico once worked for in Pepin County.
For the last 24 years, Linder has made an annual trek to Tepanzacualco to visit the Hernández family, which has sent a procession of relatives up North to work on Linder’s farm. This year he was determined to bring Julio along.
Like most dairy farmers in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Linder relies heavily on Mexican workers. The decades-long relationship of interdependence between rural Midwesterners and rural Mexicans has fostered not just economic but also social ties. Nowhere is the strength of those ties more visible than in the life of Julio Hernandez.
Julio’s father, Federico, met and married Julio’s mother, a local woman whose family had lived in Wisconsin for generations, while he was working for Linder. One day in 2003, Federico went swimming with some friends in Lake George and drowned. It was Linder who showed up to tell Julio’s mother that her husband was gone.
Fawn Hernandez, 42, remembers when Linder came to her door. “He said, ‘I got some news,’ and I was like, ‘What? Is Federico in trouble?’ And he said, ‘No, he passed away — drowned.’”
“I was married, widowed and had a kid all at the age of 21,” Fawn said.
Federico Hernández’ brothers and cousins chipped in to have his body sent home. Fawn remembers the difficulty of getting to the funeral. “They had to carry the casket down a hill on a goat trail, because the road washed out just before we got there.”
For the last 20 years Fawn has worked at the same McDonald’s restaurant in Menominee, raising Julio and taking care of her mother, both of whom live with her in a mobile home in Cedar Falls. Julio went to high school in nearby Colfax. He attended the community college in Chippewa Falls for three months before dropping out. Now he works summers on a crew pouring cement for the Pember Company in Menominee.
He knows some of his father’s family members who’ve put down roots in Wisconsin, including his cousin Emanuel Montalvo Tzanahua, who married a U.S. citizen and runs a successful barbershop in Arcadia. Another cousin still works on Linder’s farm and has two teenage sons both born in the U.S. (who plan to go to college in Minnesota). But he was nervous about the trip to meet his family in Mexico. It was the first plane ride he remembered, and the steep mountain roads alarmed him. In the back of the pickup truck on the rugged ride up the mountain to Tepanzacualco on a winding dirt road, he started to panic.
“I’m not comfortable. I want to get out and walk. I don’t like this,” he said. Linder pounded on the truck until the driver stopped and dairy farmer John Rosenow came back and switched places with Hernandez, so he could ride the rest of the way in the front.
In Tepanzacualco, Hernandez and Linder hiked the last half mile up a steep footpath to the family home. The view was spectacular, with the sun shining on the valley below, cows and burros grazing in the fields and huge bunches of calla lilies sprouting along the path, as if plucked from a Diego Rivera painting.
As they drew close to the house, Julio’s grandmother, Paula Montalvo Cervantes Hernández, came out to embrace her grandson. “Mi hijo, mi hijo,” (My son, my son) she said, taking Julio’s face in her hands to gaze at him and then hugging him over and over.
One of his aunts said he looked just like his father.
Inside the house, a sign on the wall said “Bienvenidos” (“welcome”). Julio’s aunts and cousins were preparing a big meal, patting out handmade tortillas and cooking them on a wood-burning stove, alongside breaded fried chicken, green salsa and Spanish rice.
Julio sat at the table next to his grandmother and put his head on her shoulder. “My son, thank you for remembering us,” she said in Spanish.
“How could I forget?” he replied in English.
One of his aunts, Aurelia Hernández, commented approvingly, “His hair is very black. He doesn’t look like a gringo.”
Her husband, Juan, came in and greeted Linder. He had worked on Linder’s farm for four years.
Julio handed his grandmother and aunt a baby picture of himself. They produced a large, framed photo of him from when he was a toddler and passed it around.
Julio said to everyone: “I’m glad to meet you and grateful to be part of your family.”
Linder translated.
“Gracias, gracias — mucho thank you!” said Julio’s grandmother, smiling broadly and patting his arm.
Julio began to cry. “Why is he sad?” his grandmother asked.
“I feel like I’m home. I’m with my family,” Julio said through his tears.
Everyone listened to the translation, then responded in a chorus, “Awwww!”
When Julio asked if the family had anything of his father’s, one of the cousins went to another room and fetched an enormous suitcase Federico had used when he traveled to the U.S.
Julio and each of the family members took turns posing for pictures with the suitcase.
Arnulfo, Julio’s 86-year-old grandfather, who came up to the house when Julio arrived from working in the fields, said, “Tell him I’ll give him some land to build his house, just choose where.”
“You can send money and they’ll build it for you,” Linder told Julio. That’s what many family members have done, saving up from their U.S. jobs and sending money home to build houses on the family’s property.
For Julio, who works during the summers in Wisconsin at his construction job, the idea of building a house to spend at least part of the year in the place where his father grew up, though surprising, didn’t sound that far-fetched. He turned it over in his head for the rest of the trip.
A house in Mexico can cost between $25,000 and $35,000 to build, workers told the Examiner. That’s a lot more reachable than in Wisconsin, where, according to the Wisconsin Realtors Association, the median home price in January was $293,000.
But the most striking thing for Julio about his trip, he said, was the unexpected feeling of being so welcomed by his father’s family. “I didn’t think they’d love me so much,” he said.
After lunch the family went outside and took photos in front of the ruins of an ancient pyramid which sits directly behind the house on the family’s land, never excavated by the Mexican government. Then Julio and Linder walked down the mountain to a house being built by Julio’s cousin who still works for Linder. She has been building it for the past two decades. In a couple of years, when her sons graduate from high school, Linder said, she intends to finally move back to Mexico. “That’s when I’ll retire,” he said.
Recently, Linder brought her sons down to meet the family for the first time. Like Julio, they were warmly embraced.
Since he didn’t speak a word of Spanish, Julio relied on Linder and a translation app on his phone, to help him communicate during his visit. “I feel like I’m missing a part of myself because I can’t speak the language,” he said.
On the second day of his visit, the whole family took a trip to the cemetery in San Juan Texhuacán where his father is buried. Julio laid flowers on the grave.
After three days with his family, Julio and Linder met up in Zongolica with the rest of a group from the U.S. led by Mercedes Falk, a translator on dairy farms in Wisconsin and Minnesota and director of the nonprofit Puentes/Bridges, which organized the trip. The whole extended family came along for a protracted, tearful goodbye.
“The thing I learned the most is they like it the way they have it,” Julio said, reflecting on the visit. “They care so much about family, they want to stay where they are. They’re willing to live on top of each other just to be with family. And for me, to be part of it? It’s something that will change my life forever.”
He wants to bring his mom to visit next year.
After taking a tour of the town and learning about the pre-Columbian history of Zongolica, Julio marveled, “They’ve been here for so long. Like longer than the United States – I like that.” He wished he’d asked more questions about the pyramid behind the Hernández family home.
Back in Wisconsin, after the trip was over, Julio was starting to lift weights to get in shape for the construction season. It’s hard work, he said. But now he has a new sense of purpose. After working summers in construction, he’d like to spend winters in Mexico.
He’s been staying in touch with his cousins on WhatsApp and using DuoLingo to try to learn Spanish. “I honestly thought about giving up, it’s been so difficult,” he said. “But I know I have to do it to be able to communicate with my family.”
This story is Part Two in a series. Read Part One: Amid Trump’s threats to deport workers, Wisconsin dairy farmers travel to Mexico.
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