Agriculture, Migration, and Soil Health

Walking + Talking: Stories in Motion is a socially engaged, collaborative project that interweaves storytelling into the rural landscape of Wisconsin. It links the stories of farmers, agricultural workers, and artists through their intimate connections to land, labor, migration, and memory.

Conceived by artist and former resident María Patricia Tinajero, the project grew out of the 2024 Farm/Art DTour and a developing relationship with Puentes/Bridges, a non-profit in Western Wisconsin working to increase cultural understanding between the people who immigrate to work here and the rural farming community.

The project has two complementary aspects: collecting and sharing stories of the land through zine publications, and immersive long-distance walks to meet people and enact the most fundamental of all human activity: putting one foot in front of another to move across the earth.

Sharing Stories

In 2024, Patricia walked segments of the DTour route with Puentes/Bridges Director Mercedes Falk, holding conversations with local farmers and community members along the way. The stories, recipes, and visual artworks developed through months of continued dialogue have been published in a new zine created by Ope! Publishing and Patricia has started additional long-distance walks through rural Wisconsin, which are taking place in 2025 and beyond.

What does it mean to belong to the land, and how will the land remember us?”