Henry Gonzales

As the county’s new agricultural commissioner, Henry Gonzales has the corner office at the County of Monterey Agricultural Center on Abbott Street in Salinas. The windows on two sides look out onto rows and rows of romaine lettuce a few feet from the building. The significance is not lost on Gonzales: A half-century ago he worked in similar fields in the Salinas Valley, as the son and grandson of migrant farm workers.

As a child he dreamed of going to college and becoming a scientist, but seeing few Latino scientists, he thought his role was to stay in agriculture, maybe working as a mechanic. “Although they were my dreams, they weren’t what I really expected for myself,” he says.

He worked in the fields through the years he attended Alisal High School, and after graduating. Later he got a job at Firestone Tire and Rubber in Salinas. When the plant shut down in 1980, Gonzales was laid off with a package of resources, including training in a two-year program at Hartnell College. From there he earned a degree in agricultural science at Fresno State. Later he earned a master’s degree in public administration.

On March 13, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors appointed Gonzales as ag commissioner, after he served 10 years in the same post in Ventura County.

Gonzales runs the office that promotes and protects Monterey County’s number-one, $8.1 billion industry. He steps in just as the budget for the office will likely be cut due to a $36 million county deficit. He says other challenges include fighting invasive species and educating growers and the public about pesticides.

Weekly: What was your education like as the child of migrant farm workers?

Gonzales: We settled in Salinas when I was 10. My dad got a steady job, which for a migrant farm worker, that’s the biggest goal, where you don’t have to uproot and move and have issues of being the new kid in class. For me that was really hard to deal with, always being the odd man out, and falling behind in my studies. Inevitably when I went to [a new] school they were always on a different lesson plan. I didn’t even learn the alphabet until I was in the third grade. So it was always difficult for me to catch up.

Where did the dream of graduating from a university and becoming a scientist come from?

Back in those days, we grew up on a lot of television. Many of the movies were something from outer space would come and menace the Earth and all the armies couldn’t do anything about it, but then here comes the scientist, and the scientist somehow came up with the chink in the space monster’s armor, so to speak. This unhero-like person wore nerdy glasses – I wore the same ones since the fourth grade – and it really struck me, yeah, that could be me.

You started in 1984 with the Monterey County Ag Commissioner’s Office, at the bottom as a guy who sets traps for insects, and now you’re at the top.

The job was only 10 weeks, so a temporary position, no benefits, minimum wage… I never missed a day’s work from that point, and I was promoted to agricultural inspector biologist, which helped me reach my second dream of being a scientist.

When this position became open, I jumped at the chance. I’m enjoying being home, and it’s quite satisfying to me to have this position. I’m looking forward to being the best department the county has, and being the best ag commissioner there ever was.

As Ventura County’s ag commissioner, you did a lot of outreach to farm workers. How will you continue that work here?

My predecessor [Eric Lauritzen] formed a farmworker advisory committee, which I’m now a part of, and it’s going to be one of the activities I put in a lot of personal time to – not only because I am the ag commissioner but also because I was a migrant farm worker. They need to see that the ag commissioner is their ag commissioner as well, and is here to protect them.

Right now there is a scarcity of farm workers, and it’s very important to the industry to have farm workers. We’re competing with Ventura County, with the Central Valley and even Mexico, so we need to provide them with everything we can, be it housing, fair treatment and to show them they are valued, and they will stay.