Many second-generation Latino Americans grew up watching their parents toil in hard, undesirable farm jobs. That’s turned some of them off of a career in the Midwest’s most important business.

“They see it as, this is something that my parents did and they came here for me to do something better,” said Christina Gonzalez, a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University.

Gonzalez thought she was going to study theater in college. But her older cousin Brian Castro, an Iowa State graduate, drew her into the College of Agriculture. They both grew up on Chicago’s Southside, their parents all immigrants from Mexico.  Castro says the role for bilingual, bicultural Latino Americans in agriculture goes far beyond the entry-level jobs of many new immigrants.

“There’s a huge misrepresentation of the Latino population,” Castro said, “of Latino workers in the decision-making area for agriculture, even though they are the No. 1, the main population of the workers.”

Castro says people like him can be an important go-between for farm managers and recent immigrants. Many of agriculture’s biggest players are lobbying for a permanent guest worker program because farmworkers from Latin America keep the industry humming.

“The careers in Iowa agriculture, agri-business, really seem to me to be a very excellent position for students in the future who speak English fluently, speak Spanish fluently [and] understand the Hispanic culture, Latino culture,” said Dale Gruis, a consultant with the state’s education department.

But Latino enrollment in agricultural science classes at high schools and community colleges is out of sync with the Latino population growth, according to Gruis. That’s consistent with the experience of Latino immigrants in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, according to Charles Boyer, dean of the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology at California State University, Fresno. He says the first generation raised in the United States is typically resistant to pursuing careers in agriculture. But there are exceptions.

“There’s always some of them who do and they’re sort of the leading edge,” Boyer said. “And they show the way and kind of provide the role models for the third generation to step in and do it even more.”

Melissa Garcia says she’s found her passion with livestock. She has already raised and sold sheep and soon, she’ll be raising her first steer.

“There’s a career and a job out there waiting for me,” she said. “And then hopefully one day I’ll reach my goal of having my own farm.”

It’s a lofty dream for anyone with no family land to work. But in a way, Garcia would be carrying on both a family and an American tradition. Her grandfather raised cattle in Mexico. And her parents have worked hard in the United States so that she can do whatever she wants.

This post originally appeared on Harvest Public Media.

This project was reported with assistance from the Institute for Justice & Journalism’s “Immigration in the Heartland” fellowship.