Page 30 - BusinessWest February 21, 2022

Heriberto Flores
President, New England Farm Workers’ Council
He’s Spent a Lifetime Investing in His Community — and People in Need
HBy Joseph Bednar
erbie Flores could have become hardened, even embittered, by a tumul- tuous youth.
Instead, he’s spent a lifetime helping people overcome their own difficulties.
“I came from a very poor family in Puerto Rico,” he said, raised by his mother early on after his father died. “At some point, my uncle told my mother and sister it would be better if I had a male role model. That’s a cultural thing. So I ended up in Delaware with my uncle, who was a hardworking guy.”
Back in the ’60s, Delaware wasn’t the liberal bastion it is today, as it grappled, as all states did, with school desegregation and other racial issues. So he learned early on about race relations and the futility of racism.
After moving to Springfield in 1965, Flores entered the Army and shipped off to
Leah Martin Photography
Vietnam, where certain images stick with him to this day. “It’s not a good feeling killing a human being. But as George Patton said, the mission is to go from point A to point B, and whatever gets in the way, get rid of it.”
He remembers servicemen being spit on and called baby killers back stateside, but he was more haunted by the sheer numbers of U.S. wounded and dying. “You
“Life is short, when you put it in perspective. And the time you have here, what do you do to make it better — not only in a selfish way, but for the next person?”
just put that someplace, everything goes to a compartment — it’s the only way. You continue moving on. There were a lot of drugs. Many of my friends did not sleep.”
After his war experience, though, Flores wanted to focus on bettering lives, not dwelling on a war that ruined so many of them.
Specifically, his affinity with migrant farm workers that led to the development of an agency — the New England Farm Workers’ Council (NEFWC) — to help them out with various needs, from fuel assistance to job skills to education.
That agency, launched in 1971, eventually morphed into Partners for Community, a nonprofit with multiple
departments under its umbrella, including the Corporation for Public Management, which seeks solutions to welfare dependency, chronic joblessness, and illiteracy, and also focuses on providing services to those with physical and developmental disabilities; and New England Partners in Faith, which seeks to provide sustainable development and capacity building for small faith-based organizations throughout New England through technical assistance and job-related training.
“All those experiences, from there to here to Vietnam, helped me see that things are bad, but they’re not real bad,” Flores said. “Life is short, when you put it in perspective. And the time you have here, what do you do to make it better — not only in a selfish way, but for the next person?
“I’ve been homeless, I’ve been without food, but you move forward,” he added. “Many people get stuck in the same place,
but you can’t stay stagnant.”
For helping people move forward from
Flores
Continued on page 32
30 FEBRUARY 21, 2022
BusinessWest