Puentes/Bridges was born in the late 1990's, in southwestern Wisconsin, when an influx of Mexican workers to area dairy farms created a need for language classes and  interpretation services. At the request of UW-Cooperative Extension Agricultural Agent Carl Duley, high school Spanish teacher Shaun Duvall began teaching Spanish and interpreting for local farmers with Mexican employees. But she quickly realized interpreting  alone wasn’t enough to bridge the cultural gap. In 1999, she organized Puentes/Bridges and in 2001, with the encouragement of Duley and several dairy farmers, she organized the first annual 10-day “cultural immersion” trip to rural Mexico for U.S. farmers.

The Puentes/Bridges trip now takes place each year in late November, and each year it changes lives.

“I think the most meaningful part of the trip was the opportunity to see with our own eyes where our employees come from, and how hard they must work to overcome the transition to our culture. Most importantly, we have better employees because they see that we have made an investment in learning about their culture and their country. This seems to make them try even harder.”
- Deb Reinhart, Puentes/Bridges trip participant

In 2004, Duvall resigned her position at the high school to work full time with Puentes/Bridges and to open her own fee-based SJD Language and Culture Services, which provides on-farm training, interpretation and language classes. Puentes/Bridges  has expanded its activities to include speaking to community groups and professional and civic organizations to encourage cultural understanding and diversity. Members of the board frequently talk to groups about diversity and the importance of cultural understanding and exchange. Trip participants are asked to give at least one presentation to local groups about their experience. We are also starting work on a book that will document the Puentes/Bridges experience and the growing bond between rural Mexican communities, the people they send to work on dairies in the Midwest, and the dairy producers who employ them.