Alumnus Levi Bridges to deliver March 18 Bergren Forum

Alfred University alumnus Levi Bridges ’07 will deliver the March 18 online Bergren forum, presenting La Vida Es Un Carnaval: Travels With America's New Low-Wage Workforce.

A journalist, Bridges has covered the migration of Central Americans heading through Mexico to the United States. He has written about the experiences of Mexican carnival workers, first in Mexico on a Fulbright fellowship and then in the United States, where he worked for a carnival himself. His journalism has appeared in The Washington Post and the Associated Press, on National Public Radio and Public Radio International.

He writes: “Every year, thousands of workers depart from a small town in southern Mexico called Tlapacoyan to work at traveling carnivals and circuses all around the United States. If you've been to a county fair anywhere from California to the Carolinas, the carnival worker operating the Tilt-a-Whirl or the Ferris wheel likely came from Tlapacoyan.  These workers arrive in the United States as part of the H-2 visa program that brings foreign workers to labor in low-skilled U.S. jobs. But the workers often fall victim to forms of exploitation ranging from wage theft to human trafficking.”

An email will be sent to AU faculty, students and staff on the Monday and Thursday of the week of a Bergren forum with contact information for accessing the Zoom event. Others may secure the Zoom connection by emailing Marilyn Saxton.