Maria Catalán is the first Latina farmworker-turned farm owner in California. She runs Catalán Farm, a small organic farm in San Benito County. "I only wanted to become a farmer— not to be rich but to generate my own work," Catalán said. On her 55 acres of land in Hollister, she harvests cherry tomatoes, purple cauliflower and dinosaur kale among other organic foods. Catalán started working in the Salinas Valley fields nearly 40 years ago when she migrated from Guerrero, Mexico as a 25-year-old single mother of four. "They say the United States is the land of opportunities,” Catalán said. For almost a decade, she worked as a farmworker and struggled to make ends meet but her career took a turn when she was invited to an organic farm training program at the Rural Development Center in Salinas. "They were tough years when I went to school. My kids suffered a lot because they didn't have good shoes, clothes," Catalán said. Her hard work paid off in 2001 when she rented her first half an acre of land and began harvesting. She said her path was full of barriers and recognizes it’s still a difficult path for other farmworkers to follow. "My story is not only mine,” Catalán said. “It's the same as thousands of women that, like me, are single moms and migrate with their kids."Catalán founded the nonprofit Pequeños Agricultores en California (PAC) to help other migrants overcome the barriers she once faced."If I could do it, everyone can," Catalán said.Her legacy is a future of opportunities waiting to be harvested. This story is one of several that will be highlighted in part of our Hispanic Heritage Month special titled "Celebrando Nuestras Raíces." It will air Thursday at 7:30 p.m. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter