Foreign language department teacher Tamita Brown (left) poses with her grandmother Olive (right) at Tamita’s family home in Round Hill, Jamaica, in 2015. Brown began learning Spanish after being inspired by one of her four brothers, but the language didn’t come easy to her at first. “I started learning in the seventh grade and did it for six years. Even then, I couldn’t speak the language. I was versed in the grammar part of it, but the speaking part was a struggle for me,” Brown said. “At the end of 12th grade, I took a year and I did an exchange program in Peru. So I (found) that two months after I (started) speaking the language.” Photo courtesy of Tamita Brown
Foreign language department teacher Tamita Brown has valued the gift of giving since her childhood, and as a local community member and farmer, she consistently delivers this present to the people around her.
With mud on her boots and sweat dripping down her forehead, foreign language department teacher Tamita Brown hauls a box of eggs into her pickup truck on a Saturday morning to prepare for the weekly Athens Farmers Market.
While Brown has been a friendly face on Clarke Central High School’s campus for two years, many students and teachers are still unaware of what she does outside the building, where she is a dedicated farmer and humanitarian who values giving back to her community.
But where did this value come from?
Unlike many American farmers, Brown did not learn the tools of her trade growing up in the South, but rather on the southside of Round Hill, Jamaica, where she grew up and worked as the youngest daughter of two dedicated farmers.
“We didn’t have to have constant supervision, like now (in the U.S.), because neighbors look out for each other (and) they take care of each other,”
— Tamita Brown,
Foreign language department teacher
While the balance between being a farmhand and a kid was challenging, Brown felt supported by her community. After long days full of chores, playing cricket with her friend, and walking long distances to school, Brown was consistently shown the value of reciprocity by her neighbors.
“We didn’t have to have constant supervision, like now (in the U.S.), because neighbors look out for each other (and) they take care of each other,” Brown said. “So if (my family killed) a pig, we’d share it with our neighbors, (and) when the neighbor kills, they share with us.”
This Golden Rule guided Brown’s process of starting her own farm, Caribe United, in 2018 with her husband Gabriel Jimenez-Fuentes. Together, the two are committed to providing quality food to people across the state while promoting the cultures of their underrepresented communities of Jamaica and Puerto Rico – bringing reciprocity from Jamaica to Georgia.
A Can-Am Off-Road video featuring foreign language teacher Tamita Brown and her husband, Gabriel Jimenez-Fuentes is shown. Brown and Fuentes started their farm, Caribe United, in 2018 with the goal of creating quality food for their customers. “It is hard work because sometimes it gets frustrating when things aren’t going the way they should,” Brown said. “(However,) we enjoy doing it, and we want to provide some good quality food to everyone who can partake in it.” Video fair use of Cam-Am-Off-Road
From early morning shifts to working the Saturday farmer’s market and her work with her husband at Caribe United, Brown’s commitment to the Golden Rule shines in every aspect of her life.
Because at heart, Brown is still that young girl in Round Hill sharing the spoils of her family’s work with those around her.
Only now, it’s the CCHS and Athens communities who receive her gifts.
The ODYSSEY Media Group will provide viewers with stylized profiles that center on people in the Athens community telling their own stories.
