Three Months After Flood, California Farmworkers Still Need Help

Editor’s note: Thanks to Peggy Elwell for acting as a translator for these interviews and for helping translate the text. Gloria A Lightheart also contributed to this article.

PÁJARO, Calif. – When the Pájaro River levee failed on March 11 during torrential rains, the resulting flooding of the farmworker community of Pájaro was no surprise to many public officials. As the LA Times reported, officials had known for decades that the levee was vulnerable, “but never prioritized repairs in part because they believed it did not make financial sense to protect the low-income area.”

Most of the Pájaro community, across the river from Watsonville, consists of low-income farmworkers and immigrants, mainly from Latin America. The flooding damaged many homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate. Many are still unable to return to the homes they were renting, and are living in hotels or shelters. Because the fields surrounding Pájaro were damaged by the flooding, work is scarce. And because many workers are undocumented, there is no government help for them.

Recently, People’s Tribune staff traveled to Watsonville to interview two farmworker women from Pájaro. We asked them about the status of things as of late May.

Like many area farmworkers, Alma (not her real name) is originally from Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico where about half the population is Indigenous people. She said the flooding didn’t affect her home directly, but she knows others who were hit hard – the water entered their homes and they lost everything. Some lost their cars to the flood.

Esperanza is originally from Michoacán, Mexico. The flood destroyed everything she had, and at the time of this interview she and her children were living in a hotel paid for by the county. She didn’t know how much longer the county would pay for her to stay there.

Below are some of the comments that Alma and Esperanza made in the interview, beginning with Alma.

People’s Tribune: Can you describe what happened with the flooding here?

Alma: The first time the rain came this year, we couldn’t work because it was raining a lot the first time, and when it came the second time it was also heavier, and that’s when Pájaro was flooded. And many people from Pájaro were affected because of this. Some of the water entered their houses and many of them have not returned to their houses.

PT: And it got into everyone’s houses?

Alma: Some it didn’t, but some it did. When it got into their houses it was like the floor came up.

PT: So then everything was floating?

Alma: Yes. Many haven’t returned. They’re struggling, because some of them were living in the shelter at the fairgrounds.

PT: Are they still living there or did they leave?

Alma: Some found a place to live but others haven’t. One lady I know says she hasn’t found a place.

PT: Have they closed the shelter at the fairgrounds?

Alma: I didn’t ask, but she did tell me that she was able to find a hotel and they only gave her two weeks in the hotel, she says.

PT: They’re only giving two weeks?

Alma: Yes, in the hotel. They say they only gave them two weeks in the hotel. They’re struggling to find a place to live. They can’t prepare their food because they can’t cook in the hotel, and they are struggling a lot.

PT: And they keep looking for another place to live?

Alma: Yeah, she is looking for a place to live, because she has three kids. She is looking for a place to live with them because the house, they took all the floorboards inside the house out and the house is just like that, and they are just fixing the house so they can return.

PT: Your house too?

Alma: No, not me because where I live not much happened, but I know my people who live in Pájaro, and they are struggling right now. Because like at that time when it flooded, they left the cars because they left right away. Many people left their car there and water got inside their car as well.

PT: So then their cars don’t work?

Alma: Yes, some don’t. A lady told me that she was struggling a lot, because water got into her car and she couldn’t work. There’s a lot of depression. She thinks a lot about what they’re going to do. There’s a lot of stress.

PT: Do you know how many people in Pájaro had that problem? Many?

Alma: Yes, a lot.

PT: And what is the government doing to help?

Alma: Right now I know that there is no government help, people say. And since we work in the fields and right now work is slow due to the rain and weather…No, there is no help.

PT: So there are some that are starting to work or no one is starting?

Alma: Yes, some of them are just starting out, but the most they work is four hours. There’s not much work. The strawberry crop is very small right now. No, it’s not good. The work hasn’t started much.

PT: So then it isn’t enough.

Alma: No, because it’s very little work right now. Like me, I was looking for work, and I found a place where they hired me, but all the way in Castroville. It’s too far for me to go there. It’s the only place. But here in Watsonville, I think there are a lot of people laid off, because there is not much work.

PT: So if there’s not much work, there’s no income right?

Alma: No.

PT: What should the government be doing? Because look, you all are doing the work that feeds the whole world, right? And they should be helping with this type of problem, don’t you think?

Alma: Right now they are not aware that what we need the most is rent, because right now the rent is expensive. There are people who pay $2,000 per month for a house with one bedroom. I think that for three bedrooms it’s like $3,000 for rent.

PT: And the kids, can they go to school?

Alma: Where my son is, yes, because where I live the bus would pass to pick him up, but after where I live flooded a bit, there the bus can’t pass through, and we have to take him to school with our car, and we only have one car and it was really difficult to get to work. But it depends on the place where one lives – there is a part that the bus does pass.

PT: Do you want to say from what country you’re coming from?

Alma: I am from Oaxaca, Mexico.

PT: And are there a lot of workers from Oaxaca?

Alma: Yes, many. Many workers from Oaxaca work the fields – those who work the blackberry, those who work the strawberry, lettuce, cabbage, those who work the vegetables – most are from Oaxaca, as well as all the states of Mexico.

PT: Oaxaca state is in the south of México?

Alma: Yes. I think it’s like those from Michoacán. It’s almost all them who are the ones who work the fields.

PT: From Oaxaca?

Alma: Yes, and from Guatemala.

PT: Many from Guatemala also?

Alma: Yes, many of them are here too.

PT: And have a lot of people gone elsewhere to look for work?

Alma: I think some are looking. The ones who have children, they cannot move to another place to go to work, since the children go to school, and I think that only here in Watsonville the school is close.

PT: And do you know Dr. Ann [Lopez, of the Center for Farmworker Families]?

Alma: Yes.

PT: I have heard that the people who are helping are not from the government, but from the community.

Alma: Oh yes.

PT: What do you know about that?

Alma: Dr. Ann helps with like, the rent. And when help goes to her she gives it away [to the farmworkers], but she doesn’t ask for too much paperwork to give help to the people. And the government does ask for a lot of requirements [paperwork] and that’s when we can’t get the help there. When the government asks for too many requirements, one does not qualify. But with Dr. Ann, no.

PT: How are people surviving? One is, people like Dr. Ann. Are there more? Is there other help that comes, or no?

Alma: No, no. Not that I know of. Just Dr. Ann and like other forms of help I haven’t heard of. I haven’t heard of any other help they give. Some get, they say, help from the Catholic Church. But for us, we haven’t gotten our chance that they help us. Maybe if someone is lucky they get it.

PT: Do you have enough food for you all today, for your immediate needs?

Alma: Yes, right now, we already have a little for food. The most difficult thing is for rent.

PT: So then you were using it first for rent and then food?

Alma: Yes because if we don’t pay the rent with the landlords, we don’t know what can happen to us. They could kick us out, so we cannot be behind on rent.

PT: So then it’s easier to get food than money for rent, right?

Alma: Oh, yes. Like right now at the food bank they are giving out beans, potatoes, and rice. But the rent is more difficult.

PT: The food bank, is that Ann’s food bank?

Alma: No. Ann’s also give beans, and diapers. Yes. Dr. Ann helps the farmworkers a lot.

PT: Are there evictions of people who can’t pay the rent?

Alma: Yes, but not right now. I’ve known someone who was kicked out. I know there are people who have been kicked out. Once they kicked me out of a room [in the past] – the man said that my daughter had lice and that I had to leave that same night. She didn’t have lice. I was crying a lot because the man said that he would kick me out. And when tomorrow came we took our things and left.

PT: This is from before?

Alma: Yes, this is from before. But there are people that are like that [who will evict you].

PT: Are there people right now, some people who are losing their homes?

Alma: Right now no. I don’t know anyone who is….Like right now a lot of people aren’t working, they don’t have money to pay the rent like people who work the fields, and maybe they are going through what happened to me, but I haven’t heard of any.

PT: Do you know how many people can’t live in their homes because of the flooding?

Alma: No, right now I haven’t heard of how many people. I just know one, a young woman that comes where I live. Sometimes I cook beans and I tell her “Come, come.” I have beans at least, or a potato and because she can’t cook and it’s good to help at least a little.

PT: Yes one is helping others.

Alma: Yes, because to be on the street is difficult, since there’s no money to eat on the street and when one has a place to live and even if it’s just rice and beans, [it’s good to help]. I know it’s difficult because I lived through it, and it’s really hard.

PT: And do you know any people who have had to live on the street?

Alma: Yes, I already have experienced that [in the past]. I was on the street with my three girls, and for me it was very difficult, because my girls are hungry and what do I do? My sister sometimes she would make me a taco, she would put a little beans in the tortilla or egg and she would give them to me.

PT: And this was in the past?

Alma: Yes, this was before.

PT: Meanwhile you were working but you didn’t have a place to live?

Alma: Yes, I was working and I didn’t have a place to live, and where I went to work I didn’t take a lunch and that was difficult.

PT: We want to let the world know that there is still a problem and that they have to be helping, and to demand that the government give help too, without so many requirements.

Alma: Yes, because the government asks for many requirements, but sometimes the owners don’t want that. Sometimes they [government officials] say, ‘I’ll give you the paper, but let the owner sign it,’ and if the owner doesn’t sign it, we cannot get help.

PT: Does the community think that Pájaro will recover and that people will have jobs? Is this what people are thinking?

Alma: Some places. Some part of Pájaro, it doesn’t look like the strawberries were good. But maybe later [things will get better]. Right now it’s slow, the work.

PT: And if you could say something to the world, what would you say?

Alma: I would say that there shouldn’t be any discrimination against farmworkers, because they are the ones who harvest all the food, the vegetables, the fruit. And that’s what I believe a lot, because they work even under the rain to produce a little bit of food.

Below are comments from Esperanza.

Esperanza: Ever since we were evacuated everything has been very difficult. The reason is I’m not working now because I’m not stable.

I suffered a lot because I was in Salinas and my family was in Watsonville. The family got separated because my sister’s landlord wasn’t accepting the whole family. In Salinas I was able to stay with a friend. I had to go get the children to take them to school in Watsonville, and then go to pick them up. For a month, all that coming and going. I had to spend more money on gas.

I didn’t get much help except from FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], they didn’t pay me enough. All of my furniture was tossed in the garbage. I have photos. I can’t go back now, my landlady gave me a paper that I won’t be able to return until May of 2024. And also, in Santa Cruz County, the rents are very expensive. There’s not much to rent and what there is, is very high. I wanted more help from them in paying for rents and to support us by looking for a home for our family, because it is so hard.

People’s Tribune: Have you asked for more help from FEMA?

Esperanza: I appealed what they gave me from FEMA because it would only replace three of the things from my house that I had. I sent them proof that I was buying things on credit that I don’t have anymore, and I am still supposed to be paying for them.

PT: Is anyone helping you with that?

Esperanza: No, I’m doing it myself. I get in there and investigate and fight for my rights. I saw what I had to do to fight – I complied with all the requirements, sent them all the receipts and bills.

When I go to the park where FEMA is, they say they will help but they only give instructions; I have to make the calls and fill out the papers. I went to see if they would fill it out, but no, I had to do it. There’s a lot of people there, many families that need help that don’t have the capacity to fill out the papers themselves.

I’ve put myself on a lot of lists for help with rent and everything, but I haven’t gotten any more help besides from FEMA.There were organizations giving out store cards for food and I’m on the list, but I haven’t gotten anything.

PT: How long have you been here in the hotel?

Esperanza: I’ve been here about three weeks, after the months with my sister and friend.

PT: How long do you have in the hotel?

Esperanza: Every three weeks we have to renew. Right now I have until June 26 [and then I have to renew the voucher]. It’s very stressful because I really don’t know how long we’re going to be able to be here, and after that, where will we go? I keep thinking and thinking where will I go with my children?

PT: How many children do you have?

Esperanza: Three – 16, 10, and 4 years old. And I am not working and have problems of depression and anxiety. I get headaches, but I have to be strong for my children. It’s very hard. I was not prepared for this.

PT: Is it a FEMA voucher that pays for the hotel?

Esperanza: Monterey County is paying for the hotel.

PT: And you lived in Pájaro?

Esperanza: In Pájaro. I lived right next to the Pájaro school. The school is not going to open for a year. My children didn’t go to that school, so they are not directly affected.

PT: For the children that went to that school, what’s happening with them?

Esperanza: They were transferred to school in Watsonville and Lakeview. There have been conflicts between the children that are going from Pájaro and those that were orginally in the Watsonville school. It’s sad what is happening to our children. The younger ones keep asking when can we go back. But, there is no water there. No drinking water, just water on the floor.

I’m still feeling pain and sadness. The days go by and we don’t have a home.

PT: Are people still working or are they in the same situation as you, without a stable situation?

Esperanza: Some people are working, but other people like me, their lives are unstable. I have depression and anxiety. I’m taking a medication for it. But also, I’m having to drive the kids around and everything, from one place to another and am just not able to do everything and work. Everything is so expensive, and even worse without work.

PT: Can you receive unemployment?

Esperanza: Disability. But it’s not the same as the wages. And I have to spend a lot more not being in a home.

PT: Do you get help with food?

Esperanza: I get $240 a month in food stamps. When I was separated from my children I was still buying food for my children and buying my own food for myself. It was like buying double. It’s not the same as having your own food in your house where you can just prepare what you need. We can’t cook here. They bring us food, but sometimes it’s difficult to eat the food they bring; the children don’t want it because they are used to the food I cook, from Michoacán. They bring us sandwiches, spaghetti, the same thing everyday. The children say “not again.” Sometimes I have to go get them something they will eat.

PT: Who brings the food?

Esperanza: I don’t know. We live near Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties.

PT: Have you been to the food giveaways with Dr. Ann Lopez? What kind of food do you get?

Esperanza: I’ve gotten cereal, fruits and vegetables. But when I was in my house I could get things more easily, to be able to cook them

PT: What do you hope will eventually happen? That you will be able to get work?

Esperanza: I hope to find a home and live there with my children. I’d like a hotel when on a vacation, but not to live in it! And also to be able to work and lift up the family again. I worked in the lettuce fields in Watsonville, the whole area.

PT: Did you earn enough to survive when you were working?

Esperanza: I lived from check to check. There wasn’t much to save after rent, food, cell phone. That’s why I chose Pájaro, because it was the cheapest to rent.

PT: it was terrible that you weren’t being given enough wages to be able to advance at all. Because you were doing everybody a great service and picking the food that we eat. Is there anything else you would like to say?

Esperanza: We need more assistance for the community of Pájaro, because we are experiencing very bad times.

PT: Have they given the workers any sense of when they might be able to go back at some level?

Esperanza: I don’t know many people that are working. The situation is very difficult.