Remembrance honors those lost one year after Half Moon Bay mass shooting
One year after the deadly mass shooting at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay, the community is remembering the victims and continuing to find ways to move forward.
The shootings on January 23, 2023, took the lives of seven farm workers and shed light on the difficult living conditions of many farm worker families.
Suspected Half Moon Bay mass shooting gunman Chunli Zhao was back in a San Mateo County courtroom Tuesday, where a judge granted a request to move his arraignment to next month.
The nonprofit Ayudando Latinos a Soñar" or ALAS is holding a pair events on Tuesday built around the the tragic shooting. A roundtable discussion was held at the ALAS Sueño Center that included speakers Dr. Belinda Hernandez Arriaga, the founder and Executive Director of ALAS, CEO of the Latino Community Foundation Julian Castro, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Supervisor Ray Mueller, and State Attorney General Rob Bonta to address gun violence.
"California is a state that is proud to be regularly rated as having the strongest gun violence prevention, laws, and rules and approaches in the nation, but still we are not immune. And that pain touches all of us in this state," said Bonta.
On Tuesday evening, a memorial event is being held at ALAS Casita and Garden starting at 6 p.m. that is open to the public. Artist Fernando Escartiz is unveiling a new work paying tribute to victims entitled Corazón del Campesino. The evening will also include art, poetry, and music as the community reflects on those who were lost in the shooting.
"This art piece at ALAS stands as a tribute to the farmworkers we will never forget, reminding us of the imperative ongoing advocacy that must lead our efforts for change," said Arriaga in a press release issued by ALAS.
A year after the tragedy, locals are still finding it hard to discuss.
"It's very difficult to talk about," said Mayor Joaquin Jimenez.
"It is difficult to think about," said Judith Guerrero, the Executive Director of Coastside Hope.
Even though time ticks on, the community's collective heart still hurts.
"A year is not enough to heal," Guerrero said.
But a year is long enough to see the seeds of change start to grow.
After the mass shooting, the world saw the dire conditions that many farm workers were living in. Since then, city, county, and state leaders have all started working together to fix this problem.
"It's a feeling of hope," said Jimenez, standing outside what is slated to be a future site for farm worker housing in his community. "Farmworkers are being recognized. It's long overdue."
At the beginning of January, San Mateo County Supervisors voted to purchase a 50 acre nursery on Highway 1 that has been closed since 2019, for around $9 million. The plan is to turn it into place with 100 units of farm worker housing and a farming co-op for the county. It's the second site in the works in Half Moon Bay designed to improve living conditions for farm workers.
"We have representatives from different sectors of our government paying attention to farm workers now," Jimenez said. "A lot of things have changed."
District 3 San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller says now isn't the time to lose momentum.
"One of the big risks when you reach an anniversary is that people want to book end it. We can't let that happen here," he said.
Outside of the land purchase, he says over the course of the last year, the county has made this a major priority.
"We created a task force to go out and look at every farm and ranch in the county, and work with farmers and ranchers to improve the housing that they have, identify the ones where people shouldn't be living, and then figure out how we can go ahead and create an environment where it is easy to build farm worker and ranch hand housing," he said. "All we can do is roll up our sleeves and try to create a better tomorrow."
Guerrero and her team at Coastside Hope have spent the last year working with and providing services for the families who worked and lived at the farms where the shootings occurred.
"There is more that needs to come," she said. "There are still a lot of things that are coming up, or a lot of assistance that's needed."
She says the people from the 18 households that were displaced are living in more stable housing now than they were in the weeks and months after the shooting. That will be the case until new housing is constructed.
"Having a home that you know you'll be in for a long-period of time brings you a peace of mind that nothing can give you," she said.
Although a year has gone by, she says the close-knit coastside community continues to step up and help out.
"Out of a difficult moment, our community was able to really, rise and come together," she said. "I still get phone calls about somebody wanting to donate and wants to make sure that it goes to the farm workers."
And that help, she says, hasn't gone unnoticed.
"I will just say, they are very thankful and appreciative of everything that everyone in our community has done to help," Guerrero said.
"There is a lot of love in our community. That keeps me together," said Jimenez.
Healing is a lengthy process.
"It's going to take years. Decades," he said.
But as that process continues for his community, Jimenez feels that change is inspiring hope and action for a better tomorrow.
"I believe in all of us to be able to accomplish things," he said. "And, we are accomplishing things, together."