Mass shooting throws spotlight on California farmworker living conditions
HALF MOON BAY - A Half Moon Bay Farmworker Advocate will attend President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address next week.
Dr. Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga is the Executive Director and Founder of Ayudando Latinos A Soñar or ALAS, a Latino centered nonprofit organization. Hernandez-Arriaga and her team have been working tirelessly to support farmworker families affected by the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay last week.
Hernandez-Arriaga said she's honored to attend President Biden's State of the Union address. She said the national attention of farmworkers' deplorable living and working conditions is long overdue.
Hernandez-Arriaga and her team at ALAS have been working nonstop to help and support farmworkers and their families.
They were there at the mushroom farm, providing services to farmworkers just an hour before last week's mass shooting.
Hernandez-Arriaga said it's important to support farmworkers and their health, not just their physical health but their mental health as well.
"Emotional stressors, psychological stress, trauma... really pushed me to say, 'We can no longer stay quiet," said Hernandez-Arriaga. "We can no longer not be present. We need to bring urgent support and create a network and base of community strength".
A new study from UC Merced is the largest ever conducted on the health and wellbeing of the nation's most disadvantaged workforce. It found:
- Between one-third and one-half of farmworkers reported having at least one chronic condition.
- 49 percent reported being without health insurance.
- When it came to mental health, 14 percent said they felt depressed or hopeless.
"No, it doesn't surprise me at all," said Joaquin Jimenez, Vice Mayor of Half Moon Bay and ALAS Farmworker Program Director. Jimenez's parents and grandparents were all farmworkers.
"What happens in the farm worker community, I take it personal," said Jimenez. "Both my grandfathers were farmworkers, my relatives, my parents, their brothers, and sisters were farmworkers. It's very difficult."
Hernandez-Arriaga hopes when she's in Washington D.C., President Biden will listen to what she has to say.
"It's time that we make these changes," said Hernandez-Arriaga. "There are dire consequences. The years of trauma they've been through on behalf of all of us. The time is now. We hope Washington hears."
President Biden's State of the Union Address is next Tuesday night February 7th.
