By Joshua Partlow and Lisa Bonos, Washington Post, January 26, 2023
The shooting of seven people at two local farms in January 2023 brought the housing conditions of farmworkers on the Coastside to the national consciousness: Joaquin was the natural spokesperson for the community.
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — When Joaquin Jimenez heard about gunshots on Highway 92, he immediately thought of the mushroom farm.
Jimenez is the vice mayor of this scenic beach town south of San Francisco, but his day job as farmworker program director for a local nonprofit brought him into daily contact with the less glamorous side of the community, as he donated food and blankets to those who harvest vegetables in the network of family farms up and down the coast. And in his years providing help for this predominantly immigrant workforce, he said, the California Terra Garden mushroom farm stood out.
“One of the worst,” he said.
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Jimenez said he knows many of the local farmworkers and worries that the aftermath of the shooting could leave them unemployed and homeless.
“What they share with me, with us, when we visit, is like, ‘This is what we have right now. We don’t want to stay here for the rest of our lives, but we have a roof, we have a job,’ and we have to be able to respect that,” he said. “One of the workers that I know, joking around with me, he said, ‘You know, Joaquin, I’d rather be here, unless you want me to be in a tent by the creek.’
“We are hoping for changes,” Jimenez said about the living and working conditions. “What I don’t want to happen is for people to go and become homeless. That’s what I worry about.”
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