Despite Hate, Hope Glimmers: Farmers in Coachella Valley

As ICE raids continue to escalate and target farm workers, many of whom as unhoused, revolutionary mutual aid efforts like Alianza Nacional De Campesinas are meeting the moment. Theo and the WTU crew head to the triple digits of Thermal, California, where farmers can access everything from fresh food to diapers and school supplies. Food justice organizers Melissa Acedera and Roxanna Chavez speak to Theo about how the needs of their community changed as racist, targeted violence has escalated; then, farmer and volunteer Sonia Baturoni shares her experience and concerns about the ripple effects ICE raids have on the farming community.

Alianza Nacional De Campesinas:

 https://www.alianzanacionaldecampesinas.org/

Lideres Campesinas:

https://liderescampesinas.org/

Polo's Pantry:

 https://www.polospantry.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Previously on Weedy on Housed, So patient brokerang is when
people are being offered money, luxury, housing, a job, it
could be a whole bucket of things. They're being offered
those things to stay in treatment, and this is something
that we can cycle for people. So you are told

(00:24):
that if you don't tell the doctor that you're not
feeling well or maybe that you want to relapse, then
your benefits will run out. And this becomes something where
people are just then in treatment just to get housing.
Places don't actually care if they actually get sober or not.
What they want to do is that they actually want
to keep you sick because they can bill you as

(00:46):
much as possible.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Welcome to We the Unhoused. I'm your host Theo Henderson.
This week, we're going to discuss the impact that ice
raids have had on the undocumented and unhoused communities and
what people are doing to resist and support each other.

(01:19):
But first on Housed News. On July twenty fourth, twenty
twenty five, President Donald Trump issued an executive order targeting
the unhoused community, using phrases such as endemic vagrancy and
violent attacks to demonize the unhoused community. He also generalized

(01:41):
and stated that the overwhelming majority of these individuals are
addicted to drugs, have mental conditions, or both. His solution
is to shift the young housed into long term care,
institutional settings or treatment through civil commitment. This is a
developing story. Details will follow. In San Diego, California, the

(02:06):
city has signed a one year contract with Caltrans to
clear encampments on their freeways. Camping bands, and other ordinances
bar of young house from living on the sidewalks of
San Diego. However, the unhouse had taken refuge on state
owned lands such as freeways. Mayor Todd Gloria claims the

(02:27):
houseless encampments along our freeways are not only unsightly, but
they are unsafe. Our last story. Chicago suburb Yorkville approved
a new ordinance that would find or jail houseless people
who sleep on public property. Violators will be fined seventy
five dollars for the first defense, up to seven hundred

(02:50):
and fifty dollars for a fifth violation. Similar to Los
Angeles forty one to eighteen ordinance. Their ordinance forbids the
unhoused from sleeping, engaging in public camping, or sleeping on
a public sidewalk, street, alley lane, other public right of way, park, bench,

(03:11):
or any other publicly owned property, nor on or under
a bridge or viaduct at any time. And that's on houses.
When we come back, we'll take you along with us
on our journey to Coachella Valley. Welcome back to Weillian House.

(03:35):
I'm THEO Henderson. This week we went on the road
to Thermou, California and Coachella Valley to see what's it
been like for vulnerable people and the undocumented house and
farming communities as the Trump regime continues to target them.
The devastating effect on these communities has been covered very

(03:58):
sparsely in mainz scream media.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Immigration crackdowns and ice raids are affecting California farms.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Video captured on the morning of June tenth shows federal
agents chasing workers down the rows of a field and
off nart.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
Farm workers have not been showing up to work, or
if they show up, they are experiencing tremendous fear and terror.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Remember Gred.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
This has really turned southern California into the epicenter of
growing tensions between local communities and the federal agents overseeing
President Trump's aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Nobody feels safe when they hear the world life.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Were too long, we have sacrifice are how are you
our family all about the retentions.

Speaker 6 (04:45):
Of the citizens?

Speaker 7 (04:46):
An individual who has not been charged with anything, has
not been detained, is allowed to be reported to ICE
and then could potentially be deported from the US.

Speaker 8 (05:00):
Some vegetables are rotting at peak harvest time due to
a sharp production and works worse. Over a third of
US vegetables and over three quarters of the country's fruits
and nuts are grown in California Wells. One marker said, well,
one gets up in the morning and you get up
with fear because many of us can leave our house

(05:21):
and we probably won't come back.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Mutual eight groups are meeting the moment, even in these
trying times. Wheedian Howes was on hand to interview some
of the organizers and volunteers here and get their insight
on why they feel these attacks are only going to
get worse. Consider this as you prepare your freshly tossed salad.

(05:52):
Does it occur to you that the vegetables come from somewhere,
Someone had to pick them. In some states, snap benefits
will no longer offer junk food, which only leads vegetables
and fruits. But where will you get them if they're
not in supply due to the vanishing workers that are
integral to our economy, consider your corporate meeting with your

(06:16):
Pumpkin Spice Ltte complete with those vegetable platters. They may
be no more. It should not have to be said,
but these laborers are human beings with aspirations for a
better life for themselves and their children, and to be
treated as a human being. I've always said, if you
can demonize a people, you can criminalize them. This episode

(06:39):
will bear witness to that truth. My first chat is
with a returning guest who is integral to multiple intersecting communities.
Melissa Ossadero is one of the organizers from Polo's Pantry
and we caught up a few days before going to Thermo.
Let's welcome her back to the show. This is Theo

(07:03):
Henderson from Weedian House. We have an exciting episode ahead
of us, but first, before I get into it, let
me reintroduce a former guest and friend, a lifelong friend,
Melissa Assadero, the creator of a food distribution network called
Polo's Pantry. A little history for people that don't know
Melissa and how we interconnected when I was displaced and

(07:26):
unhoused in the parks of Los Angeles. We had chanced
upon ourselves when I was first starting out the show,
and she reached out to me in connection to helping
feed the unhoused in the Chinatown area. And what happened
was started off of us going to different other places
that were house people and other encampments outside of the

(07:47):
skid Row area. We started to connect and have times
and dates to reconnect in order to feed the undhouse community.
It was a success. We learned so many unhoused people's
stories by feeding them. We learned about, in particular, the
mother that was taking care of kid children and the

(08:07):
burned out situation there. We were watching parents that were
displaced before the pandemic or during the pandemic and coping
with different complexities. We were also dealing with one of
the very few people because people that are not familiar
with when the pandemic happened and COVID was in its infancy,

(08:28):
they were taking patience or people like in house community
members and putting them on ships in the Queen Mary
and shipping them off to sea. Before there was any
kind of intelligible response that would be able to be
more humane, and had a very deeper understanding of what
COVID was. So we witnessed on house people were feeding

(08:48):
them because the care people feeding on house people fell
off significantly with the mutual aid groups, the shelters and
other places where on house people would get fed. So
it fell on us to stand in the gap, and
Melissa did that excellently. She also was very responsible for
Prior to the occupation of Echo Park, there was a

(09:11):
thriving community there at Echo Park at the time of
the council member, Mitchell Pharaoh, who was trying to find
ways unsuccessfully I met at to displace the end House.
When the pandemic happened, those plans slowed to a crawl.
The community started to find his voice issue out demands
that they wanted the dignified housing and the other kind

(09:35):
of amenities that were necessary in order for it to
affect a responsible transition that largely was ignored by city
council that knew nothing but incarceration, criminalization, and thus culminating
into a big occupation. A few years ago, after saying
all of this, I want you to all to get
a deep round of applause actual if you're at your

(09:56):
home or wherever you are, and a deep welcome to
Chrismal southsid here.

Speaker 9 (10:00):
Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
I'm always so honored each time you and I reunite
because you give such a beautiful kind of backstory of
our history together. And I appreciate that every time because
it allows me to see how how far we've come
right as individuals within this movement and also together, and

(10:27):
it just I'm just deeply appreciative of that because it
always reminds me of my roots and keeps me humble
of you know, with this work.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
And it's also funny too, because before you had dealt
deeply into Polo's paracture as you are now, I forgot
to add that you were working out in Santa Monica,
so you have to understand if if you're not a California,
Santa Monica is on the other end of where I was.
It's just so funny. I was like, I have to
wait at a certain period of time when you would
reach out and say, am I'm around. Then you would

(10:56):
go and make the get the food trips, and then
you come all the way from now after work to
do this. It was not a paid position you and
I was rolling in the big Bucks. This was something
that you truly believed in. And you told me the
story about your father, how you named it after him,
and the inspiration and look at said, look at you now.
Activists and resinans and all of these wonderful speculators.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
Careful because I feel like you also share for instance,
the activist in residence at east Leigh Luskin, that's also
something that you and I share to in that experience,
you know, shout out to Ananya and the crew over
at the institute. And one thing I want to share
this because I've also started to dig deeper into kind
of my just even what who Polos is. Polo's Pantry

(11:41):
is within the scope of our ecosystem of what's been
built in LA. So would you mind if I share
this just a little bit because I feel very proud
of it. It feels like I'm manifesto, so just to
kind of say who we are. Polo's Pantry is a
grassroots organization rooted in Los Angeles, California, fighting at the
inner sections of food justice, environmental justice, housing justice, and

(12:04):
black and brown liberation. We serve and organize alongside working
class and working poor, black, brown, immigrant, and unhoused communities
who are on the front lines of ecological collapse, systemic displacement,
and racial capitalism. We don't do savior work. We do
liberation work. We are of the people we serve. Our

(12:27):
programs are not charity their strategy. We move with urgency,
with discipline, and we love for our people and mother Earth.
We believe that justice isn't handing down from institutions. It's
built from the ground up by communities who know what
survival looks like because we've done it generation after generation.
So I am super happy that I've been able to

(12:50):
kind of give the work more more tangible sort of
like to really really sit with it, because you know,
for a while I just was doing so much much
and you and I met pre COVID and then pre
all the things that we know of now right, let's
talk about that pre sweetwatch. We all those all these coalitions,

(13:12):
you know, like we met during a time when all
these things were forming the formations of them, and so
it's so interesting to see a lot of them blossom,
a lot of them die too, and to and to
be close friends, Like you said, lifelong because we've gone
through these cycles too, just like nature, right, we're seeing
these sort of births and deaths and rebirths and deaths,

(13:32):
and so I think that, like, I'm so grateful when
we get together because it allows me to see that, like,
we have to hold our movement with this long lens
of love like truly as revolutionaries, because if we you know,
if we hold it in the in the same way
that this violent system holds us, we're not going to

(13:54):
get anywhere, right, So I appreciate that you hold us
and in such a really way, especially as you continue
to fight for our voices to be heard.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
That is one of the things that I felt that
when I was reading one of the older books from
or interviews of Malcolm X and James Baldwin, and what
I thought, initially what I was going to do was
write what I was going to do in order to
be contributed into advancing the liberation of oppressed black and
brown communities. But then I also noticed, as being an

(14:26):
unhoused black person, that the difficulty of getting that simple
message across, or the simple story about houselessness, because it's
a wash with for example, what President Trump has been
negatively calling on house people it's an ugly or squalor,
or or criminals or someone to be eradicated in erase.

(14:49):
And once you can demonize a human being, you can
criminalize them. Thus, which is why it is so important
to take a focus on things that doesn't seem sem
like that they're connected. But they are connected. And I
have been saying this when with my show the occupation
from Palestine, then the understanding the inspiration, because everyone loves

(15:10):
to talk about the Nazi era. Yes, but I want
to point something out to our listeners and to people
to understand, Nazism's got an inspiration from American slavery. So
let us be clear. It wasn't the other way around.
They got that inspiration. There were people leaders were coming
over and watching the debasement, the violence, the disdain of

(15:33):
how they treated black slaves and black people in general,
and they creatively found our ways to up the enter
of depravity and evil. To be sure, but they got
their inspiration was from America. And America has this sickness
that goes on and it infects and infests anything that

(15:55):
it touches in the most deleterious and negative way. Because
of the fact though they have not reconciled that humanity
is all encompassing and it is expansive. It is not
one singular, white, blue gene a genetic or eugenicist kind
of ideal ideology that's being out there. The second thing
I wanted to point out too, is about understanding the

(16:17):
interconnectedness that we were mentioning earlier, that when I watched
with growing alarm firsthand, how they were handling the immigration conversation.
And this has been on all the presidents have had
the hand sullied with immigration and how to grapple with
the conversation because it always ended up with some kind

(16:39):
of negative criminal thing. And it's not disconnected on how
they do with unhoused. But what the growing alarm is
that I've been trying to awaken people's conversation to look
at while the protests, to God's what was going on.
I was trying to get those same protesters, look, we're
unhoused here. This can easily turn dark. Here. We have

(17:00):
a president that has no problem in demonizing people and
doing his evil machinations without any kind of check. There's
nobody standing, there's no police stopping them, there's no even
with court cases, they're lobbying against him. He's still this
gathering steam. He's still picking up steam to do nasty
things like he's snatching undocumented house people, but he's also

(17:23):
snatching undocumented unhoused people, which is increasingly difficult to fight
for the conversation because though we may look and discuss
at what's going on with the immigration from the house perspective,
we might turn cold. If this has started off, What
did they just started taking undocumented unhoused people. What our
concern would be that on that same intensity, that level

(17:46):
when they come in and sweeping encampments where people are
complaining about unhoused people and seeing them swept and thrown
into an alligator aclatrast, would we have that same outcry
and we should have that same outcry because they do
to the least before they do to the most. Yes,
So yes, what are your thoughts, oh Man?

Speaker 4 (18:03):
Just to talk about un housed and undocumented, I would
say about forty percent of our farm workers are like
fall into that category, because I think people need to
understand that farm workers, you know, there's a lot of
kind of like disconnect as far as like I think

(18:24):
the general public understands of how food has grown. I'm
alarmed at the level of kind of just that lack
of knowledge of where food actually comes from, how it
gets to our shelves, and who actually grows them, who
actually picks them, actually picks them too, correct, Yeah, yeah,
And so so it's been very interesting for me to
see how easy it is for this evil administration to

(18:48):
target farm workers and again using that sweeping statement of
you know everyone is you know, like just just the
in house or just the indocumented, you know, really almost
coaching the American people to like other. Right, as soon
as you're able to other a group of people like

(19:09):
you said, right, again, we're going back to slavery tactics
that they're using. And they've been doing this then, since
the birth of this terrible country, you know what I mean.
They've been seeding the other ring of folks who do
not look like them as a way to justify the annihilation.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Right.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
We're seeing that in Palestine. And you know, I kept
telling people. People thought I was crazy when I was
telling them, Hey, they're upping the ante in the violence
for us to get used to it, okay, because it's
not far for them to bring this level of violence
to our land. And so now we're seeing that right
with the moliarization of our law enforcement everywhere. And we're

(19:50):
seeing that too with the raids with the farm workers
because again comparing it to slavery time, I mean, there
are videos upon videos out there of compusinos right now
being hunted like slaves in the fields. It is literally
if you did an overlay of how farm workers are

(20:12):
running from ice and overly that too, like just even
illustrations of what people believed what happened doing slavery, it
is exactly the same. They're being hunted.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Again, another historical fact that I wanted to connect to
people to understand also how this is inted oven with
black community members. We've got our citizenship through before. First
we were fighting for our citizenship with the dread Scott case,
and that's where we would got that's where we would
labeled three fifths human, that we were not even human beings.

(20:47):
We would shadow we were. So you have to understand
during this time the conversations when slavery ballooned and abolitions
were speaking, there was the thing was called the fugitive
slave actors. There were us. They were people enslave, people
escaping trying to go to Canada, and they started this
whole movement like not unlike Ice, Yes had created this statement,

(21:10):
these statements. If you go back and put side by
side the statements of the time making those statements that
they make of in documented people on the same way
that they did with enslaved people. They would run up
on them, statue them, and some of them would were,
i won't say legitimately free, some of them were free,
and some of them were going home from church or

(21:32):
work or wherever they were doing about the business of
their day, and they would kidnap them and take them
back to the places of slavery that was existing and
which caused the world a whole huge debate between slave
owners who were losing profits because of the free labor,
you know, which incidentally is a comic when they say

(21:54):
that black people are lazy. We only became lazy when
we became free, because when we were slaved, we obviously
were it was okay. But the reality of it is,
these conversations, this is not like that we haven't seen
it before. We as African Americans, we understand that we
know because our history is linked into our ability to

(22:17):
stay here. When they are starting to address the fourteenth
Amendment when they're talking about birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship is
all about African Americans. That's all about that. So if
they can try to dismantle that piece by piece, then
they have the justification to remove, fortunately remove or displace
anybody they want to who they deem is not white.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
Yes, yes, that's it. And you know, again, let's talk
about the Bassetto program. If folks are not familiar. This
was the program that basically brought in and it's so
interesting too because it's happened around the time that Filipinos
two were coming in. I forget the actual name, but
so you know that the United States when they were

(23:00):
to build California as a sort of agricultural giant, they
were really like, yeah, bringing in farm workers from different
from different countries, right, And so two of them, who
I'm very familiar with obviously is Mexico and the Philippines.
And it was very interesting too because the governor the
US government had a very very specific category for the

(23:20):
men to the braceros. You know, they had to be
they were expecting them to be like bachelors, right and
learn why because they didn't want them to have you know,
a wife or children to come in. It was easier
to control single men. And so the same thing also
happened with Filipinos. And they're called monongus because monongs are
also sort of like that that kind of term of endearment.

(23:42):
And in a region in the in the Philippines build
the locals. Note anyway, they again had the same category
because they also believe that it would be a problem
to have to like bring their entire family, and it's
also cost effective for them too. Not only that sort
of the brassetos, I don't know, like if folks have
seen some photographs from that time. This is around the

(24:02):
thirties forties, when this was the first waves were happening
into California. They also treated the bassettos like cattle. They
literally would have the men line up in these like
literally they look like also same same thing, like actual
you would imagine, yeah, animals, correct, and they would they
would spray they would literally spray them, you know, with

(24:25):
these kind of like almost like pesticize, you know or something,
because they believe that they're trying to get like like
smell off of these men. It's so disgusting. How the
other ring that also included that optics of treating the
men from these other lands as animals, right and so
and so for me, the work that I do with

(24:46):
polos now, especially with this level of clarity around around
how the interconnectedness of this, especially in agriculture and food systems,
is that it's important for me to always speak on
that because I organizing with the people who literally are
the backbone o our food system. Without them, we literally
cannot survive. And yet they are the last to be

(25:08):
thought of in just the whole construct of this system,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
But also they're thought of in the most derogatory way.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
That's what we have to deeply, deeply like it just
in human.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah, it's just like you know what you're mentioning. When
I went my first time, I did one of the
episodes with you on about the compasinos, and I noticed
that the amount of work and then to the location
of where you showed me, and to understand that most
Americans would not be able to do that type of work,
and we they are a very important lynchpin to our economy,

(25:41):
but yet many of them are un housed.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
Oh yeah, and also you know, people have to remember
farm workers have to migrate to follow the seasons because
you know, like not everything grows in the same region,
and there's reasons why, because the crops only react to
certain soil health and to certain climate health, and that's

(26:04):
the only way that were able to grow and mass.
And so these are things obviously that folks don't understand.
But it's also like, again the people who are feeding us,
the whole construct of the system just completely forgets them,
and that is also by design exactly, you know. And
so like organizing with farm work or women to me

(26:24):
is also really powerful because within you know, kind of
the hierarchy too, and the food system, they're kind of
on the bottom too. They experience so much to a
caste system as well, and so I think like allowing
that level of understanding of all the oppression right that's
happening and the food system allows us Hopefully for me,

(26:45):
my hope is sharing that information will allow us collective
to dream better on what we can do.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
We're going to check in with Melissa again toward the
end of this episode, but when we come back, I'll
talk with the organizers and volunteers on the scene in
Thermal Welcome back. This is theo Henderson Willi and House

(27:19):
took a trip to visit Melissasadero and a fellow organizers
in Thermo, California. We got there very early, leaving Los
Angeles around five in the morning. The reason why is
that Coachella can become unbearably hot. It's important to point
this out because many of the farm workers and organizers

(27:39):
had a well organized hydration plan for themselves, their participants,
and for us. The second thing is location. This is
not my first time coming out to the valley to
interview farm workers and that travails they experience. My last
coverage of this community was during the pandemic. As you
can imagine, the setting tone was quite different. Back then,

(28:02):
there were cars wrapped around the corner, more people supplying
and volunteering, and there were bountiful services that families could retrieve.
On this visit, nearly five years later, I could not
help but observe the stark difference and the objectives of
ady A community and hiding. Plans to serve this community

(28:23):
have never wavered, but have needed to become much more
strategic and how may our help? Unlike pandemic era efforts,
there was no music. This time, there was humor, friendship
and community, but it was tainted with cautiousness and deliberateness.
Drive through services were still used, but unlike before, it

(28:46):
was rare to see full families. More often a designated
driver would come through. For other communities, volunteers drove U
hauls with palettes of food and supplies directly to those
uncomfortable attending in person. Melissa gave us the lay of
the land and introduced to me to Rock Sanna, a

(29:07):
longtime organizer an advocate for the farming community. Here's our talk.
This is Ceo Henderson from Widian House. I'm on the
road here again. I'm returning and to different troubling circumstances.
But I have a person here that we're going to

(29:29):
interview to talk about the experiences and what has been
going on since I've been here. So please tell us
your name and tell us you a little bit about
what's going on.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Okay, my name's Rosanna Chaves. I live on the west
shores of the Sultan Sea. I've been here in the
valley for twelve years and I work for Alonsano Son
at the Compass in US. We focus on priorities of immigration,
labor laws, no pesticides and violence against women and assault
sexual assault. Another important part of our job is having

(30:01):
distribution of food every third Saturday here and Thermal off
of Peers Thermal, California. And it's important for us to
give back to our community. You know, in Sultan City,
in this area, there's a lot of our farm workers
that go and work daily ten to twelve hour days
and this heat now, I mean it goes up to

(30:22):
sometimes one twenty five, one twenty seven. They're the ones
that feed us daily and they don't get to take
you know, this this food home right now because of
everything happening. There's a lot of fear as many people
that used to come here to pick up their food
we now have to go and deliver. So we also
have our U hauls that deliver the food to trailer

(30:45):
parks that you know where families don't have transportation. But
imagine that. You know, our farm workers they feed us daily.
So it's this is just something little that we do
to give back.

Speaker 9 (30:55):
It's important.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Have you noticed any other obstacles that you find. You've
mentioned the heat, that's a bit of a fear. What's
been going on. Have there been any targets with ice
anything here.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
So very close here. There was last month there was
a big raid DEA. A lot of agencies were involved,
so we don't know the details, but we know that
there was just military border patrol.

Speaker 9 (31:21):
DEA are local.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Sheriffs, Imperial County sheriffs just not knowing, you know, what
really is happening. And we saw those two farms that
shut down closer to eighty first here off of the
eighty six.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Those farms were happened. We're targeted obviously those two farms.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
Yeah, I haven't seen any activity when we drive by,
and just everything that's on the news, a lot of
people don't feel safe.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
How does this impact the consumer because I don't think
people quite understand when they go to holes foods and
all these other places, these boutique places that where that
produce is coming from. How do you think this impacts that?

Speaker 3 (31:59):
Well, First, because of the different changes in weather. You know,
some of our farm workers are not working as you
know they sometimes they do work ten hours, sometimes they
get their hours cut.

Speaker 9 (32:12):
But with this happening.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
As far as like immigration, the raid's happening, there's a
lot of vegetables you know that there used to be
like yes, a bigger volume. Some some of the farm farms,
the owners are hiring H two A workers, so h
TA workers are are coming from Mexico, South Africa, South America.

(32:37):
They get their visa temporary visa and they come and
work wherever they're needed. But unfortunately the local you know,
farm workers, they're not able to get their hours. So
how are they going to pay their rent? How are
they going to be feeding their kids? School just started?
You know, it's very expensive you know to get their

(32:59):
kids closed shoes and having food in their table. So
like today, it's very important for us to give back
to our farm worker community. And we're we're giving this
you know, water, we have baby to baby diapers, we
have formula. All these boxes here are actually because of

(33:20):
the heat stress issue in our area. We're giving away
electrolytes you know for families as well, so they can
add to their water when they're working. And just you know,
bringing volunteers. There used to be more than fifty sixty
volunteers and as you can see, we don't have a.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
I wouldn't say, do you think the need is going
to intensify with all of these raids as well or
just going to you're going to see a dissipation of
it because you did mention it used to be fifty
sixty organizations here, but they are still organizations to be
shure that's out here, but it's not as the same
volume as you had. You anticipate that you guys are
going to be able to meet the need.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
Or we well, we do this distribution once a month.
We also you know, as as volunteers and also as
our community leaders. You know, we we also give back
when we see a need you know of certain families,
so we we reach out to other organizations as well
to collaborate with them to be able to get those resources.
Like I said, baby to baby, usually fifty to sixty

(34:23):
people show up to help us, and right now there's
probably about twenty of us or less. So it's just
really important for us to be able to be more
organized give back to the ones that feed us every
day that thanks to our farm workers, we eat every day.
And also another concern recently, and when I went to

(34:44):
the store in Coachella, there was a family living in
a car within this weather. So you know, farm workers
are losing their homes. You know, they're hardly able to
pay their rent or there's about in one household you see,
like different families to be able to make it. You know,
the rent is very high and if they're not getting

(35:05):
their hours or because of this happening with immigration, they're
not able to go to work. You know, how are
they going to provide for their family. When I saw
this family, I.

Speaker 9 (35:15):
Mean they.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
They got off the car, they had everything very organized
in their trunk. They were starting school, so they were
getting ready for school. You saw the mom doing one
of the young girls hair. That was heartbreaking, like to
see that it should not be happening.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
I was making the distinction earlier about the lack of
the times they're a targeting financially or house and secure
farm workers. But I'm also bringing up and I have
to bring up the undocumented unhoused community members that are
already un housed living in like the encampments that was
out recently heard about it what hear Dice was going
into with the encampment rates and targeting undocumented and it's

(35:55):
very simple when they say if you don't have your
papers and things, where some people have family nucleus that
could be able to wonder where their families are. But
imagine if you an undocumented, an unhoused person that don't
have family ties. You don't have families coming in checking
on you, and you get snatched, then there's not really
no one to speak for you or to speak out
to say this is wrong. And I want to point

(36:16):
out and to say that is wrong. It's just you
just don't see them, because most people have a very
negative viewpoints of people living on the streets that are unhoused,
or they don't think that they're working, or they are
not worthy of being showing the same kindness and empathy
as what's going on right now.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
So yes, and you know, and then a lot of
the farm workers because of their status, they're not able
to get food stamps or snapped. You know, they're not
able to get a lot of those resources. So and
one of the main purposes, you know, also is working
and learning from other people and also like teaching, teaching

(36:56):
them we all have rights, you know, no matter what
our color is. Is so aliansa national if you get it,
you know, if everybody gets a chance to look us up,
it's alansa national compassing us amazing organization and our executive
director has taught us, you know, it's like we learn
every day. We have sometimes Facebook lives, you know, where

(37:19):
we will have.

Speaker 9 (37:21):
A webinar, you know, in certain topics.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
And I think right now we're seeing that it is
a necessity to be speaking about what are the needs
of our community, our farmworker communities.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
They're looking for more resources like water and different other
food and amenities and the help as well as they're
also looking for volunteers. So if your organization or mutual
aid group wants to create a fundraiser or wants to
reach out, there's a way to contact them. They have
a website, they have it on Instagram. Is there anything
else that I missed before? We check on.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Out just to stay positive and you know, if you
have a chance to go and volunteer and help out
an organization, come come visit us here. You know, every
third Saturday, we're in Thermo off of Peers. We'd be
glad to you know, to meet you and or reach out.

Speaker 9 (38:07):
You're able to donate on our website as well, and.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
We would greatly appreciate that to continue helping each other.
You know, God always provides, and if we have a
little extra, why not give back to our community that
feeds us every day?

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Thank you? So much to Roxanna for her time and
her work. After observing the operations, I spoke with longtime
farm worker and volunteer Sonya, with Roxana as translator. We
spoke about why this work is so close to her heart.
Who do we have in this on the scene today.

(38:47):
I'm gonna say it's in the studio, but I'm not
in the studio today. I'm out of the scene. So
who do we have here today?

Speaker 10 (38:59):
Machine so bien so.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
My name is son Campus.

Speaker 6 (39:04):
Yesterday I feel good?

Speaker 2 (39:08):
So what motivates you to come out on a hot saturday?

Speaker 11 (39:11):
La comida a la latina is thereos agricultura they jose
is na.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
So I'm here for our community, for our farm workers,
for low income families. And she's happy to be here.
She is a farm worker as well, so she knows
what a box of vegetables and food is in a
farm workers household.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Why did you join this community?

Speaker 11 (39:52):
Ah, pok you Crassillo, my familia so mus jo crisi
in Familia commerciante and in prema gusta laane ajuda, lajandi
buscar a jura, pajand is a member of Grado.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
So she her she comes from a family, a big family,
and a lot of them have their own businesses. But
for her as well as her family, they like to
give back and they like to help others.

Speaker 6 (40:30):
And that's what she's here.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Have you noticed any uptics ice or any uptics with
the damage that's caused by ice, or have you seen
anything that caused any cause of alarm?

Speaker 11 (40:44):
I should say see yesino mal porque uhlent mosaki apoyareste
pais can no sabbien doing gles benendo assist in do
comentos and Tom says, uh latritza veta mikomunida, l presidente

(41:14):
el trabajo ke non com field solos rico and come
okay armanos the lispano, the Latino, and Tom says.

Speaker 10 (41:28):
Liguentes chat.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
So yes, she has seen raids and she's seen how
you know the families are being treated. Yes, due to
their status, they're not We're not criminals, she says.

Speaker 6 (41:48):
We're here to work. We're here the do the work
that people you know what status, are not able to do.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
And it's really she feels sad that, you know, she
she sees that that's happening where you know, people are
being mistreated thrown on the ground, punched and treated the
way they shouldn't be.

Speaker 10 (42:11):
You go tambien.

Speaker 11 (42:19):
Sali little doctor, ego boyo, ego boy.

Speaker 10 (42:34):
Que take me.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
So in her community, she's saying that her neighbors do
not want to go outside, They don't want to go
get groceries, they don't want to go to the doctor.
So she's taking the role where she goes and knocks
at the doors and says, do you need something? You know,
you need me to pick something up for you. They
give her money and then she goes and picks up
whatever they need, buys whatever they need, and brings.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
It back to their home that you worried for her
own sake. She's a farm worker herself and she's noticing
these rates. Is there any precautions that she takes that
limits that kind of interaction?

Speaker 10 (43:08):
See see see pork co uh.

Speaker 11 (43:15):
Ngo documentos pectando uh medical for America for Caper administration,
vicious publicado, the avertis and.

Speaker 10 (43:35):
Covererti goos se pero.

Speaker 11 (43:41):
Mexico Americina or a key Bukara Medicina America for me
palia verti lego venda was a minister.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Affect So the way that she's being affected tremendous is
with insurance she does have, she's a resident, she has
her you know status, and at the same time, she
was not able to qualify for medical now so due
to the new administration.

Speaker 6 (44:13):
So she's having to go to Mexico and get her medication.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
She has diabetes, she has high blood pressure, and lately
she was diagnosed with vertigo. So she also finds like
if someone that has diabetes that has me extra medicine,
she buys it from them. So that has been a
huge impact in her life.

Speaker 10 (44:36):
She may alisa.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Ar don't they So she has to get her test
done every three months and it's three four five thousand dollars.

Speaker 11 (44:52):
Sometimes Evoya Mexico, Marinequea and Minnestona Minis.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
So she's saying that she goes to Mexico because that's
the only way that she's able to afford it, but.

Speaker 6 (45:08):
That here it just would not be possible.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
And she also mentions that due to the new administration
that the jobs are very scarce.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Why do you suspect that it's the jobs are becoming scarce?

Speaker 9 (45:22):
Four?

Speaker 11 (45:22):
Kan administration is socialist.

Speaker 6 (45:27):
This new administration is checking the social securities.

Speaker 11 (45:30):
And let's see two ten soon press press and documentalmina
midd dollars per persona can documentoses las compan.

Speaker 10 (45:44):
Comonoi benta.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
So the ranchers are getting fined five and six thousand
dollars per person that does not have status. So if
they run the social they they'll get fine. And so
the produce is also like a lot lower it's and

(46:12):
so the the ranchers don't have the same type of
sales the produce. So that means that he doesn't have
farm workers that are harvesting as they used to before
this administration.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Do you see this becoming progressively worse or do you
see this there's going to be a limit of what's
going on with this administration.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
I believe it's going to get Worseda why because of
the raids is the.

Speaker 10 (46:51):
Village with all the ninos.

Speaker 6 (46:57):
So she doesn't feel like it's going to get better.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
And what's going to happen, you know, because of these rates,
people don't want to go to work, and how are
they going to pay for their rent, for their insurance,
for their day care.

Speaker 6 (47:12):
You know, for the needs.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Let's say, for example, it does get worse and people
are not able to pay their rent and their food.
Then the issue becomes that they are going to be
displaced and unhoused. The President recently had off an executive
order to force unhoused people into involuntary commitments, involuntary shelters
or or if they don't comply, they can go to jail.

(47:38):
Do you see that if this happens, continues to happen,
do you see that there's going to be a connection
with the the undocumented community. Are they going to start
to target them not only deporting them, but setting them
to jail or being poor?

Speaker 10 (47:51):
Your piens tanta prascion for.

Speaker 11 (47:57):
Pien for is supa worque porque ciego so rita tra
vaja lepos esposa perotina Milo.

Speaker 10 (48:12):
Okay la persona sale b.

Speaker 11 (48:16):
Aura, bargan siento sinto dolares alacemana. Don't they see apartamento.

Speaker 10 (48:25):
Dolares And so says La.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
So she's saying that because of the pressure of right now,
of of what's happening, if it's like a couple two
of them go to work right now, they may start
changing where one of them is going to work, but
they're still going to be afraid of getting detained. So
if they're getting paid six seven hundred dollars a week,
but their rent is like eight hundred dollars and one

(48:51):
of them gets taken.

Speaker 6 (48:53):
What's going to happen? You know, if only one person
is working, and so says.

Speaker 10 (48:57):
Litan minok.

Speaker 11 (49:02):
Mitosira, so quest them estandition o meho get to Salagas
for important.

Speaker 10 (49:16):
Mexicano the naosaki.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Pero. So with the administration now, it seems like a
lot of people may choose to self deport because the
administration is saying if you don't and you get deported
or you get caught, you have to sign a paper.

(49:45):
So even if your kids are you as citizens, you
will never be able to get your papers because you've
been deported.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
Instead of self.

Speaker 10 (49:54):
Deporting, then una uh.

Speaker 6 (50:01):
There's one couple that I know that Immigration.

Speaker 11 (50:08):
La senorjuelaia Yak takes for porto okayn pios.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
So this couple was reported the mom said, you know,
I can't leave, you know, I have my kids at
school and that the agent said, well you don't want
to leave because your kids are here, Well we're going
to have your kids go with you as well, and
the entire family left to Mexico.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
I was going to say, how does you think this
is going to impact the children? But you already asked
to answer that question. Is there anything to prepare your families? Uh,
now for the new reality? Like, for example, children, if
something happens to one of you guys, you know, have
you started to put in place protocols or systems that
they can be taken care of if just in case

(51:11):
things like that, Because this is another conversation a few
years ago, even though they may have been raids and
things going on, but this has been accelerated to a
different degree.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
So he star pensando, and so I'm letting her know,
like with our meetings part of our job as well,
with we have like some of the workshops or some

(51:41):
of the meetings that we have with policy and advocacy.

(52:01):
So a legal document that allows a family member or
friend to be able to take care of their kids if.

Speaker 6 (52:07):
They do get reported.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
That was that was exactly where I was leading to
because as a former educator that if this is something
like this happens, someone comes up to try to get
the children, that's not always going to be It's not
going to be easy to get your children because the
law is going to be very clear that either you
or your or the spouses or the person that's on

(52:30):
the list is the one that get the kid. And
if you don't have that in place, they can be
put into a different system called the CPS system, which
is another nightmare for a lot of the families.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
So you know, yo, go with.

Speaker 6 (52:42):
Spana me as Hispanic, I would leave with my kids.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
You're way up and we are in a country that's
very liberal and I'm not going to leave my kids
and you know where they can.

Speaker 10 (53:07):
See ora esta rita.

Speaker 11 (53:11):
Propos paris alight do you know, profession if.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
You see now that some parents are abusing their own kids,
I would never leave my kids with anyone else.

Speaker 10 (53:25):
Hm sexual.

Speaker 6 (53:28):
Actually Beorencia domestic.

Speaker 10 (53:32):
Violence Joe Joe.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
With kids?

Speaker 11 (53:38):
Yeah, yes, benso prosai okay okay marabillos or no simplement
uh of ten mehors CAUs us tenis into casta tokaro

(53:58):
to cosina tous la.

Speaker 10 (54:03):
Temple.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
It's not that dream like everybody says that it's a
dream to be here in the United States. You know, yes,
it's easier for you to have your home and you
have your car and your furniture at home, but in reality.

Speaker 10 (54:20):
Come on, joe yabb Americana like me.

Speaker 11 (54:31):
The Steps Mephobian Mepho, no Domino Esposo Domestica Sanos Hamas
Conadian grass grass stepast Atlante h e yo, the CPS

(55:07):
CEO Mexico Meels.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
I have to say that I am very grateful to
you know, living here, I have lived the American dream.
I've been able to have my house, my car. I
went through domestic violence. You know, at one point I
had my boyfriend and I'm my husband, and I had
my child when she was three years old. She went
through a separation. Now you know, she's lived a good life.

(55:35):
You know, this country has been good to her. So
she's very appreciative about that.

Speaker 10 (55:43):
The mild.

Speaker 11 (55:48):
Compecinas porquea from Granta for in me for Vexica.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
So when I divorced my husband, I have to say
that I'm very grateful to my executive director, Milie Trevino.
She was able to help me and she helped, you know,
with domestic violence resources.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Oh this was such a very riveting conversation, and I
thank you for your time. I'm going to obviously return again.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
Now you need to.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
Yes is yes, yes, He is Thank you so much
to Sonya for sharing her story after Roxtanna for translating,
and when we come back, I'll check back in with Melissa.

(56:54):
Welcome back to Weedy and House. Aftero Henderson, Let's check
back in with the longtime guest organizer and friend who
welcomed us to cover the story. He has more by
chat from Melissa Osado. What I've been noticing most recently

(57:16):
with the president is he's always leading with the dehumanation
propaganda campaign.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
That's the first thing.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
That's the thing. It's important for him because his supporters
have a hatred for anything different. Yes, but in order
for them to justify the horrific treatment because they know
what's happening. I was having a conversation with someone else
and they were upset because they voted for him, but
their family members was being deported and things like that.

(57:44):
I said to them, you knew that he was hurting
other people, and it was okay, that's why you voted
for him. But when they started hurting you, then all
of a sudden you are upset. Like But the bottom is,
we need to understand our society needs to have an
upsurge of empathy. If you know I mean, we don't
have it, and we need to start to develop that

(58:05):
in order to understand we are interconnected. Which is while
I keep bringing back the immigration conversation, is if you
can sit there and watch four and five year old
being snatched out of first grade and the president and
these leaders are saying that they're looking for MS thirteen
gang members, come on, you know that that's not right.

(58:25):
And it doesn't take You don't have to have a PhD.
You don't have to finish college to know that that's wrong.
You're attacking pregnant women, You're going into hospitals. Doesn't mean
because you do the right thing, you're going to be
treated right. You're part of the system. You just delusionally
believe that you're just going to be different. Investment in
their own impression is so I keep trying to even
in an unhoused community, I've been trying to help dismantle that.

(58:47):
I know that's an uphill battle because there's no unhoused person,
there's a monolift, but it's a pernicious kind of conversational
point that's really hard for some of us to overcome.

Speaker 4 (58:56):
Yeah, you know again, even expanding are definitions of what
someone yet like someone who's who who was in the house,
even if someone is living in in someone's roof, but
it's not theirs. You know that that we again or
in a car coush commitment, those kinds of things. And
then again going back to farm workers, I keep going

(59:19):
back to the migration piece. A lot of them live
in their cars or if not, I've been I've been
seeing and and THEO will come out with us soon.
I really want have been asking the to come out
to Coachella Valley and Oxnard soon. Is that I also
have beginning to see. It's been worrying me because I've
been seeing an uptick of tents or like these, these

(59:39):
these structures next to the fields and more RVs. So again,
these are things that I really naturally see right in
organizing in LA and so it's been great to be
able to like.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
Now start to follow the trend correct.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
And this is something I think, for some reason I
fe like as someone in food, I think it's our responsibility,
especially if you call yourself someone working in the food system,
to bridge the urban and rural divide, because what's happening
to our farmers and farm workers is absolutely happening to us,

(01:00:17):
but again they have less.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
And less visibility. That's the thing. I think that's one
of your mid point.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
Yeh yes, the advocacy piece of this. To me, that's
why everyone's like, why are you always in farmer works?
I'm like, again, right, the opening to be able to
educate people in the injustices that are happening to them,
because I keep telling people all the time. What has
made me very sharp in my work is the fact
that I am working and organizing alongside two of the

(01:00:42):
most vulnerable communities on the planet, meaning farm workers and
unhouse folks. Literally, if you want to ra all a
ven diagram of all the injustices in their lives, it
is a perfect circle. They share all of it. And
with farm workers it's just a tick unlike immigration, and.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Not only that too, that they're designed to be in
the background, so when you were able to do those
harmful things. This is why our society needs to wake
up and understand how they do. The people that are
not in a certain category or a certain position that
you believe life should be, it's easier to demonize them,
it's easier to criminalize them, it's easier to create the

(01:01:23):
narrative to justify the appalling treatments that we're witnesses. And
you know, it's like when you're mentioning earlier about they're
training us to accept it. I think too, they are
also training us to be overwhelmed by the cruelty because
initially the conversation wasn't about people just rolling up on
people in places of worship or school, a court and

(01:01:45):
things like that. It just was a quiet kind of
erasure or removal. Now it's becoming much more bolder. We
have a president that is much more confident in doing
audastardly things and we have it let's let's be honest too,
he's in bolden people, yeah, to be okay with cruel
things and doing crue things on their own.

Speaker 4 (01:02:07):
Let me let me let me share something that I
think also, I want you to be able to also
speak to this community because I've been on the ground
a bit in Ventora County and for folks right now,
it's August of you know, twenty twenty five, and about
a few weeks ago, there was a huge raid in
Camadio and ox Nard and about over three hundred farm

(01:02:29):
workers were taken during that raid. And so the raid
happened on Thursday at glass House, and by Saturday I
was on the ground in Vinsora County. And so I
want to share this with people because I'm working with
folks doing a lot of incredible work in Vincora County
and also trying to do their best to hold the
cities accountable because again, what I'm seeing is a pattern

(01:02:53):
of a lack of concern from local government because you know,
there was a farm worker who died during that raid.
I've heard, Yes, he fell from the roof of the plant. Yeah,
he was an older man. Yeah, okay, And so you know,
there hasn't been even an official acknowledgment from you know,

(01:03:14):
local government on that death. People are you know, they're
they're kind of almost kind of like kind of trying
to keep their hands cleaned because they're also using the
fact that it's a cannabis farm. And so there's so
much that I witness and I can't really share much
because i'm talking to I'm working with attorneys, and so
it's not my place right now to share those details.

(01:03:35):
But I'm telling you the level of cruelty is just
people don't understand what happens to a community when you
gut hundreds of people from it. I've seen it, and
you know, they're doing it all over Los Angeles and
in counties and everything, and they're and they're targeting working class,
grown folks, and they're targeting them because they know that

(01:03:57):
they can just disappear them without the follow up of someone.
When we were on the ground THEO in Inventora County,
for instance, there's one one story one of the organizers
I was working with, an aux Nard. The day that
we were supposed to meet up, she had a woman
frantically show up at her door at seven am, just

(01:04:18):
frantically saying and the screaming like I need help finding
my daughter. And the last time someone told her her
daughter was sent somewhere into the bustle. We were hearing
different stories from people because we went straight to the plant.
We were checking out on people because the people were
still trying to get into the plant to get their

(01:04:39):
loved ones belongings. And these are young children, I mean
like teenagers, you know, their parents have been taken. We
talked to one gentleman. He said that his sister, Both
his sister and her husband were working in the both
farm works were working in that plant at glasshouse. They're

(01:04:59):
both taken and they had kids, but they're left behind.
So again, the women that I was with, the first
thing in their minds were like, what about the kids?
You know, think about that, Like the entire village is
just uprooted, the parents gone.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
I witnessed one a situation where, and I've been trying
to find the footage. This person wasn't even undocumented. This
person was on vacation and they had a place of origin.
They were not here illegally or any of the kind
of narrative that they had. This person, I think if
I remembered it from either Chile or Peru, and they

(01:05:35):
were on the streets I believe of New York and
I just snatched them while their thirteen year old daughter
was just standing and they were trying to explain to
them like, I'm not at i don't live here, I'm
just here for ding. That's the level of a ripple
effect that this has on tourism and everything like that.
And they grabbed the mother and shunted her into a

(01:05:57):
van and left the door, I think, thirteen years old
in a place that they're not even familiar with. Out there,
there was no kind of follow up to like, you know,
where you are, you know, can you imagine to be
snatched like that or to have parents come in trying
to drop off their kids or pick up their kids. Yeah,
and they tick them and the kids there.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
Yeah, you know a lot of a lot of the
incredible advocacy I've been finding out there, you know, civil
rights lawyers and folks who are advocating for the human
rights have been very focused on trying to get the
legality around guardianship for the children and thinking through and
organizing around that because it's so painful to even and

(01:06:39):
heartbreakings even think about that to just plan, you know,
like a possible separation from your child and who gets
legal guardianship while y'all sort of you know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
What I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
So for me, I'm just like, God, this is the
levels of this and then again the evils within the
design of the whole thing. That's that's I think what
I want want your listeners to really understand, to really
dig deep into your analysis of what our government quote
unquote is doing for us, is because you are seeing

(01:07:12):
a deep level of evil and violence. Because they have
the blueprints of these laws, they keep changing it just
to serve their their you know, their own desires of elimination,
of eliminating us.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
Yes, and and and and and again.

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
For us to really truly look and just to stop
stop trying to hide and escape the reality of what
is at our doorstep, meaning fascism is here. Let's just
name that for a fact, and that we have to
absolutely it is. It is emergency, This is it is.
We are in so os time as a food person,

(01:07:51):
and you know this, You know this theal Everyone always
says food people are the canary nicole mine. I've been
trying to sound the alarm for two years and even
before that, and I've been like, why is Bill Gates?
I said this five years ago because I read an
article on something and I just said, why is Bill
Gates picking up all this land? Why is this investing

(01:08:13):
in all this ship? I started seeing a pattern of
them starting to privatize and build on these things, and
so they knew they have the blueprint of how to
control us, and who feeds you controls you. That is
just the blueprint of just our civilizations. I've been I've
been studying a lot in sort of ancient civilizations, how
we've built ourselves, and often the blueprint of it was agriculture.

(01:08:38):
We have to figure out where to grow the food
right and so to me, this flight is very serious,
and I think that for me, I love that I'm
able to clearly tie together what I see in the
fields and the injustice to farm workers, what I see

(01:08:58):
in our cities, and then with the unhoused folks, and
how they're exactly the same. It's just, you know, the
regions and the geography is just a little different, but
it's exactly the same. That violence is the same, the
system is the same, the other is the same. And
you know what I hope for, at least for folks
listening in this episode, is that to also hope to

(01:09:21):
shift your your lens on seeing farm workers to you
and and and the rights that are being violated in
their in their world.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
You've mentioned you've seen some atrocities like mentioning in Ventura
County most recently. Are there places or things that people
could do to learn more about the conversation or what
places would you have them to look at.

Speaker 4 (01:09:42):
I think that I would highly suggest that the two
of our partners in agriculture work is Alianza, you know,
the compassenas on a national level. The first farm Worker
Women led National Coalition that again is led by farm
worker women and founded by them and then leaded us

(01:10:02):
compassing us which is statewide in California and they have
about eighteen chapters across California. They have across the Spinal California.
You know, folks can also tap into their local chapters
and see if you want to, if you're able to
support them. And then here in La, if you're not
following us already, follow us at Polo's Pantry LA on Instagram.

(01:10:26):
That's really the only place that we're most active as
far as quick updates on what we're doing, collaborations we're
working with, that's all again community led, and so that's
one thing too I think I also want to emphasize
is that our work is guided by community from the
beginning and THEO knows this. THEO has absolutely lived it

(01:10:46):
with us and continues to and he continues to also
be part of our advisory council. That will never change.
He will always be advising on the things that will
be coming out of Polos, especially within the unhouse foods systems.
But yeah, those are the places to find us.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
Perfect. One other thing, what concerning thing is on your
radar right now to alerters to look for.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
Well, I mean, right now, I think it's really focusing
on protecting communities with the raids. I think for us,
I'm working with some really incredible folks. I want to
shout out over at Food for Comrades. They work with
Poma who just again incredible local food justice folks that
I've been doing more work with Shannon over at just Mediation.

(01:11:35):
She also has helping me with just blueprinting, you know,
the system's work, and especially digging deeper into the incredible
mutual aid system that's really kind of kept the you know,
sort of like the heart pumping in the work and
really kind of doubling down on that, on the clarity

(01:11:57):
around that and all the incredible people and organizations and
collectives that have really done the hard work of keeping
people alive. And so I think, I don't know. I
think right now I would say localizing your effort so
that people don't burn out. I would say get trained

(01:12:19):
with doing community patrols. And I recommend two groups right
now who you should tap into if you don't want
to be trained. Union del Barrio is incredible, La Based.
They're incredible, they have I know they have chapters across
the county place please look into them. And then I
know LA Tenants Union two has been have them offering

(01:12:40):
their own sort of community patrols, trainings and things like that.
Look into those two groups, and then there's other groups.
Two rapid response networks, find the find your local rapid
response networks and then mutual aid networks too. Just just
localize your efforts so that way you know, there's more
of us and start, you know, just start to continue
to build and and and grew o my Selium network

(01:13:03):
to keep people safe.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
Homimade Meals is they're still on.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
The meals is still on the map. And but right
now I think what we're trying to do is evolve
it as well, and uh evolve it to the needs
of what's happening too on the ground. We're trying to
be very intentional with the next phase of what of
our work the team. And again I don't want to
take credit for what the team does because I've I've
helped vision it. But the real blood Sweaton Tears are

(01:13:29):
you know, our folks and are on our team Sonya
you know Jenny, Jackie, Angela, Alex who do the true
heart work of holding the homelymade meals community together, all
the incredible people who cook meals for our folks who
you know that Again, it's just for years have been

(01:13:52):
trying to figure out the connectivity of that piece. And
maybe that's something we can also like work on because
you know THEO I think you and I have always
been working so much that I don't think we get
a chance to even process. We barely get a chance
to even have our vacations right to take to take breaks.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
But it's very, very needed.

Speaker 4 (01:14:12):
But I think, like now, I'm grateful for you U
s LA and the community there who've given me the
space to really sort of like just you know, sometimes
allow myself just to look at the things that I
built and really make sense of what you know, of
what's happening there.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
So I want to point out another connecting lunch pin too,
because everything is connected, as I mentioned earlier, but right
now we are also dealing with there's going to be
cuts from medicare, cuts from a snap and EBT. And
because it's so this is so important and why food
justice is so important, maybe just another part of the

(01:14:54):
evolution is too, We're going to have there's going to
be a need. There's going to be hunger, There's going
to be need on a very wider scale, similarly to
the times of COVID where it impacted the unhoused community
and a significantly severely way. So I think that's to me,
that's when I'm foreseeing. I know people are going to

(01:15:16):
be housed unhoused, or housed insecure or employment insecure people
do so no, I.

Speaker 4 (01:15:24):
Think like right now we have to do some more
work and really weaving our struggles together and to also
teach folks about these things and making the connections themselves,
because again I think like the goal is not to
also like centralize the power. It has to be a

(01:15:44):
way for it to grow locally and rapidly like a
forest fire. And so for I think right now it's
really again sharing as much as we can of another
about with strategies that have worked, and if you're not
sure what to do, just find people who are already
doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
I just think that there's so many changes happening in
our world right now, and I think the biggest thing
that has been very helpful for me is again start
to go in and I'm going to sound real spiritual
and kind of woo woo. But this is a part
of me that I haven't really shared much with folks,
But I think I'm sharing a little bit of it

(01:16:23):
just because it's helping. It's helpful for me, I think
doing the work, and I think a lot of spiritual
felks called shadow work. It's it's the piece I think
that's really kind of has us all sort of in
that and it's stuck feeling in this stuck phase. And
there's so many energies and things that are happening out
there right now. A lot of what's happening in a
global scale is also happening within our own you know,

(01:16:45):
sort of like dynamics and construction of our own neighborhoods
in the villages. So in order to I think, take
care of yourself, I think it's important to first look
at what is going on with you, right And I
say this because I think you and I are also
again we're familiar with the level of conflict and and

(01:17:08):
and and how that creates fishers within our movement. But
I think we're in it. We're in a We're in
a very very critical time that requires us to move
evolve past all that and to really really start to
let these connections stay solid so that we can really
push against all the things that are happening. So I

(01:17:29):
hope that landed well and clearly on people to do
the work of not only you know, Anthea and I
also kind of shared this too with each other right
before we started the show. Is taking care of ourselves,
you know, like we're working constantly, but again also honoring
the fact that we also need rest.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
For this too. Yeah, that's it, excellently stated. Thank you
very much. Thank you so much to Melissa, who you're
sure to hear on the show again. This episode wouldn't
be possible without the support of Polo's Pantry and Melissa Assadero,

(01:18:09):
and to our guest today who had the courage and
grace to tell their stories. Thank you all for listening
to another episode of Widian Howes. If you have a
story you'd like to share, please reach out to me
at weidianhows at gmail dot com or widian House on Instagram.
Until then, may we again meet in the light of understanding.

(01:18:31):
Median Howes is a production of Yheart Radio. It is written, hosted,
and created by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jamie Loftus
Hailey Fager, Katie Fischel, and Lyra Smith. Our editor is
Adam Want, our engineer is Joe Jerome, and our loco
art is also by Katie Fischer. Thank you for listening.