Direct Aid For The Pajaro Farmworkers

In response to the floods, in honor of Women’s History Month and in celebration of our 3rd year of mutual aid and direct action, Campesina Womb Justice is fundraising for farmworker relief. This mutual aid journey has taught us that there is no one act of compassion and kindness too small. Let us return to our original ways of tending to each other, heart to heart, and live in reciprocity with all life.

As womb-carriers we know that the same sacred waters that create life can also create destruction and contamination for poor unprotected communities such as the residents of Pájaro, California. The water in Pájaro is carrying the poison of capitalism and white supremacy. It is unsafe to drink and has flooded the berry fields, streets, and homes of our beloved farmworker community.

Pájaro is technically Monterey county but it’s on the south side of the Santa Cruz county border, just across the Pájaro River. The farmworker community of Pájaro is being abandoned once again. Farm workers were abandoned during the pandemic and the fires and they never missed work. They worked while risking their lives, were poisoned, ill, injured, abused, and oppressed and now there has been no work this year for the first time due to the floods. They are cold, hungry, unhoused, and living in terror for an uncertain future. How much more can they endure? How much oppression and suffering is enough for a community? Did you know that the life expectancy for a farmworker is just 49 yrs old?!

In Pájaro, the Mixteca (mix-te-kah) or ñuu savi, the people of the clouds and the rain, live invisible, disposable lives. The ñuu savi are sacred original peoples from Oaxaca who were displaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and are now economic refugees who have risked their lives traveling thousands of miles and paid thousands of dollars to come to The Strawberry Capital Of The World to work in slave-wage jobs and live inhumane lives with no human rights or protections. As Indigenous people, they are at the bottom of the social stratification pyramid even among Mexicans. They’re victims of a grave environmental and humanitarian crisis of our times.

Their water deities are screaming it is time to bring justice to farm workers! Let Mother Earth cleanse the poisons in the waters and human spirits with this revolutionary storm. Lets us not use legality to guide morality. Our separate struggles are connected. It is community collaboration that will bring humanity, justice, and healing to this planet. Mother Earth Is Abundant! There is enough for everyone!

With just $200,000 we can give $500 to 400 farmworker families. We have already supported 6 families through social media fundraising. We will partner with organizations that are trusted by farmworkers to assure an equitable distribution of these relief funds. We cannot continue to stay hoping and wishing elected officials will take responsibility. Let's take care of each other, and protect some of the most resilient magical original Indigenous peoples of our continent. We must protect the sacred before it is too late.

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” -audre lorde

“We are either going to have a future where women lead the way to make peace with Earth or we are not going to have a future at all.” Vandana Shiva

### This GoFundMe is organized by Campesina Womb Justice, led by Maria Ramos. We are sharing funds with trusted The Center For Farmworker Families, Salud Para La Gente, Watsonville Community Hospital and other community orgazinizations and individuals. We will be providing gift cards, rental assistance, motel vouchers and other essential needs.