Help The Chesa's Rebuild Their Home

Sarah Marshall is organizing this fundraiser for Jose Chesa and Cristina Baez, to help rebuild their family home.

I met Cristina and Jose when we first had our babies and started our businesses. We raised our kids together and built our small family businesses alongside each other. Their children Ethan (8) and Ona (3) are restaurant children, raised in a bustling environment, surrounded by great food and laughter. They welcomed my family, and many others;  into their restaurant, lives, and home. Their home is always a joyous place full of children, friends, and wonderful meals. I saw Jose and Cristina work elegantly, give selflessly, lead with love, and always provide for others. They have held community events and fundraisers for colleagues, friends and nonprofits (local and beyond), benefit dinners for anyone needing assistance, and gave to local charities time and time again. They were the pulse of the Portland food scene always ready to lift up other restaurants and chefs. They loved us hard!

 

The pandemic has hit this family in many tragic ways. First they lost their restaurants (Ataula, Masia, 180 Xurros). Then Cristina broke her foot in 2020 and in early 2021 she found herself in the hospital with major head pain and loss of her sight. After a long stay in the hospital, doctors appointments, tests and scans, they finally found a rare birth defect in the veins in her brain; that is causing her brain to overfill with fluid and not drain properly. It is creating extreme pressure which is making her head and eyes to be in excruciating pain. It is impairing her vision and she is in constant danger of losing her sight. She has been unable to work (even though she would love to). She is still in the process of meeting with neurologists, being under constant watch with an Ophthalmologist Neurologist, and continuing care to figure out how to best live with this. She is striving to maintain a good quality of life for her children and family, while also relearning  a lot of skills under very strong medications. At this time, there is not a quick solution, just many medical bills and appointments. As Cristina's health declined, they lost their business and then their home. After her diagnosis, the Doctor said Cristina needed to move to a lower elevation; a different climate, to help her condition. Keeping positive, that they had each other and could start again, although heartbroken, with the support of their friends and family, Jose found a job in New York, and the family packed up and moved, ready to start a new journey. 

 

Half of their personal belongings, albums (containing priceless childhood memories, photos, and letters from Cristina's deceased Father), and restaurant equipment (thousands of dollars of restaurant equipment, much of it imported from Spain specifically for the families restaurants) to begin this new chapter, were  damaged and lost by a moving company. Meanwhile the remaining relics of Ataula and 180 Xurros and the essential items from their home in Portland, were being shipped to a storage unit, while they found their new home in New York. A week ago, there was extreme flooding in New York, caused from Storm Ida. Sewage flooded their storage unit, it destroyed all of their belongs, equipment, photo albums, ...everything. The kids toys, bedding, clothing, were all covered in raw sewage and mud. Cristina sent me a photo of the Ataula recipe book floating in waste, and I knew they needed us to come through for them. Their insurance does not cover natural disasters, so they are left with just the items they flew on the plane with. Our friends need our help.

 

We can provide them with hope, and support to rebuild their family home. Anything helps, messages of love, cards and letters, and of course money to rebuild. Let's support our friends, this family who has supported others and given so much to our Portland food community, is in need. They have been through an overwhelming amount of pain this year, and need our help to rebuild their family home. Thank you for sharing and re-posting, all positive thoughts and energy welcome. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Updated Information:

I have talked with Jose and Cristina today and they are overjoyed with the amount positive support help people have provided. We have all been crying and checking throughout the day. They needed this, at their lowest, it is helping, and it has been an emotional day. Thank you to everyone for the messages and donations.

I have had a few questions, so I wanted to answer them to the group. I asked Jose and Cristina before posting this fundraiser, and Cristina helped me with the exact details of what they have been experiencing. They had not shared any of this information, because it was hard and painful, and they were focussing on rebuilding- they gave me permission to do this go fund me and tell our community what they are experiencing.

We chose the Go Fund Me platform because it was easy for the family to receive donations right away, they don't have to wait until a certain amount of money is raised. Go Fund Me collects all donations, and Jose has been made the beneficiary , all donations go directly to the family (Go Fund Me takes a percentage, in order to keep doing this for other people in need).

If you are local to Portland and would like to give cards, notes or gifts to the family: I will be sending weekly packages to them in New York, please bring anything to the Marshall's Haute Sauce booth at Portland State University booth on Saturdays from 8:30-2. I will mail it directly to them on Mondays each week.