César Chávez Day of Service Recognized through Pájaro Flood Recovery
By Kathryn O'Brien
On March 31st, 2023, the Watsonville Notre Dame Mission Volunteers AmeriCorps team participated in their annual statewide recognition of César Chávez Day of Service by supporting the recently flooded farm working neighboring community of Pájaro.
It felt fitting to honor Chávez's legacy of advocacy for the farm worker community by supporting the immediate needs of our farm working residents of Pájaro who were those most impacted by this recent climate disaster.
The team gathered at our meeting site in the Moreland Notre Dame School in the morning with a colleague, Olivia Yokas of the California Climate Action Corps serving with the City of Watsonville, to discuss the life and legacy of César Chávez before going out on the service project. Members were each asked to come prepared on one topic related to Chávez's work to share with their teammates.
The conversation was very relevant since the community we serve has strong ties to the agriculture labor movement. Watsonville in particular along with other areas across the world that rely on farm workers are connected to César Chávez and Chávez's goals. I think we recognize César Chávez as a Day of Service because it is like paying respects to those who advocated for the rights that people have now. I think inaction would water down the importance of Chávez's work, so our act of service on this day keeps the momentum going to continue going beyond what Chávez hoped for because his work never stops. Sometimes people need to be reminded in order to remember, so it is a reminder to be grateful for the things we have today and focus on ways we can continue.
Eden Hougardy, 1st Year Member
We recognize César Chávez Day as a day of service because his whole life he dedicated to serving and helping others. He passed a [farm worker] bill of rights and started many [organizations] that revolved around helping others. Even after his passing there are still things up and running in his honor [of] his name.
Alanna Woods, 1st Year Member
We recognize César Chávez Day as a way to inspire the next generation to continue the legacy of such an honorable mission. It’s a day to celebrate the work that was accomplished and recognize how much is left. It encourages us to be grateful for the labor of those before us.
1st Year Member
The team traveled in two groups to Pájaro Middle School where leaders from the Santa Cruz Volunteer Center helped orient members to the task and provided them with safety gear; in addition to all the water brought into the community by the severe rainfall, the Pájaro River levee breach and a break in the sewage line meant contamination in the resulting mass of mud and debris. Serving alongside other community members and volunteer groups, the Watsonville NDMVA team split out into the neighboring streets, to shovel up the mud out from underneath trailers, distribute cleaning supplies and PPE to those that desired them, and to knock on doors to talk with residents about what other things they might need to support their recovery.
Before this day, the Watsonville NDMVA team itself had already been impacted by the floods. Some members had been diverted from their regular service activities to support the community evacuated due to the flooding, making meals and distributing supplies to emergency shelters, some serving overtime to meet the demand. Another member serving at a Watsonville middle school has been navigating the task of teaching his 6th grade students how to empathetically receive the incoming students relocated from Pájaro Middle School; these students have not only been uprooted from their classrooms and homes, but many are facing concurrent challenges of housing or food insecurity all while their parents have been unable to work. Meanwhile, some other students the Watsonville members serve have had such bad damage to their homes that they are unable to consistently get to school while they recover their property. Lastly, some members themselves were either blocked into their communities by damaged roads or forced to evacuate their own neighborhoods. Despite the challenges faced by the Watsonville NDMVA team, they remain resolved to serve their neighbors in any way possible:
One conversation that I remember was when my Site Director, Kathryn, expressed how she was worried about me getting my shoes dirty. I responded by saying, "my shoes are for service". Thinking about how much César Chávez got down and dirty, or into danger, makes me realize that we are going to get dirty for service. There is beauty in grimy dirt filled hands just as much as sanitized hands. César Chávez, and other civil rights activists teach us that we cannot expect to do service for others, do well for others, unless we get down on the dirt with them.
Aaron Gaxiola, 2nd Year Member
The members were asked to share how César Chávez's message or movement impacted their vision of service this year in Watsonville, and how his movement or community organizing related to the Watsonville community.
His message relates heavily to this area as he worked with immigrants and farm workers. Watsonville is known for its farms and César worked hard to get these farmers the rights and better conditions that they may have today. He was such a big impact and a town like Watsonville definitely would have benefited from him.
Alanna Woods, 1st Year Member
Community organizing is a huge part of the Watsonville community. We see it everyday with all the non-profits hard at work in Watsonville. So many people in Watsonville are trying to step up to make this a better place and give back to the community. I see this as Ashley is hard at work late into the evening with volunteers dishing up broccoli and carrots to bring to the evacuees in Watsonville. I see it with Non-profit vet clinics who come to give away free vet exams for pets, or with the wife and husband who come to give away dog food every other Monday. I see it with all that Maura does to support the Pájaro evacuees, by giving her time late into the evening to go and be there as a support person at the fairgrounds. I see it with all the after school programming and small non-profits that are here making a difference for so many people in this community.
2nd Year Member
I can relate to César Chávez because I myself like to give back to my community. I also love to help out [others] in times of need. His movement relates to the community of Watsonville because it's home to hundreds of farm workers.
1st Year Member
His movement has prompted me to think more about my daily tasks at work because there are times where things don’t always go the way I intended. However, if I focus on my goal like the way Chávez did, I might be able to adapt more smoothly to unpredictable events during my service. My focus is to serve the community, and Chávez's message is a bit of an anthem because it has a positive spin. Serving is fun and all, but there is a reason why I dedicate my time. After learning about César Chávez, it reminded me of the question of why do you serve? Chávez's message about why he protested and dedicated his time to help farm workers helps clarify why I serve, which is to help students continue learning and succeed in whatever they wish. I don’t want students to feel stuck.
Eden Hougardy, 1st Year Member
Another member highlighted the complexity behind the legacy of Chávez's movement, and identified how not everyone necessarily has the same perspective on its results.
I've spoken about how different Latino communities see César Chávez differently. Not all Latino communities are into the Chicano movement as others, based on different regional ideas and ways of life. However, we still uphold his values unknowingly just by being good to others, by appreciating the farm working roots of our families. When my grandparents immigrated to the states in the mid 1960's, they worked and saved to buy farmland from a local Japanese farmer. Although their immigration process was smoother than most because my grandmother was a natural born citizen, and my grandfather was a part of the braceros program, they still stayed true to their values of helping others. Once they settled in the farm they would hire recently arrived immigrants, mostly men in their 20s, housing them and giving them a home while raising 8 children. As I cross paths with these people that were under the mercy of my grandparents, I am always told how much they felt loved by them. “They were our father and mother, and gave us a life here”.
Aaron Gaxiola, 2nd Year Member
When such a large disaster like this hits a community, even for those who want to help it can sometimes be difficult to know where to put your eager hands to work. The Watsonville team was grateful to be guided by the people of the Santa Cruz Volunteer Center and the community members themselves on how best to meet the needs of that moment. While the flooding surrounded their area, these AmeriCorps members have stepped up even more than they do every week. They now only want to find more effective ways to help, and learn best practices. When the day’s activities came to a close, the team left feeling the need to continue their support for the recovery efforts for the community members impacted by the lasting effects of these storms.
Being a part of community means giving a part of ourselves to it. César Chávez and other civil rights leaders show this by committing, and self sacrificing to achieve the well being of others.
Aaron Gaxiola, 2nd Year Member
I think that we recognize César Chávez day as a day of service because he lived a life of service. He saw a need and he worked very hard to try to make change to uplift the lives of farmworkers. I think the work we did in Pájaro relates to César Chávez because many of the homes that were destroyed or damaged are that of farmworker families. As he aimed to uplift the farmworking community, we should give back to this community who is the backbone of this country. On this day of service in Pájaro we were aiming to at least do a small part of helping the Pájaro community.
2nd Year Member
His movement urges us to reconsider how farm workers are treated in our region. Thinking about education it’s important to recognize the differences in opportunities migrants face and the need to address those discrepancies. This movement encourages us to be proud of our community and how far we’ve progressed.
1st Year Member
In conversations following the day of service, the weight of the work that remains in Pájaro was written into the members’ expressions. While the Watsonville team members were grateful for the opportunity to directly serve their neighbors, they know there is still more work to be done for the farm working community they live among who will continue to feel the event’s impact. These Notre Dame Mission Volunteers AmeriCorps members will continue to serve as an image of Chávez's legacy of listening to and elevating the voices of the farm working community every day by serving the students and families who compose it, and by partnering with the community groups and agencies who volunteer their extra time to support these neighbors’ essential needs.
As the team serves out their commitment to the Watsonville community and beyond, the emotions of this day will serve as a reminder of the experiences which are bigger than us, of how taking the time to stop what we are doing to serve another’s essential needs, recognizing their humanity, can serve as a way to build bridges among our communities.
To learn more about the efforts of the Watsonville team and the California Climate Action Corps, visitndmva.org/watsonville/ andcaliforniavolunteers.ca.gov/climateactioncorps/. To learn more about the efforts of the volunteers helping support the flood cleanup efforts, visitscvolunteercenter.org.
