21 Mar 2015

A farm worker’s story: Maricela Garcia

NOTE: Puente is writing about the lives of female farm workers for National Farmworker Awareness Week. This is the first of two stories.

woman1When Maricela Garcia came to Pescadero as a newlywed, it seemed like a verdant paradise – a beautiful place to earn American dollars instead of Mexican pesos. Here, she and her husband Ruben could work side-by-side in fields by the sea, raise children, and eventually build a house of their own – if they could afford it. She didn’t count on the farm work being so difficult, and the cost of living so high.

“It was pretty, all right. But it was really hard because I had never worked in the fields before,” says Garcia.

The 43-year-old was no stranger to hard work. She started at the age of 9, cleaning houses and selling fruits and vegetables in her town in the Mexican state of Jalisco – anything that would bring a few pesos home to her younger sisters and brothers. Their mother left when she was small and their father was an alcoholic. So she dropped out of school in the fourth grade and did what she could.

But her early struggles did not prepare Garcia for working in the flower industry. She and Ruben did find work together at a local nursery alongside other immigrants. But the conditions were very tough to take. “It was really hot, working in the sun. You’re up and down on your knees a lot. When it rained we still had to work outside, so we were always getting wet. On the rainy days your whole body got wet. You’re always bent over or lying down planting.”

woman2But they didn’t speak much English, and Garcia doesn’t drive. With limited options, the couple kept at it. In an industry with very few certainties, they stayed with the same company for 23 years. They became legal residents. They had four children and sent two of them to college.

In all those years, the most she was paid was $9.25 an hour. The California minimum wage is $9 an hour.

They never did make enough money to build that family home, but their two-bedroom apartment is adequate, she says.

“My children are very rich compared with my life in Mexico. They’ve never wanted for food. They have their parents who love them and take care of them.”

Fortunate by Mexican standards, but Maricela and Ruben weren’t earning enough to cushion them against losing both their farm jobs suddenly in January. They came home from a vacation in Mexico to the bad news.

As she speaks, Garcia becomes emotional. Her face flushes and she starts to cry. She knows the layoff was not personal, but she and her husband can’t help feeling let down after 23 years of employment.

“It’s because of the industry. I can tell that work has been going down. There’s been less and less of it,” she says, her gray-streaked ponytail bobbing as she retrieves a Kleenex from her purse.

The layoffs are not as surprising in the context of San Mateo County’s weakening farm industry, where agricultural production shrank 22 percent between 2001 and 2011, from $177 million to $137 million. And the catastrophic drought makes it unlikely the industry will recover any time soon. In 2014 alone, the drought cost the industry $2.2 billion and led to 17,000 layoffs, according to a study from UC Davis.

Garcia and her family are longtime, cherished members of the Puente community. Her two eldest daughters, Mariela and Diana, were part of Puente’s youth leadership development program. Mariela, 22, recently graduated from Cal State Monterey Bay, an endeavor that Puente supported through scholarships for expenses like books and tuition. She’s now waiting to hear whether she has been admitted to San Jose State, where she wants to pursue a second degree in social work. Diana, 19, has also received higher education scholarships from Puente. She is enrolled in community college and hopes to become a law enforcement officer.

Garcia herself is at Puente at least twice a week. She helps run Puente’s childcare program for young children on Tuesdays and Thursdays while their mothers do Zumba, and works with students in Puente’s Homework Club. She’s quick to read with a student or assist a child in coloring, and is known for her gentle and nurturing manner. Her youngest children prefer to come with her to Puente, whether they need help with homework or not.

Her Puente salary helps her family pay the rent, but Garcia knows time is running out to find another farm job. She and Ruben want to find a job where they can work side-by-side, which could make it hard to stay on the South Coast altogether. And hopefully one that pays more than $9.25 an hour.

She sounds resigned as she considers her next move. “The kids understand we have to look for other work, and if we can’t find other work we may have to go somewhere else.” Her twin 10-year-olds, in particular, still need their parents very much.

Please consider supporting our local farm workers with a gift to Puente to help us meet their needs. Click here for more information. You can also take action on behalf of farm workers by clicking here.

15 Mar 2015

Why we give to Puente: Ana and Mike Polacek

When Ana Polacek hears her ESL students talk about their English language slip-ups, the humiliation of a botched conversation or a forgotten vocabulary word, she encourages them to persevere. But she also recognizes their frustrations.

“My dad came from India and my in-laws came from Argentina. None of them spoke English. So I let them know: I understand how hard it is,” she says.

Two days a week, from 10 a.m. to noon, Ana volunteers with Puente, teaching ESL to mostly mothers who want to get better at speaking English so they can better connect with their children’s teachers, improve job skills, engage in the larger community, and help their families thrive.

“It’s not just about learning for fun – it’s a necessity. ‘How do I go to the grocery store and ask for a product? How do I talk to my son’s teacher?’ It’s important for them to learn this so they won’t be disenfranchised.”

Ana teaches one of four classes in Puente’s ESL program. The other three occur at night and tend to draw farm workers, who are mostly men. The program has nearly 100 students.

Some of Ana’s students have been with her since she started teaching at Puente four years ago. It’s a lighthearted class, with plenty of laughter and joking. But they also discuss serious matters in their children’s lives, like how to handle schoolyard bullies or bad grades. Ana is a mother too, so that’s another point of commonality.

Mike and Ana Polacek

Mike and Ana Polacek

Ana and her husband Mike live on a hobby farm just outside Pescadero’s main drag, in a house they worked on patiently for years and built from the ground up. The same attitude applies to their work in the community. Ana has teaching credentials in social studies and math, and has taught ESL in countries as diverse as Spain and Japan. She could teach anywhere, but she chooses to invest herself in Pescadero. She and Mike also support Puente throughout the year with funds to help locals buy school supplies, Christmas gifts, and warm clothing for local farm workers.

“There are so many worthy organizations to donate to. We choose to donate locally. Why not help our immediate community?” she says.

Mike Polacek agrees. The couple became aware of Puente at a local house party four years ago, which was hosted by a friend. After that, Ana began working with Puente, while Mike joined the board of PMAC, the Pescadero Municipal Advisory Council, which works with the county to solve problems affecting the area and its residents.

Mike is PMAC president this year. With years of experience in the tech sector and the financial services industry, he joined the board to help improve the strained relationship between PMAC and the county. He can, and does, go “toe to toe” with officials who sometimes overlook his rural area. He took on the issue of flooding in town – a seemingly intractable problem, but one where Pescadero has made some progress in the past three years.

“Making a little bit of a dent in a big problem may seem silly, but it does make a difference. You can’t solve everything, but you can solve something,” he explains.

Here in town, Mike has seen people help keep each other’s tractors going, or rush to donate food and clothing to neighbors who lost everything in a fire. At one point, two Spanish-speaking farm workers helped Mike and his wife pull their car out of a ditch.

It’s the same with Puente, he adds. “Puente really fills a huge gap that people need. It’s always nice to be able to see results, to see people helping each other. Today you write a check to a big organization and you never know where it goes.”

Ana’s favorite moments come from seeing her students go out into the world and get things done without fear or embarrassment. “One student told me she was translating for her husband at a DMV appointment. It gave her confidence. She said she knew it wasn’t perfect, but she did it.” Other ESL students can now understand their children’s homework and text messages. They’re connecting with their families in new ways.

In the next couple of years, Ana will transition out of her role at Puente and into a new position at Pescadero Middle and High School: substitute teacher. But she and Mike will maintain their ties to Puente, and encourage others to volunteer or donate as they can. “He thinks it’s just as important as I do that we spend time to make our community better,” she says.