When Molly Wolfes met Angel Martinez for the first time, she had no idea what a crucial role he would end up playing in his community. He walked into Puente one day in January with his brother-in-law, who had a toothache. He’d heard Puente could help with with that.

The front desk directed both men to Wolfes, Puente’s Community Health Coordinator, who made arrangements for the brother-in-law to be put on a list for a dental program serving farmworkers. She gave them a tour of Puente’s county-funded health clinic and the rest of the Puente facilities while she asked about the men: she’d never seen them before. She found out that they were viticulture workers living and working for a winery high in the hills surrounding La Honda, some 45 minutes away from Pescadero.

Angel Martinez stayed quiet during the tour. He asked about how to get signed up for free county health care, and Wolfes told him all he needed to bring in was his ID, proof of residence in the county and a recent pay stub. But she wasn’t sure if she would see him again.

“Angel showed up two weeks later. He brought two guys with him and he said, ‘I need health insurance, and so do they,’” she recalls. They all had  the necessary documents needed to apply. Wolfes signed them up on the spot. Usually an appointment is required, but because they had taken time off work and traveled so far she did not want to send them away.

And that was just the beginning. After enrolling in health insurance that same day, Angel signed up for his new patient physical a couple weeks later. The date was January 17 — he can still remember it. Incredibly, the brawny 43-year-old had never had a real health problem or needed to see a doctor that he knew of. Following the normal procedure of the clinic for a new patient, he got all his blood tests, and quickly followed up with checkups at the dentist and the eye doctor.

Martinez quickly became a great resource for Wolfes and his fellow companions and colleagues. He volunteered to be the main cell phone contact between Puente and the men he works with, helping them stay in touch with the medical clinic and making sure his co-workers got their medications on time. Using his own car, he also drove the men to medical appointments and pharmacies to pick up their prescriptions when needed.

“I told the guys I work with, this is a really good opportunity. You don’t always know what’s going on with your body. I told them, and a couple others have come to sign up,” says Martinez.

But why would a healthy man like Martinez expend such an effort, Wolfes wondered?

“There’s some sort of motivational spark in him… He’s one those people that I know I can count on. He’s always very responsive, and that’s hard for a lot of people here with long working hours and limited cell phone service,” says Wolfes. “It surprised me that he was motivated for other people too, helping them get their health insurance.”

Martinez smiles, exposing even white teeth as strong as his grip. “In all the time I’ve been in the U.S., I’ve never had health insurance. Not in Mexico either.” He’d never understood how it worked. It was just something other people had. All those debates about Obamacare were just noise to him. And anyway, why worry about a checkup when there was nothing wrong?

His perspective changed when he lost three older brothers in quick succession at the ages of 46, 52 and 53. They died of terrible diseases: liver cancer, pancreatic cancer and advanced diabetes.

Martinez was from a family of 10. Now there’s only 7.

“They had never seen a doctor in their lives. They only visited a doctor once they got sick,” he says. “It might have helped if they had seen a doctor sooner. Maybe something could have been prevented.”

Martinez came to the U.S. at 17 and found work as a cook in a Texas restaurant. He took high school classes on the side. That job lasted 20 years, after which he moved to Oregon to work in viticulture. He has been on the South Coast for two years and he has a wife and child in Mexico, whom he supports with a monthly remittance.

Martinez says that in Mexico, a simple doctor’s visit typically costs $150 (in U.S. dollars). Medications can cost twice as much. For someone coming from a rural town like his, a doctor’s visit can break the bank in travel expenses alone. And although Mexico has a “Seguro Social” that provides every worker access to health services, Martinez says that the reality is that when a patient has a life-threatening illness, the whole family bears the burden of scraping together the money to pay for treatment.

There’s a lot of reasons for someone to avoid the doctor’s office unless it becomes imperative. So it gives Martinez a lot of pride to be able to pay for his wife and child to see a doctor whenever they need to.

When Martinez heard he was entitled to free medical treatment through the San Mateo County ACE Program, he didn’t hesitate. He takes a medication now to address his high blood pressure, which is also free. Martinez also has new glasses — black frames that he wears when he works.

But he hasn’t stopped there. He’s eating differently now than used to. And he’s making sure that when it’s his turn to cook dinner for the men he lives with, he includes a lot of vegetables. “Squash, carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, garlic,” he says. “Things that have vitamins. That will help us stay healthier.”

A lot of the guys didn’t like it at first, he admits with a smile. “They like to eat a lot of red meat. They like to drink soda.”

“I used to be a cook,” Martinez adds. “It’s not only sugar that’s bad for you, it’s the stuff they give animals to make them grow faster. There’s a lot of things in the world that are changing. Before, there weren’t so many illnesses. We have to pay more attention to what we eat and drink.”

Wolfes wonders about asking Martinez to join Puente’s team of promotoras, who help educate isolated local residents about their health and connect them with some form of insurance. Puente is in the process of hiring 3 promotoras to join its existing team and is still looking for two more. The promotoras have already reached out to 660 people in the community since August 2015.

“I think Angel has that natural leader in him. Other people tend to follow him and he’s taken on that responsibility to help others take care of their health. And now, knowing his story, the motivation to do so makes more sense,” Wolfes says.

Martinez says he’ll continue to advocate for his colleagues to visit the doctor. Some of the men he lives with now, he says, “are young. They think nothing will ever happen to them.”

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It’s interesting to wonder what a stranger would think if he walked into Cafecito, Puente’s monthly language exchange for adults learning English and the volunteers who converse with them.

He or she would see immigrants, mostly from Mexico, sitting at long tables, engaged in conversation — and a lot of laughter — with native English speakers. The Spanish speakers and the English speakers might not totally understand each other, but they’re trying. Because language is a bridge between cultures, a bridge that creates fellowship and connection between strangers.

What our outsider would see is a roomful of people working hard to learn English, even if they embarrass themselves in the process. Their interlocutors sometimes do not speak their language at all, meaning people who are fluent in Spanish and people who are fluent in English must find a way to communicate. It’s a humbling experience, and ultimately, a special one.

“Bigger things are happening here than learning English. I think it’s making this town a more integrated place,” says Puente Adult Education Coordinator Charlea Binford, who manages Cafecito as part of Puente’s ESL program. “We’re creating friendships in this community, creating less fear among people who do not look alike and do not speak the same language.”

Eighteen years ago, the Rev. Wendy Taylor founded Puente to address the needs of single male farm workers who lived in and around Pescadero but were essentially strangers to the townsfolk because of a language barrier. They kept to themselves — until Rev. Taylor began to converse with them.

More than perhaps any other program in the history of Puente, Cafecito evokes those early conversations on the steps of the Pescadero Community Church.

But it’s not without awkwardness. At the Cafecito on February 25th, Tammy Bloom and Floriberto Gomes settled in for a fifteen minute conversation that started and ended with a firm handshake, and with some moments of hesitation and laughter in between. Around them, thirty other volunteers sat with thirty adult students in similar dyads inside the multi-purpose room at Pescadero Elementary. The students are in all three levels of Puente ESL, from beginner to advanced. Floriberto Gomes is in Level II.

“English very difficult for me,” Gomes confessed.

“I took a Spanish class last year and it was really hard. You’re doing really well,” Bloom reassured him.

“I try. I’m very nervous,” he said.

“Me too!” Laughed Bloom.

Gomes spends his days in a greenhouse cutting flowers. Bloom is an attorney who owns a small farm. They would be unlikely to cross paths in town. They were sitting at the “Food” table, one of several suggested conversational themes (like “Hobbies,” “Family” and “Celebrations.”) Bloom fingered a glossy pile of food photos on the table, provided as conversation starters. “What’s your favorite food?” She asked.

It emerged they both loved avocados. Bloom told Gomes about her avocado tree, and he told her that his young son’s favorite foods are bananas and Chinese food, which made her laugh. After a few more minutes of rapid-fire questions with brief answers, Binford called out, “Time to switch!”

Bloom and Gomes shook hands, and Gomes stood up and moved across the room to a new conversation partner, speed-dating style. Bloom smiled and reflected on the experience.

“It’s always hard. I couldn’t hold a conversation in Spanish to save my soul,” she said. At her farm, Bloom has hired Spanish-speaking men, and she has found it awkward not sharing a common language. “After a while you run out of things to say.”

And that’s why she feels Cafecito is a hugely important investment of her energy as a volunteer. Last year she even gave a live cooking demonstration to the language students. She made a salad, narrating everything as she went along, from ingredients like “lettuce” to “knife” and “cutting board.” They loved it.

“It’s wonderful to connect with the people in my community who speak a different language,” she said. “We have different paths.”

Puente’s Cafecito tradition — named after a coffee drink shared between friends — started last June. Binford and Puente Executive Director Rita Mancera held a retreat with some of Puente’s most accomplished ESL students and asked them for ideas on how to improve the program.

“They all said they wanted to have more conversation. They wanted to talk without being interrupted,” recalls Binford. That seeded the idea of a language exchange, albeit a one-sided one. Recruiting volunteers from the community as conversation partners was an essential part of the vision. Together, student and volunteer form the bridge from which Puente takes its name.

For that first Cafecito, Binford asked volunteers to bring in an object to talk about. She also borrowed sports equipment and picked up some menus from restaurants around town — anything to prompt a conversation. Everyone was nervous about the format. Would it work? Would people find anything to say to each other?

But everyone had fun. The ESL students found it valuable, and the event’s reputation continued to grow. Puente also caters a simple dinner, so students and volunteers can eat together and continue their conversations.

To volunteer as a Cafecito conversation partner, contact Abby Mohaupt at (650) 879-1691 Ext 114 or AMohaupt@mypuente.org. Puente could use your help… whether you are monolingual or bilingual!

Often, these conversations spur surprising new connections that last beyond class. Which is exactly what Binford feels the community needs.

“It’s our goal for our students to master their English, but the results have been much greater than that. This last Cafecito, I saw one of the volunteers ask a student whether they needed extra work. And another volunteer and student asked me whether there could be language partners outside class,” she says.

At Cafecito in February, Sharon Degener, a tax manager, and Chuy Deharo, a maintenance worker, made a nice connection over the fact that they both have a 17-year-old child. Deharo told Degener about the pig he planned to cook for his daughter’s birthday, often lapsing into Spanish since his English wasn’t as good as Gomes’. But that was fine, because Degener is bilingual.

“My parents immigrated from Mexico too. They were 19. That’s why I’m here. I know how hard this is,” she told him, and he smiled.

For more information about Cafecito contact Charana Binford at (650) 879-1691 Ext 321 or cbinford@mypuente.org.

El miércoles pasado cuando ya me iba, me asome a nuestra área de niños. Una pequeña niña del 2do grado en la escuela primaria de pescadero estaba leyendo. Tan sólo eso, me provocó una sonrisa. Le pregunté acerca de su lectura. Hablamos poco, para que ella pudiera seguir leyendo. Ella estaba tan segura de sí misma y tan tierna al mismo tiempo que le hice más preguntas. Nuestro diálogo fue más o menos así.

Rita: ¿Ya pensaste que quieres ser cuando crezcas?

Niña inteligente: Yo quiero ayudar a mi mama, entonces voy a ser una doctora.

Rita: ¿Que tipo de doctora?

Niña inteligente: De las que te dan medicina

Rita: ¿Vas a estudiar muy duro en la escuela?

Niña inteligente: Si

Rita: ¿Cual es tu materia favorita en la escuela?

Niña inteligente: Matemáticas

Con cada respuesta, ella sonreía. Yo la conozco. Conozco a su familia, y en ese momento, sin decirle, hice el compromiso de trabajar más duro promoviendo la misión de Puente para que su sueño se haga realidad. Para que su mama (que trabaja en un rancho de la zona), sus hermanos, Puente, sus maestros, y tú, lector, la ayudemos a que se pueda ser la doctora que ella sueña ser.

Ya quiero que tenga 14 anos para que participe en el programa de desarrollo de liderazgo y empleo de Puente donde podrá explorar carreras, añadir experiencia a su historial profesional e ir a paseos que le van a enriquecer la vida.

Este verano, Puente recibirá entre 30 y 40 jóvenes en su verano numero 10! Un equipo de Puente, voluntarios y otros aliados van a proveer un programa para que los jóvenes ganen créditos por experiencia de trabajo, preparen un historial profesional y una carta de presentación, participen en entrevistas de trabajo, tengan un empleo, exploren carreras, aumenten su autoestima, desarrollen habilidades de trabajo en equipo y mucho, mucho mas.

Debido al cambio de fondos federales de gobierno a fondos privados para costear este programa, todavía necesitamos ayuda para el verano 2016. 126 jóvenes han sido parte de este programa y como la niña de arriba, ellos una vez sonaron con ser ingenieros, trabajadores sociales, abogados, licenciados en matemáticas y muchas otras carreas. Muchos de ellos ya han logrado su sueño y otros más están yendo al colegio ahora.

Conforme nos preparamos para el verano, te invitamos a poyar a los niños y jóvenes de las comunidades rurales de Pescadero, La Honda, Loma Mar y San Gregorio.

Dona ahora para que podamos proveer a los jóvenes con una experiencia que va a traer mejores oportunidades para que tengan un futuro mejor, mejores salarios y mejor vida.