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HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — More than two dozen farmworkers from around Half Moon Bay gathered Tuesday evening for a community event highlighting ways to stay safe around downed power lines and other electrical hazards. Speakers also offered information on California’s newly expanded Medi-Cal system.
Organized by Ethnic Media Services and Peninsula 360 Press, the event was aimed at addressing the need for more and better access to critical information about safety and health care for the farmworker community.
Mayor Joaquin Jiménez, Half Moon Bay’s first-ever Latino mayor and a longtime advocate for the city’s farmworkers, opened the event, noting the many challenges they face.
Describing the conditions they work under as a form of “modern day slavery,” Jiménez said farmworkers are all too often at the mercy of employers who they depend on for everything from wages to housing, food and healthcare.
Increased access to information in their own language is a key piece in helping to improve conditions, he said.
A majority of farmworkers in Half Moon Bay, a small coastal community about 40 miles south of San Francisco, are either from Mexico or Central America and speak Spanish as their primary language. There is also a small group of Chinese farmworkers whose presence went almost completely unnoticed until a tragic shooting last year that claimed the lives of seven people, five of them Chinese.
Tuesday’s event was a rare opportunity to bring the two communities together to share information and to celebrate their contributions to the city and county.
Held inside Half Moon Bay’s impressive public library, speakers included retired PG&E lineman Felix Morales, who wowed the gathering with an electrified model made to look like Main Street Half Moon Bay. Morales demonstrated the risks when someone inadvertently comes into contact with an electrical line or other power source and offered tips on how to stay safe.
Grabbing a small twig, Morales showed how even a newly fallen branch or tree can become “grounded” as a white-hot bolt of electricity leaped from the wires into the twig. He also spoke about the need for caution when digging to avoid buried power lines, and to watch out for overhead wires when laying irrigation pipes and other farm equipment.
Residents are urged to dial 811 for any digging projects for safe excavation. Customers should contact PG&E and 911 if they encounter any downed power lines or other electric hazards.
It’s estimated that across the country up to 4,000 people suffer from electrical injuries every year. With the winter storm season still in full swing here in California, farmworkers face added risks given the threat of falling trees and damaged power lines.
A second workshop on health care featured Rommel Silva, an outreach supervisor with San Mateo County’s Department of Human Services who spoke about California’s newly expanded Medi-Cal system, which starting on Jan. 1 of this year has become available to all eligible residents regardless of immigration status.
The expansion, part of California’s Health Care for All initiative, makes Medi-Cal (the state’s version of the federally funded Medicaid program) available to all qualified residents – including undocumented immigrants – ages 26-49. Earlier expansions extended care to older adults and children.
Included in the expansion is a dramatic widening of the healthcare services on offer through what’s known as Full Scope Medi-Cal, which includes medical, dental, vision and mental health treatments, alongside a range of other services aimed at addressing the broader health care needs of low-income Californians.
Past studies have found that dental care and mental health treatments are among the top priorities for undocumented farmworkers in California, which this year became the first state in the nation to make federally subsidized healthcare available to all eligible undocumented immigrants.
Representatives from community-based organizations including Self Help for the Elderly, Casa Circulo in Redwood City and Chinese for Affirmative Action were also on hand Tuesday. Tables with information on healthcare and other services was also made available.
The event was sponsored by PG&E and closed with a lion dance in celebration of the Lunar New Year and in recognition of the Chinese farm working community followed by a traditional dance troupe from Guatemala. Attendees were then treated to a meal of Mexican and Chinese food and were invited to take a closer look – still at a safe distance – at Morales’ model.
