Kate Cimini

Lee este artículo en español. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, few industries have been quite as essential to the nation as agriculture. From pickers crouching for nine hours a day to scoop up strawberries to CEOs making handshake deals to keep their companies afloat, hundreds of thousands of workers are feeding America. But, in many ways, the […]

The Trump administration is considering cutting the pay of guest visa farmworkers during the coronavirus pandemic to help the farm industry. But California growers aren’t thrilled: They say it won’t help them much with their financial crisis. And they worry that it might even hurt them by creating uncertainty for their essential employees, prompting them […]

When Jesus Francisco Meza Uriarte and Dian Alejandro Bienazul Atondo step into the van that will take them to a spinach field in Salinas each morning, it stinks of bleach. The van’s been sanitized between rides to kill any lingering bits of the COVID-19 virus. They ride to work, sitting at least six feet apart, […]

The U.S.-Mexico border closed to nonessential travel last month to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. But the closure is cutting off many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from relatives — and home.  

Salinas farmworkers Juan Manuel Virgen and Daniel Lopez Aviles circled the field in a white pickup, a coworker behind the wheel. It was about 10 a.m., and the sun was starting to warm the air. All of them had tied bandannas neatly around their necks, tucking them into the front of their shirts.  “No hay […]

Tanya Harris and her three daughters struggle to breathe in the converted motel room in Salinas they now rent as a studio. Just large enough for a bunkbed and a desk, the room holds all four of them. Harris sleeps on a silver inflatable mattress on the floor. And doctors say the room is making […]

On the weekends, Salinas food truck owner Orlando Osornio, 30, and his wife, Denise, sell mile-high tortas, filled with California fusion-inspired ingredients: hot Cheetos, bacon, mango-habañero sauce, or pineapple. Some come for the birria torta or the chicken-bacon-alfredo torta. A line of customers winds its way around the side of his tent as meat sizzles […]

When Resi Salvador’s three little brothers walk through the door, they make a beeline for her, seated at a folding chair at her parents’ kitchen table. They snuggle into her arms. Resi laughs. She’s home. Just a few feet away in the living room stands a bunkbed, where Resi sleeps when she’s home. All told, […]

Every time Salinas third-grade teacher Maria Castellanoz gets a whiff of kerosene, it takes her right back to her childhood in a migrant labor camp. Her parents used to heat the house with the stuff, in a kerosene lamp. When it was cold, her father moved the lamp from room to room to keep his family warm. […]

Updated Jan. 10, 2020 Lee este artículo en español. In 2017, Susanna Cardenas-Lopez left her home in Salinas to visit her brother in Idaho. Three days into her trip, she called her husband and told him they needed to move there. Back in Salinas, Cardenas-Lopez and her husband were left out in the cold after their […]