"The Golden Rule doesn’t apply in the Golden State when it comes to protecting Latino and Indigenous farmworker communities from toxic pesticides."
"WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Esperanza was washing off the dirt and sweat from another grueling day in the strawberry fields when she felt a bump on her right breast. It reminded the 44-year-old mother of eight of the milk clumps that formed after she’d weaned her youngest. Except it didn’t go away.
Esperanza, who is undocumented and asked not to use her last name to protect her identity, knew she should seek medical care after hearing PSAs on Spanish-language TV, she said through a translator.
She comes from an Indigenous community in southern Mexico and speaks Mixteco, like a growing number of California farmworkers, and picked up Spanish by watching telenovelas. The local community clinic in Watsonville, a major agricultural hub 90 miles south of San Francisco, couldn’t take new patients and referred her to the county health clinic.
She waited months for a mammogram appointment. When her results were ready, the clinic asked her to come in. Her heart sank. It must be bad if they couldn’t share the results over the phone, she thought."
Liza Gross and Peter Aldhous report for Inside Climate News December 20, 2024.
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