This piece is more timely than intended. Scheduled for a few days before Corazon Healdsburg’s Saturday, Aug. 10, fundraising gala at Bacchus Landing, it’s now a week after the success of a vineyard workers’ protest in Healdsburg on July 28.
That march, organized by the Santa Rosa-based North Bay Jobs With Justice, rallied 600 farmworkers and their supporters around demands for hazard pay, disaster wage insurance and a base wage of $250 per ton of grapes harvested.
For context, while market price varies per year per varietal, that is equal to or less than a 10th of the price of a ton of grapes. Jobs With Justice promises additional protests and strikes as the fall grape harvest looms. Separate from and kindred to Jobs With Justice, its partner, Corazón Healdsburg, exists to protect the basic rights of farm workers and uplift their families with wraparound work, housing, food, health, legal and education services. I spoke recently with Marcy Flores, director of Corazon Healdsburg.
CH: Marcy, tell us about the people that you serve.
MF: We support communities that live and work in the areas of Windsor, Healdsburg, Geyserville and Cloverdale. Predominantly monolingual Spanish speakers. Farmworkers, restaurant workers, hotel workers, stay-at-home mothers and children in our public schools.
CH: That sounds like the very economic basis of the tourist wine industry centered in Healdsburg. I understand that these families are typically of mixed legal status—some are citizens, some DACA recipients, some undocumented. My understanding is that Corazon largely operates as a trusted confidential middleman for people uncertain of their rights or unable to protect them for fear of retribution. Is that correct?
MF: Yes, definitely. And fear plays a big role. Whether it is in seeking safe employment conditions or owed wages, renter’s rights or food assistance, people are afraid to ask for what they deserve. There was a lot of fear during disasters like the fires and Covid, when families badly needed help and were afraid to ask for it.
CH: I understand that to provide holistic care, you enlist or refer to a great many organizational partners.
MF: Yes, too many to count! Last year, just in our academic services department, we had over 60 partners. At the end of the day, it’s all about the community we make.
