{"id":19286,"date":"2023-08-05T09:29:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T16:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=19286"},"modified":"2023-08-05T09:29:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T16:29:23","slug":"half-moon-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/half-moon-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Haunted by mass shootings in Half Moon Bay, Chinese farmworkers seek a way back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Mourners attend a memorial organized by the city immediately after the mass shooting. City officials say Chinese farmworkers did not attend out of fear of backlash, given the identity of the shooter and ongoing attacks against the AAPI community. (Manuel Ortiz Escamez\/Peninsula 360 Press via Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Peter Schurmann, Video and Photos by Manuel Ortiz.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Half Moon Bay, CA \u2013 Mr. Huang lives in a modest one-bedroom apartment off Highway 1, just a few miles from the town of Half Moon Bay. Originally from Hong Kong, he stands at the front door to welcome the group of support providers arriving for one of their regular visits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before January, Huang and a handful of other Chinese farmworkers here were so invisible that few in this otherwise close-knit coastal community even knew they existed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are like goldfish in a fish tank,\u201d said Mr. Huang \u2013 asking that only his last name be used \u2013 speaking in Cantonese through a translator. \u201cWe swim around and around, with no connection to the outside.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Huang has lived and worked in Half Moon Bay for nearly two decades. He is part of a small group of Chinese farmworkers directly affected by the mass shooting on January 23, 2023, that claimed seven lives. All of the survivors of that day say they are still struggling in the aftermath of the tragedy. (Manuel Ortiz Escamez\/Peninsula 360 Press via Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That near-total isolation was shattered on Jan. 23, when Chunli Zhao, 66, opened fire at California\u2019s Terra Garden, where Wang lived and still works, and at another farm, killing seven. The deaths came just days after another mass shooting in Southern California \u2014 the shooter in that case was also an older Asian man \u2014 and just after the Lunar New Year, a typical time of celebration and family gatherings.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than six months later, a half-dozen Chinese farmworkers affected by the shooting remain under a cloud of uncertainty about their long-term housing and employment. All say the images from that night continue to haunt them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of nightmares,\u201d says Mr. Liu, 65, sitting next to his wife in a rental townhouse a few miles outside the city. They both lived and still work at Concord Farms, the second of two farms hit that night, and were there the night of the shooting. \u201cI wake up at night and I\u2019m very alert.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The couple, originally from China\u2019s Shaanxi province, first came to the Half Moon Bay farm in 2006. They heard about the job through an advertisement in a local Chinese newspaper while staying with a relative. \u201cThe owners of both farms involved in the shooting are Chinese-American.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms Liu says that when they first arrived at the farm, she was concerned about the housing conditions and low wages, but adds that they were grateful to have a job and a roof over their heads. \u201cThe place was damp and humid, with mould. I was worried about my husband\u2019s health.\u201d But she adds: \u201cBeing here in the US is much better for us. We can earn money and support our relatives in China.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The five Chinese farmworkers interviewed for this story say they returned to work almost immediately after the shooting, largely out of financial necessity. But according to Mr. Liu, those hours after work, sitting in his new temporary home with nothing to distract him, are the hardest. \u201cI still see their faces,\u201d he says of those he spent years working with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Five of the seven victims killed that night were Chinese, most of them elderly like the Lius. Contact with relatives has been sporadic, with few or no details available about who the victims were, meaning their deaths, like the lives they led on the farm, remain in the dark.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those killed was Jingzhi Lu, 64. The meals she prepared on the farm provided a nightly point of contact between the mostly Latino farmworkers and the small group of Chinese, according to Enrique Baz\u00e1n of the nonprofit Helping Latinos Dream<\/a> \u2012WINGS\u2012. \u201cMama Lu, they called her,\u201d says Baz\u00e1n, referring to the group of children aged 4 to 6 who participate in a weekly group therapy session organised by WINGS. They still ask about her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Half Moon Bay Community Services Analyst Julissa Acosta (left) and Community and Economic Vitality Officer Karen Decker have worked closely with the shooting survivors, aided in large part by San Francisco-based nonprofits Chinese for Affirmative Action, Self Help for the Elderly and Chinatown Youth Council, which were vital in breaking the isolation surrounding the city\u2019s handful of Chinese farmworkers. (Manuel Ortiz Escamez\/Peninsula 360 Press via Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Karen Decker is Half Moon Bay\u2019s community and economic vitality manager. She says that in the days after the shooting, Chinese farmworkers were hesitant to approach or participate in a memorial organized by the city. \u201cThey were afraid of backlash,\u201d she notes, pointing to the suspect\u2019s ethnicity and the ongoing wave of attacks against Asian Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Connecting the group with support services also proved daunting in the immediate aftermath, adds Decker, who is biracial and herself a member of the Asian Pacific Islander community. City officials quickly turned to a handful of nonprofits in nearby San Francisco, including Chinese for Affirmative Action<\/a>, Self Help for the Elderly<\/a> and Chinatown Community Youth Center<\/a>, whose efforts were key to establishing an open line of communication and trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, Decker says, the toll of the shooting on survivors has deepened over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs the days turn into weeks and months, I see struggles in some of our survivors as to how they can cope with a tragedy like this,\u201d she explains. \u201cBecause after the funeral, after the bodies have been repatriated to their home countries, after the media has left, that\u2019s when it really starts to set in\u2026 There\u2019s no going back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
A makeshift memorial takes shape in Half Moon Bay\u2019s central plaza in honor of the victims of the Jan. 23 mass shooting. Karen Decker, the city\u2019s community and economic vitality officer, reflected on the events: \u201cAfter the funeral, after the bodies were repatriated to their home countries, after the media left, that\u2019s when it really starts to sink in\u2026 There\u2019s no turning back.\u201d (Manuel Ortiz Escamez\/Peninsula 360 Press via Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both farms were recently fined for federal health and safety violations, fueling anxiety among survivors that the farms could close and leave them unemployed and potentially homeless.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 40 households affected by the shooting, which remains an open investigation, were initially housed at a local hotel and then placed in individual Airbnb units before moving into temporary rentals paid for by San Mateo County until early next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plans are underway to build more permanent housing for older farmworkers, though in the Bay Area's notoriously expensive housing market, it will be difficult to do so quickly and at a low cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gov. Newsom\u2019s office announced in June that it would provide $16 million to support homeownership for farmworkers in the state, including $5 million set aside for survivors of the Half Moon Bay shooting. But that\u2019s still a drop in the bucket in an area where median home prices are approaching $2 million.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a housing emergency,\u201d says Half Moon Bay City Manager Matthew Chidester. \u201cThere are just no places for these people to live. We\u2019re taking advantage of state money and land \u2026 and we\u2019re trying to do this rapid development to build a nice community for them to live in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, this small group of Chinese farm workers, including the shooter's spouse, must ponder an uncertain future in this idyllic coastal town that they all say they cherish, despite the isolation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful,\u201d agrees Mr. Huang, who has worked here on the farm for nearly two decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00abHe then recalls the first time he met another Chinese speaker at a local coffee shop \u2013 Mr Huang describes himself as a coffee lover \u2013. \u00abI was so happy,\u00bb he says, \u00abjust to be able to talk to someone.\u00bb\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the first in a series of reports from EMS<\/a> and Peninsula 360 Press<\/a> examining the long-term impacts of the January 23 mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, in partnership with the Vincent Chin Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You may be interested in:<\/strong> Migrants live inhumane situations in their struggle to seek the "American dream"<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Peter Schurmann, Video y Fotos por Manuel Ortiz. Half Moon Bay, CA. – El Sr. Huang vive en un apartamento modesto de una habitaci\u00f3n junto a la autopista 1, a unas pocas millas de la ciudad de Half Moon Bay. Originario de Hong Kong, se para en la puerta principal para dar la bienvenida […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,8,118],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cover","8":"category-usworld","9":"category-migracion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19292,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19286\/revisions\/19292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}