How far I am from the land where I was born!
Immense nostalgia invades my thoughts
Seeing myself so alone and sad like a leaf in the wind
I would like to cry, I would like to die of feeling
Oh Land of the Sun! I long to see you
Now that I live far away without light, without love
And seeing myself so alone and sad like a leaf in the wind
I would like to cry, I would like to die of feeling
?Mixtec Song (1915), José López Alavez, Oaxacan composer
In the midst of pain, memory and desolation, the flame of candles and hearts light the way waiting for a better future. This is how dozens of Half Moon Bay residents, leaders and officials gathered Tuesday night to remember seven farm workers who are no longer in the community, after their lives were taken by one of their colleagues on the 23rd. January 2023.
The date is marked, already one year exactly after the tragedy that forever marked the coastal town of Half Moon Bay, the non-profit organization ALAS held a vigil to commemorate not the death, but the lives of these seven workers who, above all, Everything, they were friends, family, and a pillar to bring food to the tables of thousands when it was needed most.
Everyone arrived on time for the appointment, in the background you can hear a mariachi playing the tone for the ceremony that Helping Latinos to Dream (ALAS), together with the support of the Latino Community Foundation, performed in an emotional way and in which acquaintances of the victims spoke about the ties woven and the memories that remain alive.
The mayor of the city, JoaquÃn Jiménez, attended the event; Sao Leng U, Self-Help for the Elderly worker; the director of ALAS, Belinda Hernández Arriaga, who led the event; and farmers from the Latin community, mostly Mexican, but also Chinese.
The event closed with the unveiling of a piece of art called "Peasant's Heart", by Mexican artist Fernando Escartiz, a work that shows a heart with roots that symbolize the birthplace of peasants, in this case Mexico and China. The heart has wings that symbolize migration, and all of them are crowned with a flame of fire that reflects the passion with which the peasants dedicate themselves to the land; In the center of the heart, there is a vase so that a fresh flower can always be kept as an invitation to remember what happened and prevent an act as terrible as that from being repeated.
The heart, which emulates the ?little miracles? Mexicans, will be permanently at the entrance to the ALAS offices.
Food was not lacking, somehow, it always unites, gives and fills the soul. Tamalitos for everyone, from the classic ones with pork, to those for vegetarians, with spinach. Traditional sweet bread shells and delicious rice atole that, in the cold, warmed the soul.
No one was left out, the entire event was translated simultaneously into Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, because if something brought down that tragedy, it was the linguistic barriers.
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