Pescadero organization gets grant for work with farm laborers
By MATT KAPKO
Half Moon Bay Review
September 29, 2004

It's an ill wind blowing Mexicans north of the border.

Most Mexican workers earn wages insufficient to support the basic necessities of life. Although the North American Free Trade Agreement promised better days for the average Mexican, a decade of privatizing state-owned national resources has pushed an already turbulent economy into a downward spiral.

At least 70 percent of Mexican laborers earn less than $5 a day, and Wendy Taylor knows all too well that such hard economics will bring more men to her doorstep.

Taylor is the executive director of Puente de la Costa Sur, a non-profit organization in Pescadero that reaches out to farm laborers working and living on the South Coast. Most are Mexican men with families back home depending on whatever wages they can send.

Last night Puente de la Costa Sur received a $20,000 award from the San Francisco Foundation. The announcement will allow Taylor to continue many programs.

The organization's mission, among others, is to "ease the adjustment to life in this country," and foster relationships that create a sense of community.

"They spent nearly $2,000 to get here and they're on a thin thread when they get to Pescadero," Taylor said. "If any one of our families were in the same position we'd be horrified. I don't think we'd know what to do."

At least 500 to 600 Mexican laborers utilize the resources made available by Puente de la Costa Sur, she said.

The organization provides each new arrival with a welcome bag, which includes a blanket, food, a phone card to call home and a list of resources available to them up and down the coast.

"Essentially, our program is about welcoming the stranger," Taylor said. "We tell each other our stories. It's like having a family away from home."

She estimates that a dozen welcome bags are given out each week.

The organization, which was founded in 1998, also provides bicycles for transportation to and from farm fields and ranches dispersed throughout the South Coast.

Immersion tours are also available so the men can quickly get introduced to the ranches and other job sites when they arrive.