Amid a disastrous flood, interpreters are a lifeline for Indigenous farmworkers
WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Inside an evacuation center at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Maria Adolfo-Morales and a disaster service volunteer listened to a woman describe her concerns in the Mixteco language.
The woman and her three children had been staying at the center for a week, after a broken levee flooded the farming town of Pajaro and forced residents to flee.
Adolfo-Morales, a 22-year-old community health care worker, interpreted what the woman said into English, then rendered the volunteer’s responses into Mixteco, one of several Indigenous languages spoken in southern Mexico.
The woman’s inquiries echoed those of other displaced residents: How do I apply for food assistance? How do I apply for financial assistance?
Many of Pajaro’s agricultural workers are Mixteco speakers who are not fluent in English or Spanish. Adolfo-Morales and other interpreters have been a lifeline for them as they figure out how to survive after losing their homes and
