JOH KING HAD LIVED in Santa Cruz, California, for 20 years when her below-market-rate lease ended during the COVID-19 pandemic and her landlord took the home off the rental market. Between the effects of tech-related gentrification, the pandemic and the CZU Lightning Complex fires, King couldn’t find housing. Eventually, two friends in the beach town of Ensenada, Baja California, suggested that she come stay with them. They helped her find and rent a small guesthouse decorated with Italian tile. “I never anticipated being as happy as I am here,” she said.
Not long after, Elizabeth Bonilla, originally from the state of Sonsonate, El Salvador, also arrived in Ensenada. Bonilla had to grow up fast: She took over her family’s household duties when she was 8, after her mother was diagnosed with a life-threatening kidney illness at a time when
