A Community United
In March 2023, devastating floods impacted the Pajaro Community in Monterey County, California, home to Casa de la Cultura Center, a non-profit founded by Sister Rosa Dolores Rodriguez, SNDdeN. More than 250 community residents gathered a year later to celebrate their resilience. The event, hosted by the Pajaro Disaster Long-Term Recovery Alliance, was attended by community leaders and residents standing together to demand financial assistance from the local government.
The celebration included music, food, photo galleries of the flooding and cleanup, a performance from the Watsonville Indigenous dance group Kalpulli Ehecacoatl, and plenty of praise for Sister Rosa Dolores and Sister Theresa Linehan’s efforts to unite the community and provide emergency assistance to those impacted.
Casa de la Cultura Center is a heart that beats for the farm working community. It is a respite for the sick, a pantry for the hungry, and a haven to empower the weary.
But that heart, a critical life-sustaining part of the Pajaro community, is feeling the stress of unprecedented flooding and relentless storms that have pounded California for months.
The most recent onslaught of severe weather put the Watsonville and Salinas Valleys, what’s known as the U.S. “salad bowl” underwater. And now, the clients of Casa de la Cultura Center, who are the migrant workers that grow and harvest over 50% of our country’s berries, lettuce, strawberries, celery, artichokes, broccoli and grapes, are suffering.
Their homes and livelihoods have been destroyed. Homes are full of mud and mold and over 300 have been declared uninhabitable.
Casa de la Cultura Center is there to help!
Started in 1989 by Sister Rosa Dolores Rodriguez, SNDdeN, is the only nonprofit in the area specializing in comprehensive services for hundreds of families who migrate through the valleys and ensure our fresh food supply.
The Center is an independent nonprofit organization with a variety of programs and services for the community. The vision of Casa de la Cultura Center is to promote culturally sensitive health activities and support the basic economic needs of our community by working collaboratively with all residents and organizations in the Pajaro area.
Sister Rosa Dolores and Sister Theresa Linehan, SNDdeN, are working to provide emergency assistance to families struggling with catastrophic conditions. Over 25 families are living in temporary shelters in local motels and getting fresh food and water. In addition, the Center is providing rental assistance to lose who have lost work. Sister Rosa Dolores is organizing block captains among the residents to identify all immediate- to long-term needs.
- Sister Rosa Dolores, Executive Director
Donate today and your contribution will go directly to the Center and the areas of most need.