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Speaker 1: I'm Lisaakazawa.

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Speaker 2: Join me on season two of Stars and Stars with Lisa,

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Speaker 2: where I sit down with some of the most exciting

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Speaker 2: stars of our time to find out what their birth

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Speaker 2: chart reveals about their life's purpose, their relationships, and their challenges.

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Speaker 2: Winner of the Signal Award for Most Inspirational Podcast, Stars

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Speaker 2: and Stars will help you make sense of today's complicated times.

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Speaker 2: Even if you're an astrology skeptic. You can listen to

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Speaker 2: Stars and Stars with Lisa wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 2: Don't forget to follow the show so you never miss

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Speaker 2: an episode.

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Speaker 3: On a Monday afternoon. In January twenty twenty three, a

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Speaker 3: man opened fire at a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay.

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Speaker 3: This kind of shooting is horrific. The farm was in

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Speaker 3: a small coastal town in California, about half an hour

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Speaker 3: south of San Francisco.

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Speaker 4: It's a tragedy that we hear about far too often,

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Speaker 4: but today is hit home here in San Minteo County.

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Speaker 3: The gunmen lived and worked at the farm California tra Garden.

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Speaker 5: San Mateo sheriff officials saying deputies were dispatched to a

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Speaker 5: location after a report of a shooting with multiple victims.

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Speaker 3: The shooter killed three of his coworkers and a supervisor.

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Speaker 3: Then he got in his car, drove two miles to

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Speaker 3: another farm where he had worked before, and opened fire again.

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Speaker 3: There he killed three more men. In the end, seven

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Speaker 3: people were murdered.

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Speaker 5: Authority sixty seven year old Half Moon Bay resident Chunlei

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Speaker 5: Joao the suspect found hours later in his car in

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Speaker 5: the parking lot of the Half.

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Speaker 3: Zaoas a Chinese farm worker, he allegedly had a dispute

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Speaker 3: with the supervisor and one of the coworkers he killed.

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Speaker 3: After his arrest, he spoke about being fed up with

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Speaker 3: conditions at the farm, including long working hours and mistreatment.

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Speaker 3: The seven people he killed were all immigrants, and he

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Speaker 3: also shot one more person who survived. His name is

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Speaker 3: Pedro Romero Es, an immigrant from Mexico. He took five bullets,

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Speaker 3: one in his hip, two in the stomach, one in

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Speaker 3: the elbow, and one in his face. The shooting not

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Speaker 3: only robbed Pedro of his peace of mind, it took

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Speaker 3: away the closest person he had in the US, his

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Speaker 3: older brother, Josepristal. Healing from his physical wounds was going

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Speaker 3: to be hard, but the path to his emotional recovery

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Speaker 3: would be just as complicated.

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Speaker 6: From Pudromidia. It's Latino USA. I'm Marieno. Today we head

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Speaker 6: down to Half Moon Bay, California to witness how an

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Speaker 6: unconventional music program is helping farm workers like Pedro in

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Speaker 6: order to process their trauma and heal. You just heard

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Speaker 6: from reporter Erica Hellerstein. She works for elting Bano, an

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Speaker 6: online newsroom covering the Bay areas Latino and Mayan immigrant communities.

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Speaker 6: Erica covered the aftermath of the mass shooting, and more

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Speaker 6: than a year after the mainstream media moved on, Erica

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Speaker 6: kept on returning to the story. She wrote about the grief,

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Speaker 6: the isolation, the pain, but as time went by, she

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Speaker 6: also started to see a beacon of hope of healing.

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Speaker 6: Today's story is a collaboration between Latino USA and elting Bano.

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Speaker 6: And now I'm going to hand the mic back to Erica.

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Speaker 6: Who's going to take us to when it all started,

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Speaker 6: the shooting in three.

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Speaker 3: When a tragedy like the one in Half Moon Bay happens,

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Speaker 3: there is a mad scramble of action, news cameras rolling

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Speaker 3: around the clock, reporters asking questions, politicians showing up to

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Speaker 3: make speeches for victims. It can mean long stretches in

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Speaker 3: the hospital, physical therapy, a focus on healing, and then

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Speaker 3: it all goes quiet. Victims are often left to sit

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Speaker 3: with what happened alone, and I think that's part of

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Speaker 3: why I kept coming back to this story. I thought

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Speaker 3: a lot about Pedro. He watched his big brother, his

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Speaker 3: protector and role model, get killed. I've lived through a

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Speaker 3: loss like Pedro's, and I kept wondering what it must

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Speaker 3: be like to grieve so far from his support network.

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Speaker 3: I also couldn't imagine how much more agonizing it was

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Speaker 3: for him to process his grief while knowing he was

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Speaker 3: the only one shot who survived all this while living

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Speaker 3: in a foreign country, far from every other family member

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Speaker 3: who could help take care of him when he couldn't

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Speaker 3: cross borders to visit them, and his family back home

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Speaker 3: was unable to come to him. In the summer of

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, more than a year after the shooting,

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Speaker 3: I spoke with Pedro. He misses his brother a lot.

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Speaker 4: He was trying to.

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Speaker 7: Or kiss.

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Speaker 3: He often asked himself, why did my brother have to go?

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Speaker 5: Not letting I'll.

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Speaker 8: See a lunchis, Pedro says, since the shooting, he often

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Speaker 8: doesn't sleep at night.

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Speaker 3: When that happens, he pulls this photo of him and

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Speaker 3: his brother out and just looks at it. It makes

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Speaker 3: him feel like his brother is still right there with him.

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Speaker 3: At the time of the shooting, Pedro was twenty three,

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Speaker 3: his brother, Jose was thirty eight. Pedro had only been

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Speaker 3: in the US for three years. They were inseparable, Simplosa lavaraquovi.

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Speaker 3: They worked together, they lived together, they did laundry, cooked

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Speaker 3: and ate together.

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Speaker 8: Pedro says, Jose made the best enchilavas.

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Speaker 3: They were a unit. Jose had a wife and four

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Speaker 3: children back home in Mexico. He was here working long,

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Speaker 3: hard hours in the sun in hopes they'd have a

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Speaker 3: better life. It's these thoughts of his brother that keep

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Speaker 3: Pedro up at night. But there's also the physical pain.

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Speaker 3: Is sometimes he feels a sharp, stabbing pain in his foot,

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Speaker 3: and while it's starting to get better, he isn't far

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Speaker 3: enough in his recovery to go back to work in

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Speaker 3: the fields. Pedro is eager to get back to it,

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Speaker 3: but there's something that's been bringing him joy lately.

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Speaker 9: Because nowadays, when Pedro's inundated with thoughts of the past.

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Speaker 3: When fear and regret start to take over his head,

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Speaker 3: he grabs his accordion, He practices his scales, and makes

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Speaker 3: lists of new songs to master. He's trying really hard

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Speaker 3: to learn. That's because Pedro is part of a music

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Speaker 3: program started by Alas, a local farm worker cultural nonprofit.

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Speaker 3: The program began as a response to the trauma of

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Speaker 3: the mass shooting at the farms, trauma that was exacerbated

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Speaker 3: by the terrible living and working conditions and loneliness that

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Speaker 3: many farm workers endure in this country, often without access

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Speaker 3: to mental health services and support. The shooting took place

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Speaker 3: in the middle of a work day, so many of

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Speaker 3: the people at the farm were there when it happened.

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Speaker 3: It was traumatic even for those who didn't take a bullet.

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Speaker 10: I think our initial response was a crisis response. We

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Speaker 10: know that trauma is ongoing, deep layered and profound.

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Speaker 3: Doctor Belinda Hernandez Ariaga is the executive director of Alas.

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Speaker 3: She's a licensed social worker who has worked for decades

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Speaker 3: in community mental health. She was looking for a way

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Speaker 3: for farm workers to have a therapeutic outlet that felt accessible.

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Speaker 10: What we're learning about mental health here Allahs is reconstructing

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Speaker 10: or creating mental health from the ground of not always

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Speaker 10: thinking about mental health from the standard of what's been

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Speaker 10: done in the past, but really thinking about farm work

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Speaker 10: or mental health.

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Speaker 3: The idea Belinda came up with to help the farm

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Speaker 3: workers was different from talk therapy and simpler and closer

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Speaker 3: to the heart. Therapy rooted in cultural practices.

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Speaker 10: The cultural medicine of art and music and spoken word

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Speaker 10: and song and relationship and eating that really builds into

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Speaker 10: creating like this kind of sacred circles of support and trust.

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Speaker 3: Alas started an accordion class with the express purpose of

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Speaker 3: helping impacted workers deal with their shared trauma.

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Speaker 11: We were able to have three folks that had been

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Speaker 11: part of the shooting participate and it's been transformational for them,

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Speaker 11: completely transformational.

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Speaker 6: Coming up on letting know usay we hear the very

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Speaker 6: real changes that this music program is having in the

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Speaker 6: day to day life of people like Bedro. And I

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Speaker 6: was helping him process is trauma stay with us?

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Speaker 10: Not why?

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Speaker 6: Yes, hey, we're back. And before the break we met

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Speaker 6: Pedro just a few months after a mass shooting killed

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Speaker 6: his brother. We also met the volunteers using music to

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Speaker 6: help people like Pedro process major traumas. Now we're going

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Speaker 6: to see how someone connected to the Mexican superstar band

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Speaker 6: Los Digis in Norte also got involved in order to help.

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Speaker 6: Here's reporter Rika Hellerstein with more on how the music

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Speaker 6: program works.

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Speaker 3: About eight months after the traumatic shooting, Pedro found something

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Speaker 3: to focus on. He and other farm workers were working

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Speaker 3: towards a goal, taking up time and space in their

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Speaker 3: lives and away from the memories. It was a music

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Speaker 3: program using one of the most cherished instruments in traditional

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Speaker 3: Mexican music, the accordion. Doctor Belinda Hernandez Ariaga, who leads

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Speaker 3: the program and who we heard from earlier, says there

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Speaker 3: was also a major connection with the instrument itself.

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Speaker 10: Accordion speaks language of home, whether it's something that you

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Speaker 10: remember from your childhood, the music that you're Waalito's played

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Speaker 10: or why you're on the radio, or your favorite music.

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Speaker 10: It spoke to their soul, It speaks to their heart,

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Speaker 10: It speaks to their earliest memories, it speaks to home.

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Speaker 3: Assessing for PTSD and other damage takes time, communication, vulnerability,

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Speaker 3: and honesty. So when there's a societal stigma and lack

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Speaker 3: of trust or familiarity, attached to speaking to a mental

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Speaker 3: health professional, treating trauma can be even more difficult. That's

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Speaker 3: why music seemed like such a powerful, yet unconventional idea

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Speaker 3: to me.

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Speaker 4: That's what I call cultural sensory.

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Speaker 10: The music, the culture, the community building, the food, coming together,

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Speaker 10: the events, the dancing, the drumming, like all of that.

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Speaker 3: Shortly before starting the program, Bilinda had met Ednan Ernandez Junior,

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Speaker 3: the son of Mexican and music royalty. Ernan Ernandez Senior,

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Speaker 3: a member of one of the most well known Noorthaniel

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Speaker 3: bands ever, Los Tigres del Norte. Ernan lives in California

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Speaker 3: and is a musician in his own right. Since the shooting,

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Speaker 3: Ernan had been thinking about how to support the community.

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Speaker 12: We just didn't really kind of have an idea or

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Speaker 12: grasp of what we really wanted to do. Once we

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Speaker 12: started visiting the ranches and coming out here to the fields,

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Speaker 12: that's when I kind of said, Okay, I think I

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Speaker 12: have an idea.

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Speaker 3: Ednan thought about the joy and purpose music brought into

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Speaker 3: his own life, how big a part it played in

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Speaker 3: his culture. As the son of Mexican parents, he felt

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Speaker 3: that music could heal. Ednan also realized that for the

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Speaker 3: students to fully benefit from the music program, they needed

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Speaker 3: to take the craft seriously and commit to it long term.

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Speaker 3: He couldn't just teach them theory. The student needed access

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Speaker 3: to instruments. Accordinions are expensive, several hundreds of dollars each

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Speaker 3: at minimum. Some go for thousands of dollars. So Arnan

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Speaker 3: got to work.

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Speaker 12: I used my connections there to try to get the accordions.

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Speaker 3: And he did, having grown up in the world of

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Speaker 3: Nathaniel music legends.

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Speaker 12: And then luckily we were able to get six accordions

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Speaker 12: donated by our friends from Honor Accordions, who sponsored my

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Speaker 12: father's band.

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Speaker 3: The instructors, led by Arnan, would take a bus out

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Speaker 3: to the farms once a week and teach them there

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Speaker 3: in a small shed in the fields.

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Speaker 12: My parents also worked in the fields. I had a

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Speaker 12: chance to work in the fields when I was little,

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Speaker 12: and it's definitely something that I appreciate going through.

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Speaker 3: Ernan understands that farm workers like Pedro are just trying

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Speaker 3: to support themselves in their families.

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Speaker 12: And so that could put a lot of pressure on

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Speaker 12: one mentally, emotionally, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Is really one

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Speaker 12: of those things that I think in the Latino community

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Speaker 12: is kind of hidden.

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Speaker 6: You know.

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Speaker 12: It's like if you have feelings or if it feels down,

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Speaker 12: if you feel sad or you feel like you want

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Speaker 12: to cry, it, hey, that's not allowed. You know. It's

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Speaker 12: like this muchismo culture in a way. And so we're

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Speaker 12: just trying to kind of get rid of that stigma, like, hey,

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Speaker 12: it's okay to hurt, it's okay to feel things, and

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Speaker 12: it's okay to talk, and it's okay to heal.

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Speaker 3: For the rest of twenty twenty three and all twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty four, week after week, the classes continued this summer.

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Speaker 3: Just a few months shy of the program's two year anniversary,

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Speaker 3: I returned eager to see how things were progressing. Okay,

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Speaker 3: so right now we're in Half Moon Bay. It's kind

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Speaker 3: of an overcast but warm ish for San Francisco summer

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Speaker 3: Bay area summer day. Since my last visit in July

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, so much has happened. Local authorities have

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Speaker 3: tried to improve farm workers' housing conditions, but the changes

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Speaker 3: are slow and don't address all of the larger issues

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Speaker 3: workers face, such as long hours under the sun, unsafe accommodations,

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Speaker 3: and exceedingly low wages. On top of that, Trump is

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Speaker 3: back in office and is going to extremes to fulfill

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Speaker 3: his promise of the largest deportation operation in US history.

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Speaker 3: ICE has descended on California full force. The National Guard

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Speaker 3: is also in town, helping ICE with its aggressive enforcement.

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Speaker 3: Even if you're not local, We've all seen the images

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Speaker 3: on TV, the tension, the fear, the incessant action. Trump

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Speaker 3: initially said he would spare farms from the raids, but

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Speaker 3: immigrants working in places like Half Moon Bay still feel

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Speaker 3: vulnerable just showing up to work. We are about to

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Speaker 3: walk into the Alas House. It's a yellow, small, single

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Speaker 3: family looking home, surrounded by flowers and a white picket fence.

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Speaker 3: I see a mural that wasn't there the last time

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Speaker 3: I visit it. It's called the Heart of the Farmer.

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Speaker 3: The heart of a farmer has deep roots in the earth,

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Speaker 3: spreads wings to migrate, and burns with the fire of

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Speaker 3: passion in their work. We should never allow this heart

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Speaker 3: to extinguish. The flower symbolizes work filled with love and

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Speaker 3: farmer's devotion to the earth. This flower should be a

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Speaker 3: constant reminder of what happened in Half Moon Bay. A

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Speaker 3: call to never forget the events and commit to preventing

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Speaker 3: them from happening again. We must address. As I'm approaching

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Speaker 3: the door, I see a familiar face, Belinda, the Allas director.

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Speaker 7: Oh, here she is.

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Speaker 3: They're so nice. She tells me that the biggest change

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Speaker 3: since we met last year is that the classes have

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Speaker 3: now moved from the farm into this space across the

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Speaker 3: street from the Allah's house. Students now gather in a safe,

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Speaker 3: air conditioned classroom each week.

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Speaker 4: I saw smiles. I saw excitement as they learned the scales,

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Speaker 4: as they saw her non play the corridos at the

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Speaker 4: end of class, and when Edna would say what song

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Speaker 4: do you want me to play? And they'd say, look,

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Speaker 4: what's the nagna And he would play it and they

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Speaker 4: would just flash back to I think, spaces and time

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Speaker 4: of their life where you know, it was joyful, and

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Speaker 4: so I kept seeing that It's so beautiful.

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Speaker 3: Blinda says, the progress has been mind blowing. She was

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Speaker 3: especially impressed with Pedro.

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Speaker 4: He consistently would come back and he said, I practice,

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Speaker 4: and I practice, and I practice.

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Speaker 6: We'll be right back stay with us Monday. Why, yes,

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Speaker 6: we're back. Reporter Erica Hellerstein again to wrap up the story.

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Speaker 3: Before class, I cut up to Pedro, the person who

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Speaker 3: kind of inspired this whole thing, see megustain me. I

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Speaker 3: asked him how he likes the classes. He tells me

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Speaker 3: they are learning more about creating music. I'm immediately struck

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Speaker 3: by how differently Pedro carries himself. He seems more confident.

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Speaker 3: He hugs his accordion proudly. He's still quiet, but a

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Speaker 3: little more assertive. It's clear he has made a lot

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Speaker 3: of progress.

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Speaker 7: Perronel aavera.

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Speaker 3: Vierta carta avierta a class corrido. It's a love letter

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Speaker 3: song about heartbreak and unrequited love that lasts forever. He

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Speaker 3: learned it from Ernan in class. Ernan has become one

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Speaker 3: of Pedro's biggest cheerleaders. He says. Nan calls him every weekend,

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Speaker 3: he checks on him. They chat. Ernan even took Pedro

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Speaker 3: to see his dad's legendary band perform live in concert twice.

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Speaker 3: Our conversation ends as students to shuffle into class. Five

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Speaker 3: students show up today. They're good. I can hear the

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Speaker 3: difference from my last visit and Pedro. He's a patient student.

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Speaker 3: He's mastered his scales and it's clear he now knows

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Speaker 3: his way around the accordion. He's even joined a band

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Speaker 3: with none other than ed None recently. They even played

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Speaker 3: live at a fair filled with people.

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Speaker 12: We played the song Cumbia that my dad and his

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Speaker 12: man used to play when they were younger. Audio and

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Speaker 12: Pedro they wanted to play that song because that's one

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Speaker 12: of their favorite sis.

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Speaker 1: They loved the song.

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Speaker 3: Ednan shared with me a video of the event, and

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Speaker 3: I see Pedro, who was just a beginner in these

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Speaker 3: classes over two years ago, and now he's on stage

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Speaker 3: with a full band playing his accordion, looking joyful.

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Speaker 12: It was that an experience that I will never forget

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Speaker 12: because just seem to look on their faces of like, oh,

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Speaker 12: we're doing music on a stage.

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Speaker 3: This right here, this makes all the time invested in

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Speaker 3: class worthwhile for et Non. After all, some of his

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Speaker 3: family members also worked in the fields.

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Speaker 12: And those songs were what gave them strength to keep going,

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Speaker 12: to keep working, and to wake up every day and

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Speaker 12: made them feel seen. I guess you could say, you know,

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Speaker 12: so when I get to teach music to farm workers,

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Speaker 12: it feels like I'm continuing that legacy that my father

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Speaker 12: helped create. It's not just about teaching notes or chords,

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Speaker 12: but about honoring their stories and building something joyful and

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Speaker 12: beautiful with them through music.

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Speaker 3: Belinda hopes that the program will continue to grow and

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Speaker 3: also maybe guide others working with immigrants to find ways

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Speaker 3: to cope with the emotional toll of living in a

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Speaker 3: country that goes after them, to help deal with the

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Speaker 3: separation from home and the harsh conditions that many farm

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Speaker 3: workers face.

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Speaker 4: Elis is really becoming a model. We're writing about it.

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Speaker 4: We have Stanford here at the table with us, We

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Speaker 4: have folks that are coming as researchers and clinicians, psychologists,

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Speaker 4: and we have become a think tank to really put

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Speaker 4: into practice how we're seeing the work.

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Speaker 3: Alas is also making sure culture is part of the equation.

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Speaker 4: How does kultura kura, which we know as culture cures

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Speaker 4: not just the saying, but how are we implementing that

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Speaker 4: as a mental health intervention? And we do see in

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Speaker 4: the feedback that we're getting that this is making a

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Speaker 4: real difference.

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Speaker 3: She's also hoping that it helps change the dynamic around

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Speaker 3: access to mental health resources.

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Speaker 4: Most people say that Latinos don't want mental health. There's

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Speaker 4: this stigma around it. But as we are here, and

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Speaker 4: when our clinicians are also very much engaged in the

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Speaker 4: arts and different practices, and we're going out into the homes,

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Speaker 4: into the fields, and we're using food as part of

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Speaker 4: healing and all the different processes. We're actually seeing that

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Speaker 4: people aren't scared to come to counseling.

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Speaker 3: She's proud of the achievements of the program, but she

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Speaker 3: also can't ignore the new and scary challenges immigrant families

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Speaker 3: are facing around the country.

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Speaker 13: I mean, this topic makes me want to cry because

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Speaker 13: there's no sugarcoating that the community is in shock, that

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Speaker 13: they feel scared.

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Speaker 4: Mothers are going out into work not knowing if they're

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Speaker 4: going to see their child when they get home. Fathers

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Speaker 4: are going out to do construction and not knowing if

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Speaker 4: they're going to be beaten down, tackled, deported by us.

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Speaker 3: And on such a broad scale, it's hard to know

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Speaker 3: what you can really do to help.

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Speaker 4: This is a mental health crisis, and we're talking about

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Speaker 4: it from a political perspective, but we really need to

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Speaker 4: be talking about it from a mental health and a

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Speaker 4: health perspective. It's making our community sick, physically sick.

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Speaker 3: For now, Blinda and the rest of Alas do their best.

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Speaker 3: They keep their doors and ears open to whoever needs

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Speaker 3: help in their small community in Half Moon Bay. Their

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Speaker 3: successes show up in people like Bedro Once, a reserved,

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Speaker 3: quiet young man who couldn't find the words to explain

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Speaker 3: what he was feeling, but who has now found a

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Speaker 3: new outlet through the keys and whales of his shiny

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Speaker 3: red accordion that is worth a million words.

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Speaker 6: This episode was produced by Julietta Martinelli, with reporting by

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Speaker 6: Erica Hellerstein. Production assistants by Roxana Aguire and Adriana Rodriguez.

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Speaker 6: It was edited by Andrea Lopez Cruzado and it was

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Speaker 6: mixed by gabriel Le Bayez. Special thanks to our partners

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Speaker 6: at el Pinpano. Fernando Echavari is our managing editor. The

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Speaker 6: Latino USA team also includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Renando

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Speaker 6: Lanos Junior, Stephanie Lebau, Luis Luna Glodimar Marquez, Monica Moreles, Garcia,

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Speaker 6: JJ Grubin, and Nancy Trujillo. Penile Ramirez and I are

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Speaker 6: co executive producers.

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Speaker 7: I'm Your Host Mariano Josa.

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Speaker 6: Latino USA is part of Iheart's MYDA podcast Network. Executive

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Speaker 6: producers at iHeart are Leo Gomez and Arlene Santana.

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Speaker 7: Join us again on our next episode.

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Speaker 6: In the meantime, we'll see you on all of our

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Speaker 6: social media. And don't forget, dear listener, Join futuro Plus.

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Speaker 6: do Roxima, Yes Chao.

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Speaker 1: Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment,

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Speaker 1: building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians,

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Speaker 1: the Tao Foundation, and the John D. And Catherine T.

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Speaker 1: MacArthur Foundation,