Providing a Taste of Oaxaca in the Central Valley
In the Central Valley town of Madera, a family business called the Gateway Market sells hats, water coolers, buckets and bags to hold picked fruit. All supplies that local farmworkers need. Some farm labor contractors hand out paychecks here, which workers cash right at the counter. Yazid Alamari’s family came here from Yemen, and he says farmworkers come here for more than checks and supplies. For the series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse tells us how this restaurant helps satisfy a longing for home.
Letter to My California Dreamer: Finding Home and Harvest in Salinas
We’ve been asking our listeners to write a letter to someone in their family who came to California with a dream. This week, Sandra Barocio of Moss Beach writes to her older brother, Humberto, thanking him for bringing her family north from Mexico to work in the fields on the Central Coast. She remembers the long drive in the family’s brown Dodge Polara, and how she and her parents and siblings had to sleep under a tree -- until Humberto found them shelter.
New Film Explores Going to High School ... in a San Francisco Jail
"The Corridor" is a new film about the nation’s first high school inside an adult jail. It’s called Five Keys Charter School, and anyone arrested in San Francisco without a high school diploma is sent there, most of them while awaiting sentencing. The documentary follows teachers, students and correctional officers as they navigate how to run a school -- or go to school -- inside a jail. Sasha Khokha sits down with film’s co-producer/director, Annelise Wunderlich, and Tyson Amir, a teacher at the school.
In Napa Valley, a Blind Woodworker Makes Art Accessible to Everyone
For a lot of people, the start of summer means heading to camp. In Napa County, there’s a sanctuary nestled on a mountain for visually impaired people. The Enchanted Hills Camp is owned by the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and it’s been around for over 60 years. It’s a place where blind children and adults can swim, dance, play music, ride horses and use a woodshop. But this past year, the fires that ravaged the North Bay burned a lot of the camp. Hannah Kingsley-Ma went to check it out as it’s rebuilding and introduces us to the man at the heart of its woodworking program.