After the Deluge, Images of Impacts and Resilience in Pájaro, California

“I took this photo before the flood, before the levee broke. There were threats of flooding and you can see the storm clouds. It had been raining and the river was high. I was so nervous. A couple weeks later, the levee broke. Looking at the photos now, I feel very sad. I lost my things in the flood. I was pregnant and afraid of an accident. Suddenly everything was flooded, houses were destroyed. It was a shocking scene.” 

“The flood contaminated the water. I was so worried, because I couldn’t drink water, I couldn’t bathe, I couldn’t cook with the water. So I went to the shelter at the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds and was so grateful for the support. They gave us blankets, they gave us food, a safe place to be and clean water to drink.” 

Ricardo Paz-Hernandez, 17, is a Pájaro resident and 11th grade student at Watsonville High School, where he is a member of the Mosaic art academy. He enjoys playing video games and participating in football, track and field and other sports. Ricardo hopes to find innovative ways for his community to thrive.

Alejandra Vargas is a Pájaro resident and entrepreneur. Alejandra runs a small gourmet food business and a printing business and attends the Pájaro resident meetings at Casa de la Cultura, a nonprofit community center that supports farmworkers.

“It had been raining for a few days and I noticed plants growing on a clothesline. The green on a pole caught my eye and made me think that nature is so wise, even if there’s no dirt, it will find a way to flourish. Nature will flourish and find a way to survive even after all the damage we’ve done to the earth.” 

“Before the flood happened in Pájaro I would cook with this water. But after the flood, the disaster, I don’t anymore because it’s discolored. I don’t know if it’s always been like this and I never paid attention until after the flood, but I don’t use it anymore to cook beans and things like that. My husband has an eye problem and I worry the water could cause an infection for him. After the flood, there was an announcement that the water could have been contaminated. They later told us it’s safe to use but I worry. What if they just didn’t want to pay for bottled water for us and just said to use it? I still have to buy bottled water for cooking and other things. It’s expensive. I’m not the only one worried. A lot of people have similar concerns about the water.” 

“This tree always had flowers when spring started, it usually already has a lot of white flowers, they look like clouds or cotton. I noticed that every year it takes a little longer to get the flowers now, and it made me feel nostalgic when it finally had flowers. In general, the plants and trees are taking longer to get flowers. Because there is rain when it’s not supposed to be raining and it’s cold when it’s not supposed to be cold. And one way or another that affects all the flora. It’s from all the harm that we do to our earth with contaminants and pesticides and everything.” 

José Lomeli Flores, 17, is a Pájaro resident and 11th grade student at Watsonville High School. José is part of his school’s ECHO (Education, Communication, Humanitarian Outreach)  leadership academy.

“I call this Flashback. I was hanging out with my friend talking about life, about what’s going on in our lives, and I was thinking back to the flood. I was also walking with my friend when the flood hit. When we saw the clouds coming in last month, it was almost exactly like it was when the flood came. Back then, we thought, the flood’s not gonna hit us. But since they didn’t fix the levee, and they knew the levee was damaged and didn’t do anything to stop it, it flooded. They left us behind. Each time I see a storm coming it reminds me of waking up in the middle of the night, hearing sirens, the cops saying, “Get out of the house! It’s an emergency.” My friend still lives in Castroville with his mom because his landlord didn’t want to fix his house.” 

Angelina Gonzalez is a Pájaro resident and mother who recently started working as a home caregiver, after years of working in the fields. Angelina is also a Community Climate Coalition member working on the Transformative Climate Communities Planning grant from the state of California. Angelina joined the PhotoVoice project because she wants to represent the feelings of Pájaro residents after the flood. She also wanted to capture how climate change affects her daily life.

“In this picture, it is very hot and everybody is waiting in line to get their boxes checked. That’s like when you have homework, it has to be very good quality. And if the quality is not good, it gets rejected and you have to go back and change it and get better quality. And especially that day, because it’s so hot, the sun affects the fruit, and it gets very watery fast, and they don’t want that. They also check if there’s mold or if it’s rotten. The line’s usually not this long. But they say it was because of the weather, it was very, very hot, and the weather does affect the fruit a lot. Sometimes, it doesn’t get watery, it gets burned. And for the workers, when you’re just standing there, you feel the heat even more.” 

“The strawberries are all on the ground. And this reminds me so much of the flood, and all our damaged things that we had to throw out. It’s the same thing with these fields. When it rains a lot and the strawberries stay in the plastic for days, it gets rotten and they gotta go. That’s what happened here. All the fruit that was red had to be thrown on the ground, because if one gets rotten and it touches another strawberry, it gets rotten too. You can also see all these green strawberries, which will grow better because the rotten ones are cleaned out. I see the green strawberries as like our new things after the flood.”