damian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle," i'm damian trujillo, and today, an american legend and chicano activist, dr. josé padilla with crla, on our show here on "comunidad del valle." cc by aberdeen captioning www.aberdeen.io 1-800-688-6621 damian: we begin with another agency that is always on the frontlines. we're talking about siren and they're celebrating a milestone. with me is maricela gutierrez, a longtime executive director of siren. maricela, welcome back to the show. maricela gutierrez: gracias, thank you for having me, damian. damian: thank you for being here. thirty-five years. tell us what this means to you, to the community. maricela: well, it's been an amazing journey for siren, starting out in san josé as our founding place and so, 35 years

is an acknowledgement of the power that the immigrant voice and refugee voice has here in the silicon valley and how important it is to continue serving this community and building them up and creating opportunities for them to thrive in this beautiful silicon valley area. damian: and so we have a-- you know, every acontecimiento, every celebration like this deserves a big party. you're gonna have one, we'll talk about that in just a little bit, but you know, it's kind of one of those where we're lucky to have you as an agency but it's unfortunate that we need you as an agency because of the services that you provide. tell us your thoughts on that. maricela: yeah, so my dream would be--asking what does 35 years look like--35 more years look like, and to me would be that we don't need a siren, right? that siren will not be needed. that 11-plus million people have a pathway to citizenship, have accessible, you know, jobs that pay them an affordable wages,

living wages, and live in a home that they can afford and, you know, we also work in the central valley so, like, living with clean water, you know, and all the opportunities that citizens have and more, right, to create a greater california for all immigrants and refugees. damian: yeah, and i'm sure you started with one basic service, 35 years ago, and it's expanded. talk about the services that you provide now. maricela: yeah, so it was founded in 1986, you know, when all the movement happened to provide a pathway to citizenship for a handful of--a big group of people but there was also people who were left out, so-- it was also a time when there was a lot of xenophobia. we eventually got governor wilson in office, and we know all the different things that he tried to launch with, like, prop 187 and 209, just dismantling access to immigrants. and so it wasn't--siren at our core, we're an advocacy organization that really advocates for immigrants to have

a bigger role or bigger voice in and a say and be the protagonist in their story and are sitting at the table when we're identifying things that--or not identifying things, but identifying ways that they can voice their needs and create a better life for themselves and their children and the community that they reside in. damian: well, when it comes to defending the rights of immigrants, does it feel like sometimes vamos en reversa, that we have the car in reverse, and we're going in reverse, because of what's been happening on the national level? maricela: yeah, great question, i mean, definitely we've been cleaning up a lot of the mess from the previous president not to be named, and then working a lot with the current president to stick to his promises of a pathway to citizenship, a relief for daca, and, you know, more support, especially during this covid pandemic. we saw how valuable it is to take care of one another, how we need one another, and it's important for

all of us to be healthy. and so that includes immigrants who are undocumented here in this country, and how we need to create a stronger safety net for them to thrive and be healthy and grow and have wealth in their communities. damian: you don't have a degree--i don't think your staff has a degree in mental counseling, but that has a lot to do, right, with the-- sometimes when you have the clients coming in and they need some mental counseling because of what they're going through. maricela: yes, and they're very--they're experiencing a lot of trauma, you know, from their day-to-day lives but also the experience that they might have had, you know, migrating here or, you know, seeking asylum, they're coming from war-torn countries, countries that have been devastated by earthquakes, floods, et cetera, being targeted by, you know, gangs, so a lot of experience that we need to be trained on vicarious trauma and how to--have a model of a trauma-informed care model and how we serve our community, and then good referral systems

so, fortunately, santa clara county has a great mental health program and we're able to refer clients that way as well as our local community health centers. damian: but you might--your staff also might need some también, right, because you're hearing all the bad things that are happening to some of your clients, so you might need to take a step back and say, "whoa," and take a deep breath. maricela: yes, exactly, so we do a lot of self-care, a lot of retreats with our attorneys and our organizers and staff to make sure that, you know, we have self-healing, that we're taking care of our bodies and finding balance between the demand and our day-to-day lives. it's really important to have a good healthy work-life balance, even though the demand's there, right? and being able to come home and be focused on our families instead of thinking about work, that's really important as well, so we try to promote as much of a good balance between taking care of themselves and being present for our communities. damian: oh, that's wonderful. well, again, you're celebrating 35 years; happy anniversary. it's coming up on december 14 is the date at the

montgomery theatre in san josé. there is the web address for more information. thirty-five years of lucha by siren. we'll talk about specifics on this ceremony, the celebration, when we continue on "comunidad del valle." stay with us.

damian: we're back with maricela gutierrez, the executive director of siren, celebrating 35 years and so it's a pachanga, right? it's at montgomery theatre. we're not messing around here. maricela: no, we felt like let's go big, let's have a big celebration, cultural celebration. so it definitely is a pachanga, like you said, damian. we're gonna start off with mariachi estelar and the fabulous and phenomenal youth sensation gabriela sepúlveda, who will be singing and opening up the show. and then we will have emcee from telemundo, sandra cervantes, emceeing the event and we're really excited about that, as well as a great performance by a local nationally acclaimed poet

from east side san josé. his name is yosimar reyes. he will be performing his one-man show story about growing up undocumented in san josé, working in the silicon valley, you know, living in poverty, coming from guerrero, and how we changed the narrative of the immigrant story by showing the true lives of the story but also the beauty, you know, and the strengths and all the great accomplishments and contributions that immigrants provide, so it's gonna be a beautiful event with theater. and then we're closing it off with salsa legend, grammy award-nominated javier navarette and his latin quintet. so it's gonna be dancing, música, teatro, a little bit of everything. damian: well now, 35 years [speaking spanish] it's well deserved and, again, congratulations. have you ever seen in your years--you mentioned josé padilla was your mentor, who's gonna be next on our show here with crla. have you ever seen in your lifespan of work any population

more impacted, more taken on a roller coaster ride, you're good, you're bad, you're not welcome, you're welcome, than the daca recipients? i mean, they find out as teenagers, some of them, what their status is, and then they'll be just taken on a roller coaster ride. maricela: yeah, exactly, they're definitely the political football of many candidates, so when they're running for office we hear great things and how much they love daca recipients, and then when they get to office there's a lot of false promises that happen, and so it's been a really unfortunate experience for many of our clients. you can imagine the mental health impact to their lives, not knowing how stable tomorrow may be, right? many of them are professionals, you know, they're doctors, they're attorneys, they're-- some of them are staff, they're organizers, contributing. many are adults now, you know? they're in their mid 30s, so they're not youth anymore and so it's important that we have a pathway to citizenship now.

i know senator padilla, who's one of our honorees at our 35th anniversary, is really pushing to make something happen before the end of the year, and so we're right there with him, really promoting and advocating that a pathway to citizenship happen and this nightmare of daca ends. damian: que es lo que te motiva, what is it that motivates you, maricela, to wake up the next day and fight that good fight? maricela: i come from a family of immigrants. my parents are immigrants themselves, farm workers from the central valley. you know, during the pandemic i put a story out about my dad saying, like, you know, "we can't pick oranges on zoom," and so farm workers had to continue feeding us, right, picking the oranges, picking the grapes, et cetera, to put food on our tables. and i heard horrible stories of farm workers, you know, being sick and picking our food but also, you know, going to sleep in their car to rest and then not having that luxury of staying home or taking time off work. and so that motivates me to continue this work, to fight for

a better life for people like my parents who've been in this country for almost 50 years and still, you know, continuing to provide for our community and many more like them that are new families. i see myself in the new families with the small children, trying to make a better life for themselves, seeing young children also going to college, you know, finding a better future for themselves. i've got--my brother's also an immigrant himself, you know, he was undocumented, became a citizen. he's a doctor now, and is-- continues to help support farm workers in their health needs, and so that's just, you know, being a role model for our community's really important as well. damian: "you can't pick crops on zoom," i love that. any final thoughts, maricela, on this wonderful celebration, 35 years? maricela: you know, 35 years is such an important statement to say that siren has been providing most valuable services to our community and making sure that the voice of our communities are at the forefront, you know?

support this work, donate. if you can't join us on the 35th. we still have some tickets available. this montgomery theatre is a historical theater. it's beautiful. it's gonna be a lovely night. please join us or consider contributing and supporting immigrant justice work. damian: you know, and as hopeful as you are that we won't need siren in 35 years, the realistic maricela says what? maricela: the realistic maricela is that we're always gonna need nonprofits, right? we're always gonna need nonprofits to support and fill in the gaps where the government can't, and so, you know, contribute to your local nonprofit because they're doing excellent work every day. damian: maricela, thank you so much for the work that siren has done for the last 35 years and for what you've done as the executive director and, again, fighting that good fight for the gente that really need it; gracias. maricela: thank you, damian. it's a pleasure and an honor to always interview with you. damian: thank you, i appreciate you. gracias, i thank you so much. and again, this is happening--so it's a party happening this coming week on december 14, 5:30 p.m. at the montgomery

theatre in downtown san josé right next to the christmas in the park, right now, plaza de cesar chavez, and there is the web address to siren for more information. thirty-five years of lucha. well, up next here on "comunidad del valle," an american treasure, don josé padilla, the executive director-- the outgoing executive director of crla; stay with us.

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or live chat at calhope.org today. damian: he's been the face of crla for many decades, california rural legal assistance. we're talking about don josé padilla.73 he is the outgoing executive director. he's my guest here on "comunidad del valle," and josé, welcome to the show. josé padilla: thank you very much for the invitation, mr. trujillo. damian: thank you, sir. i appreciate you being here. and we just discovered that you and i have an awesome kinship because of this thing right here. talk about el cortito and what you've--your role in eliminating it. josé: yeah, well, first of all, being the director of crla

has been one of the honors or the blessings that i've had. crla is a legal service program that provides--civil legal services to the rural poor through our network, and crla has been around for more than 50 years, providing rural legal service to actually all the rural poor eligible for our services, but it happens that in our history, a big focus has been in the service of farm workers. and not only does crla provide individual legal services to individual clients or to individual families, one of the things that is our historical legacy, is that we also do what is referred to as impact work, systemic work, where we are able to have impacts statewide, you know, regional--

anyways, impact litigation. the thing i was mentioning to you is that one of our first big cases involving farm workers was a case where we challenged the agricultural industry in the use of the short-handled hoe and in that case, we were able to successfully eliminate the use of the short hoe which the farm workers referred to as [speaking spanish] del diablo, the short-handled hoe, and today you can be driving by rural areas in the fields and you see workers standing up with the long hoe, but that's because of the litigation that we did where we eliminated that. and the reason that we went after it was because one of our founders, cesar chavez, had mentioned to us that the farm worker, many of them, suffered back injuries because

of the use of that short hoe. he himself had suffered back injury because of the use of the hoe and he said, "can crla do something about it?" and in the [speaking foreign language] case, we were able to go after the california department of labor and eliminate the use of that hoe, and so when i saw-- when you mentioned that you had the short hoe in the back there that had been used by your father, what a circumstantial connection for both of us to know that, that we were the organization that eliminated the use of that hoe. damian: well, thank you for doing that, you know, from a professional and from a personal standpoint because, you know, it changed a lot of lives because of what you did, what crla did, and cesar did, i was able to use the long-handled hoe, i didn't have to be hunched over, so thank you for making field work a lot easier for me.

you know, they say that when people become more studied, become attorneys, "wow, this person's gonna make it, they're gonna be rich, they're gonna own three cars and four homes and whatnot," but that's not what studying law is all about. josé: yeah, no, i--there are different, obviously, ways to practice law. from a personal perspective, you know, i received good education because my parents, my grandparents had been farm workers; they had, like other immigrants, wanted their children, their grandchildren, to go to schools, and i was able to successfully go to the university of stanford and berkeley. but one of the things my grandparents had instilled in us was that when we received our schooling, they reminded us, as my parents did, to never forget the community that had raised you. and because i had been born and raised in rural california, in imperial county, by farm workers who had come from mexico,

central mexico, guanajuato from my father's side, from baja california sur on my mother's side, we knew that if we were able to use our education to help those communities, it would be something that our parents and grandparents could benefit from. and so i was able to then go back there to rural california and give my services and then, after having done 6 years of work out of the, you know, central crla office, i was then able to--i was then selected to become a crla director and i've been doing that for 38 years and i've done a lot of work assisting not only farm workers but other rural poor. damian: wow, we thank you for that service. i wanna talk about your retirement in our next segment but, you know, the world keeps getting smaller. my parents are guanajuatenses, and so it all makes sense now.

but crla, folks, their web address, we're gonna show that to you because they are still in action and still advocating for those who might not have a voice. there is a website for more information: crla.org. we'll be back with don josé padilla here on "comunidad del valle"; stay with us.

damian: and we're back with don josé padilla, the outgoing executive director of crla. are you sure we can't keep you for another 38 years, josé? josé: no, my wife would not allow that. damian: what's your biggest joy, your biggest sense of accomplishment, do you think? i mean, the cortito here is a huge one, but it's got to fill you with a lot of sense of pride and accomplishment, what you've done over the years. josé: yes, i mean, when i look back, there have been some things that have made me feel that i was the director for a reason. let me give you maybe two examples.

one of them was that in 1986 when i was a director for 2 years, there was a big issue about immigration reform, national immigration reform. and one of the things that we were approached by a congressman who wanted to push a federal immigration--an amnesty for immigrants in the united states, and so the federal immigration reform and control act of 1986 was legislation that we were involved with. there were some 2.7 million immigrants who were legalized through that work, and i worked with congressman howard berman. i sent a legislative advocate to congress to help pass the legislation, that federal legislation, and i look back and i am proud that we were able to legalize that many, 2.7 million,

but many, many times i run into people who tell me that their grandparents were legalized that way or their parents were legalized that way, and so there are many, many people who we impacted and families that we've impacted-- we impacted back with that law. the other impact that i feel good about was when i was a young lawyer, i worked with a lot of migrant farm worker parents, and i was able to work with parents and we created the migrant education law for the state of california, which helps migrant students be able to receive extra education services so they're able to succeed in schools. and very recently, a parent, a migrant parent, came to me to tell me about the many children in her school district 'cause

she knew that i had passed--was part of the--i was able to work with parents to pass that law that the many children who had gone through migrant education and become teachers and become professionals, other professionals, and so she thanked me for that. so that was another area that i felt good about. and more recently, you know, we keep on--one of the other types of advocacy that we have done is representing farm worker women who have been harassed, sexually harassed, in the fields, and we have been able to win large cases on their behalf so that wthey can regain their dignityly hwhere they have been sexuallye harassed, and in the last 6 months we won a $2 million case on behalf of 2 farm worker women who were mistreated sexually in one of the fields in northern california and they were working in the grape vineyards and we were able to secure

a settlement of $2 million. but over the years, we have done many, many cases on behalf of farm worker women in--and that's just an example of some of the cases that i--and the advocacy that i feel very, very proud of. damian: well, we thank you for what you've done. we have about 20 seconds. crla in good hands? josé: yes, crla will be in very good hands and within the next 3 months there will be a new director, so that--the new director, i know, will continue doing a systemic work in the direct services that we do, because crla wants to continue another 50 years doing exactly the same thing that we've been doing for the last 50. damian: all right, let me make sure i have the time. how much time do we have left on the show? i wanna make sure that we have enough time and we don't

cut you off when we don't need to. okay, well, we--any final thoughts again, before we let you go? josé: no, i thank you, mr. trujillo, for allowing me to talk about crla and the services that we have done and continue to do, again, for all the rural poor but in particular, for the farm worker communities in rural california that we continue to service through our 16 offices. damian: well, i wish we had an entire half-hour to spend with you, sir. i see that you're still--you spoke in stanford this past week, to the students, law students there. the work never ends, right? josé: that's right, and i know that there are within those 20-some students, that there are a few that are going to come work for crla because a couple of them have already contacted me about their interest in working, doing the kind of work that we do. damian: well, sir, de todo corazón, i appreciate you, what you've done for the entire farm worker community,

for my family personally. we thank you and we wish you all the best. josé: señor trujillo, muchas gracias por tenerme en su programa; thank you very much for inviting me on this program. damian: thank you, don josé. and again, crla, they're still going. they'll have a new executive director coming up soon here, but there is their website for more information: crla.org. up and down the valleys of--the agricultural valleys of california, that's where you'll find crla doing the hard work for those who might not have a voice. well, if you wanna get a hold of us on "comunidad del valle," you can follow us on instagram. it's @newsdamiantrujillo. on twitter, it's @newsdamian. and we thank you for sharing another part of your sunday with us. we'll see you once again here next week with some more exciting and interesting news and anecdotes and guests. we'll see you next week. ♪♪♪

marie daage: i really kept everything which was traditional and old and beautiful because that's part of history of paris. [theme music] i'm sara gore, and welcome to open house. as always, we've got some stunning homes to explore this week, but let me first tell you about this jaw dropping penthouse i'm standing in right now on manhattan's upper east side. the sheer size of this home is impressive and it features high ceilings throughout, and open flow