When María Catalán looks over the 10 acres of hill-side fields in Morgan Hill, she sees the seeds of a vision.
The third-generation farmworker has worked the land for nearly four decades, but almost 30 years ago, Catalan proudly made the shift from farmworker to farm owner. Now, she’s working to make that dream a reality for others.
Her hope is to turn a parcel of land on the edge of Morgan Hill into a haven for female farmworkers and their families where they can live, work, sell and build connections with their community. She plans to set up a cooperative on the site to farm the land and sell products like herbs and flowers directly to buyers in Morgan Hill to make a living. She also plans to host classes and community events in the space and aspires to build safe, secure housing for the farmworkers on the property.
Belen Gonzalez, who is a member of Maria Catalan’s co-op of female farmworkers, carries pepper plants to transplant in the Supervisor Sylvia Arenas Women’s Collective Community Garden in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Friday, May 2, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
While that dream has a long way to go, she and the co-op celebrated the opening of the garden last week — the first step toward her vision of a safe, self-sustaining community of female farmworkers.
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“The goal is to have housing, to have a group of women that can work, sell, and live together and support one another,” said Catalán in Spanish.
Catalán immigrated from Mexico 40 years ago to join her family in Monterey County, and began working picking vegetables to provide for her children as a single mother. When her mother invited her to a workshop on organic farming, something clicked.
“I realized that organic farming was the agriculture of our ancestors, so it inspired me and sparked in me this dream to reclaim that culture of our ancestors,” she said in Spanish.
She began taking classes on organic farming, and thirty years ago — despite only speaking Spanish and just one of the few women trying to lead her own farm at the time — opened her organic farm in Hollister.
Even so, Catalán was aware that the often desperate conditions of her fellow farmworkers could lead to abuse. In the fields, she knew women were often groped or harassed by supervisors and did not complain for fear of losing their jobs. Among her fellow farm workers, she saw groups of three or four families living in a single apartment, leaving some children vulnerable to abuse.
“Our food system, our economic system needs (farmworkers) because we are the ones that work, that produce the food, but sadly, we are the ones who most lack decent housing and a dignified life for our children,” said Catalán in Spanish.
Then in the winter of 2023, atmospheric rivers brought destructive floods and rains which led to the devastating breach of the Pajaro Levee and in San Benito flooded RVs where many farmworkers lived, displacing them and forcing them to move into shelters or sleep in their cars.
So Catalan, with the help of Shirley Trevino, an advocate who has worked with farmworkers since the ‘60s, started a nonprofit Coalición de Pequeños Agricultores de California (The Coalition of Small Farmers of California). Trevino applied for a grant to help fund the dream.
While looking for land to host the co-op, they met Maria Salazar Mancias. “It has always been my dream to help women, especially women who work the fields because my father was a farmworker his whole life,” she said.
Salazar Mancias recalls picking prunes throughout the region — including on the very land she now owns on the outskirts of Morgan Hill. Now, that land serves as the host to the co-op and a hub for agriculture and education.
Attendees, including Morgan Hill Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Martínez Beltrán, center in red shirt, celebrate the opening of the Supervisor Sylvia Arenas Women’s Collective Community Garden in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Friday, May 2, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Last week, the trio celebrated the opening of the co-op’s community garden, and along with members of the co-op, they planted the first herbs and flowers into the sun-soaked soil. To mark the occasion, the group shared speeches and music by the just-tilled field, joining together to sing “De Colores” and bursting into impromptu dances between politicians, friends, and farmworkers as chickens clucked loudly nearby.
“I feel so happy that we’re taking the first step, so we want to start this project, and when it becomes a reality, help other women and other farmworkers,” said Maribel Rendón, a member of the co-op, in Spanish. “That’s the point: to benefit from this project, but also to help others who have that same dream and that same need.” Rendón has worked the fields her entire life and was forced to live in her car after the floods in 2023.
“I see this group of women doing what we do against all odds,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas at the event, the daughter of a Bracero farmworker. Her office provided the funds for the garden, which now bears her name. “You’re keeping our traditions alive, and God willing we can pass it on to the next generation.”
Already the grounds are serving as a hub for education, co-hosting a youth entrepreneurship class for local children run by Trevino. Moving forward, Salazar Mancias, a former educator, hopes to offer English classes to the farmworkers, and Catalán plans on giving workshops on how to gain organic certification. The trio plan to open the grounds for youth to learn about agriculture and understand where and how their food is grown.
The group also plans to use some of their harvest to make soaps and lotions. “We want to make that connection that has been broken for decades: between the consumer and the community, and between the community and the earth,” said Catalán in Spanish. “We are here to make that link.”
Maria Catalan, third from left, who is founding a co-op of female farmworkers, her co-op members, and attendees take part in the opening celebration of the Supervisor Sylvia Arenas Women’s Collective Community Garden in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Friday, May 2, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Even with the already long list of programs and goals, Catalán and her crew plan on going even further: offering the stable housing that the floods of 2023 revealed was so scarce among farmworkers.
While Morgan Hill has some rentals dedicated to farmworkers, Trevino hopes to help build a path to ownership. “My dream for them and their dream for themselves is to own their own homes, live on their property, and grow on it.”
Even though that dream is far off, the need is imminent. In 2018, Santa Clara County determined that it needed 700 more units of housing to meet the needs of farmers who work year-round, and 1,400 units for migrant farmers. But in recent years, the county has only approved a fraction of that number dedicated to farmworkers. The scarcity has led to desperate conditions, from overcrowded housing to farmworkers living in abandoned buildings, shipping containers, sheds, or simply left unsheltered.
The dire need led to governor Gavin Newsom signing new bills meant to boost the supply of farmworker housing, including one meant to ease the process of building and permitting farmworker housing in Santa Clara county.
Even so, the project will face logistical and funding hurdles before it can get off the ground, and Catalán and her allies acknowledge they need much in the way of funding and permitting before anyone can move in.
“It’s a big project, but it gives us a lot of energy to think that we can do it, ” said Salazar Mancias in Spanish.
“Sí se puede” (Yes we can), responded Catalán in agreement.