Digital Stories: Farmworkers in California’s San Joaquin Valley Document the Dangerous Health Impacts from Wildfire Smoke and Other Environmental Hazards
Through their own voices and digital stories, farmworkers in California’s San Joaquin Valley document the dangerous health impacts from exposure to indoor wildfire smoke and other environmental hazards that threaten their health. They discuss the growing need to advance health equity and environmental justice.
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Focus Areas
Environmental Health, Healthy Communities -
Issues
Climate Change -
Programs
Tracking California
Farmworkers in California’s San Joaquin Valley are on the front lines risking their lives to feed the nation and are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards—extreme heat, wildfire smoke, pesticides, air pollutants—and environmental injustices that threaten their health.
In 2024, seven farmworker leaders from the San Joaquin Valley documented their personal lived experiences in the form of digital stories, highlighting the impacts of air pollution from wildfire smoke and other environmental hazards impacting their health and the health of their communities. The farmworker leaders are mostly women who participate in PHI’s Filtration for Respiratory Exposure to Wildfire Smoke from Swamp Cooler Air (FRESSCA Mujeres) project, an initiative that helps to reduce wildfire smoke exposure and health risks among agricultural workers and low-income families by implementing an effective and affordable air filtration system for swamp coolers.
Their powerful and heartfelt stories bear testament to the daily reality that often goes unseen by society and document the growing and urgent need to advance health equity and environmental justice.
The Digital Story Project was led by the StoryCenter and supported by the Central California Environmental Justice Network and PHI’s Tracking California program.
Listen to their stories below.
The Importance of Having an Air Purifier / La importancia de tener un purificador de aire - Veronica Lopez
“I can see a big difference. My son's coughing problems have been decreasing because the air is cleaner. The filters that were installed also help keep out dirt and mosquitoes. Before, my son would always use the inhaler, but now he’s decreased how much he uses it. Before he was always sick when it got cold. Now, its been a long time since he got sick.”
Watch the video in Spanish with English subtitles →
Advocating to Improve Indoor Air Quality / Abogando para mejorar la calidad del aire en las viviendas - Erika Montejano
"We are up against a great monster. The poor air quality is a silent killer. We breathe the smoke from the fires. It’s the filter [that] is telling us that it is poison for our body to smell black smoke. That smoke is what causes damage to one’s lungs…kidneys…and everything. Now I see the difference that has been made by using an air filter in my house."
Watch the video in Spanish with English subtitles →
Lost Hills - Saul Ruiz
“When the fire occurred in August 2023, it was a huge nightmare. At night when my children went to bed, I told them it was better to endure the heat, than to die of suffocation. With a lot of effort we pressured the company Wonderful to purchase air filters for homes in Lost Hills. We had enough people with asthma like my daughter, and the elderly… Between that filter and the filter that my wife got for our cooler, the air in my house improved a lot.”
Watch the video in Spanish with English subtitles →
Courageous and Hardworking Women / Mujeres Valientes Esforzadas - Irene Avila
“One time there was a horrible dirt that was fine and loose. I felt like I was out of breath and I couldn’t breathe. [I thought] “What do I do? Why am I suffocating?” and I started to cry. I came out that day bathed in black dirt.”
Watch the video in Spanish with English subtitles →
What Would Your Family Do? /¿Qué haría con su familia? - Elvia Garvia
“They lied to us… they told me they had cleaned up and that there were no more gas lines. But the gas lines are still under my house. Ten years ago in 2014, there were suddenly firefighters at the corner of the house…the gas lines had broken…we had to move somewhere else. When I returned home with my family, they told me that everything was fine. But we’ve all gotten sick. And we are all constantly going to the doctor. My children have headaches. Their muscles hurt. The same thing is happening to me.”
Watch the video in Spanish with English subtitles →
Polluted Community / Comunidad Contaminada - Joanna Gonzalez
“I am not the only one in my family facing serious health problems. My two oldest children have asthma and are overweight because they can’t do exercises. My daughter has allergies with killer headaches. If we don’t have an inhaler at the house, one day one of us will die. Arvin is known for having the most polluted air, the most polluted water and underground gas lines that leak.”
Watch the video in Spanish with English subtitles →
El Chiste / The Joke - Yolanda Partida
“I think the year we moved is when I started to get sick. I started with a cough…The cough continued…I went back to the doctor and he told me that I had asthma. “In my house, we don’t have air conditioning. If there’s a fire it feels like it’s inside my house. I know that the cooler is pulling the layer of gray air that I saw when we first arrived in my house.”
Watch the video in Spanish with English subtitles →
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