Last year, we told the story of how music became a source of healing for survivors of a deadly mass shooting at a Half Moon Bay mushroom farm that left seven farmworkers dead in 2023. At the center of this effort was a local nonprofit, Ayudando Latinos A Soñar (ALAS), which emerged as a steady presence for the survivors of the shooting, connecting farmworkers with financial and mental health resources.
One of the programs ALAS piloted in the wake of the shooting was a weekly accordion class led by Hernán Hernández, son of the bassist for the iconic band Los Tigres del Norte. As El Tímpano reported in collaboration with Latino USA, learning the instrument offered survivors a renewed sense of purpose. And as ALAS executive director Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga told me at the time, the music program is part of a broader philosophy known as “cultura cura,” or culture cures, that emphasizes the arts as central to emotional well-being.
I recently reconnected with Hernandez-Arriaga, who shared with me that support for Half Moon Bay in the aftermath of the shooting came from people far outside the Bay Area. The sustenance they provided felt like putting “gas in the tank,” she said. The experience shaped how she thought about how to show up for communities in crisis, like Minneapolis. In early February 2026, as ICE continued its sweeping immigration enforcement campaign in the besieged city, Hernandez-Arriaga joined colleagues from the University of San Francisco, Bay Area Border Relief, and the Latino Community Foundation in traveling to the Twin Cities to offer encouragement and support to people assisting immigrants caught in the crackdown.
The delegation returned to the Bay Area last week. On Tuesday, two days before the Trump administration announced it would wind down its immigration enforcement campaign in Minneapolis, I spoke with Hernandez-Arriaga about what they witnessed in the city, what Bay Area residents might learn from that community’s response, and why the accordion made an appearance in classrooms there. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Half Moon Bay to Minneapolis
Q: Can you talk about how it all came about and why you felt that it was important to go to Minneapolis and show your support?
A: The thing that kind of spurred this for me personally, is that when we had the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, we were exhausted. We were on the ground every day, and that’s what we were focused on, but it was people coming in from the outside that took care of us, cheered us on, fed us, helped provide financial resources, food resources for our community. All of those elements helped to fuel the work that we were doing and we needed. And so I was thinking about that, like, how can we help? And so I was able to connect with one of our board members, her best friend lives in Minneapolis. She’s an on the ground leader. And so we were saying, How can we help the children, the schools, and the community? And so that’s how it began.
Q: Did you feel like you had more insight or nuance into what the leaders and people on the ground in Minneapolis might have been experiencing after going through a crisis like Half Moon Bay?
A: Oh my gosh. We can’t even imagine.That’s the important message that we’re bringing back. It’s horrific. What we experienced, what they’re living through, what we witnessed– it’s even bigger than what we’re seeing on the news. We saw a community paralyzed with fear, and also mobilizing, organizing, at every level to protect one another. It’s literally teachers and administrators mobilizing in schools to protect children that are in hiding and to protect kids that are not out in playgrounds because they have to be inside so that they’re safe from ICE. The frontlines are school playgrounds, Latino-owned businesses, Somali-owned businesses, hospitals. Neighborhood streets.
What we saw is a whole community in hiding and lockdown. And they don’t have a respite. They go to the store and they don’t know what’s gonna happen. It’s a heightened state of fear, all of Minneapolis. And everyone’s banded together to really support one another. We were seeing observers at all corners of the street in the freezing cold. These people are having to organize as regular, everyday civilians on watch, in the cold, just to see if their neighbor and community is going to be safe.
Observations from “ground zero” of the immigration crackdown
Q: To elaborate on what you experienced on-the-ground there. Can you share more of what you saw? What are families navigating on a daily basis? What stood out to you most?
A: We were given the opportunity to deliver food to families that were in crisis. And there were families living in basements that couldn’t even come out to get the food because they’re that scared. A mom and a son in an upstairs window waving at us to say thank you, but couldn’t come out because her husband has been detained and they’re completely paralyzed.
We saw observers on every corner. We had children in schools that were having to go into lockdown because ICE was down the street. One school was sharing that since December, children haven’t been out on a playground. And we were engaging with children at the schools we went to, and those administrators shared that this was the first time they had seen them smile in a long time because they’re living in a state of fear.
We saw businesses all around that are closed down. Those that are open, they’re really fearful. They have to keep their doors locked and open for each customer one at a time. And they were sharing with us that they don’t know how long they’ll be open, because people aren’t coming out. People are in an economic crisis because they need food. There was a little girl who asked her mom to please go to the grocery store for her. And the mom went and ICE picked her up. And the little girl kept saying: ‘It’s my fault. It was my fault because I asked her to go to the grocery store.” One church told us that they had 400 congregants every Sunday mass, and they’re down to 40. One school had 57 kids in hiding.
At Alex Pretti’s memorial, this man told us: ‘This is ground zero for the next generation.’ And honestly, that’s what it feels like. And he also asked us what we were doing there, and when we told him we were from California to let them know that they’re not alone, and we’re bringing love. He put his hands up in the air, and he said, thank you. And he started to cry. Everyone we told that we are from California, they were so grateful.
Q: There’s so much attention on Minneapolis, but it sounds like people almost feel like they’re alone, even though all eyes are still on them, is that right?
A: I think that’s exactly it. I feel like they’re on a battleground, and they’re fighting a battle, and in many ways, they’re fighting alone. The resources are what they really need right now. If anybody can be shipping resources to them: food, financial. They’re trying to navigate how to pay rent for families. It’s like when Covid-19 was happening in terms of having the shelter in place, but in the freezing cold without the government support. So that is where we all come in.
The mental health toll of ICE and the role of “cultura cura”
Q: I’d love to turn the conversation now to your area of expertise, which is mental health, especially for immigrant communities. Can you share more about what you observed in this space? How young children’s emotional and mental health is being affected by ICE enforcement?
A: Our farm worker accordion music director, Hernan Hernandez Jr., went with us on the trip. He was able to take his accordion and be there for the mental health “cultura cura” part that we really emphasize. And so we went in and sang to the children. Many of them were so excited. He told the story about who he was, and his family. And so many of them resonate with that story. We sang with them, music that lifted their hearts. And we handed out care bags with toys. And we gathered letters from the community, and packed them with Valentine’s cards and snacks, a coloring book that’s for mental health. So we put all this together and we took 350 bags and we gave one to a whole school and they were just so happy. We’re going to be doing virtual mental health from here, we’re calling it virtual accompaniment. We understand that the resources for mental health are probably very hard to find or depleted, and they need more.
This is one of the main messages that I’m also trying to get out into the community: that what we are seeing across our country with all of the immigration raids, the trauma, the killings, the violence,this is affecting mental health and physical health. It’s a public health crisis. People are getting sick, people emotionally are not doing well.
For you to have to be locked up and scared to go outside and not be on the playground and see people killed in front of your eyes and see our own government as ICE agents ripping families apart, what does that do to the emotional well being of a child, their development, their brain? We didn’t even begin to scratch the surface. This is happening across our country, but in Minneapolis, we’re able to see the concentration of what’s happening, the violence of what’s happening, the injustice, and the implications that this is having on the mental health of our communities. And more needs to be addressed from that perspective.
Lessons for the Bay
Q: To bring it back to the Bay. Over the past few weeks there has been a lot of concern and fear about what might happen in the Bay Area with the Super Bowl and rumors about possible DHS and ICE and border patrol agents being dispatched to the area. Ultimately, a large-scale enforcement operation didn’t happen. As people here continue to prepare for a possible mobilization of federal agents, what were some of the lessons you drew from your visit that [you think] people in the Bay Area should be thinking about?
A: We came back with so much inspiration [from] the people of Minneapolis. By their unity, their courage and the strength of everyday people. I think sometimes here we think people that are mobilizing have a history of doing that or advocating in the streets. But what we saw over there was that it’s the everyday neighbor that is taking to the streets, in this freezing cold, that is standing up for their neighbor, for that person that they care about or they know or they don’t even know. They’re out there for each other. It’s a real sense of unity, and it’s a real sense of courage and organization.
Everyday people are showing up to take kids to school because their parents can’t. A kid is getting in a car with a complete stranger every day. There’s a trust that they’ve had to lean on one another for in this time of crisis. There was a sense of courage and not being afraid to face what they had to do every day. Every day they’re showing up ready for one another.
It makes me want to cry, but: I see Alex Pretti on the street. I see Renee Good. They’re all out there. What Minneapolis is doing, their strength, is a story to tell. What we learned is that they’re organized, they’re ready. We came back really strong. Like we’re here to be together as one community and if something were to happen, we’re going to be together. Especially in the Bay.
