El Tímpano journalists have witnessed Bay Area Latino and Mayan community members face mounting challenges with few resources throughout 2024. El Tímpano’s year in photos also reveals the determination of immigrants, a depiction too rarely seen at large news outlets. Their individual and collective stories, with all of their nuances, must also be part of the first draft of history that journalists create.
The day Half Moon Bay’s city council denied three appeals to an affordable housing project for senior farmworkers, El Tímpano spent the afternoon with Ayudando Latinos A Soñar staff members and three farmworkers who shared sugar snap peas from the back of a pickup truck. Their fingertips were still green from cultivating heaps earlier that day. Soon after, they celebrated a win. A community whose squalid living conditions became national interest following a deadly mass shooting that took the lives of seven immigrant farmworkers saw the end of a hard-fought struggle to build an affordable housing unit for seniors in Half Moon Bay. The moment was captured in the photos after months of reporting, an investment of time and trust-building reflected in all of El Tímpano’s photos.
We thank our community for trusting El Tímpano enough to allow us to capture the moments and portraits of your lives. We look forward to producing more community-powered journalism with you in 2025.
Memories of the Market
Patrons peruse merchandise on a Sunday afternoon in November at a swap meet in Oakland’s industrial Coliseum neighborhood. Some come with a shopping list, others wander, waiting for something to catch their eye. Like flea markets throughout the country, the Coliseum Swap Meet, an open-air market known affectionately as ‘La Pulga’ in East Oakland, reflects the community it serves. Here, all are welcome to taste the flavors of Mexico and Central America, enjoy a Michelada under the shade, buy household goods, produce, sweets, croc charms, flowers, hardware, clothes, jewelry, cosmetics, electronics and more at a discounted price. The instant photos were featured in the award-winning series, ‘Memories of the Market,’ published in January 2024. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
‘It’s not just what you see.’ Illegal dumping is affecting people’s lives
Maria Suarez, a community leader with Faith in Action East Bay, stands silently looking at the trash that has accumulated at the Hegenberger Road underpass, a stone’s throw from the Coliseum BART station, in East Oakland on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. Suarez spent two hours driving around her neighborhood to see if sites known for illegal dumping in East Oakland had accumulated more trash. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
When crowding up is the only choice for low-income renters in Contra Costa County
Blanca Colín sits for a portrait in her bedroom on Monday afternoon, Jan. 29, 2024. Colín and her family have struggled to find affordable housing since they emigrated from Mexico to Contra Costa County more than 18 years ago. They moved out of an overcrowded one-bedroom apartment when the rent increased and outpaced their income. Then, the family was forced to leave a small house where their 16-year-old son developed alarming health problems. Between 2000 and 2020, the median rent in Contra Costa increased by 42% while the median income in the county rose by 11%, according to the Bay Area Equity Atlas. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
Working two jobs, an immigrant widow and parent of four can’t afford electricity amidst rising utility costs
Consuelo Rauno, 31, stands for a portrait near her apartment in San Lorenzo, Calif. on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. Rauno says she sometimes avoids opening her mail from dread of seeing her utility bill grow. According to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), electricity rates have risen 127% since 2004. CPUC, the state agency that regulates public utility companies, attributed the rising prices to regional power line maintenance, wildfire prevention and other fixed expenses. In November 2023, CPUC approved a 13% rate increase for PG&E, bringing the monthly expense average to $32.50. Additionally, the Public Advocates Office at CPUC reports one in five Californians are behind on their utility bills. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
‘I am looking for a way to retire’: Without Social Security benefits, aging immigrant father braces himself for more years of work
Jesús Bizarro poses for a portrait in his living room on Saturday, March 31, 2024. Without the ability to receive Social Security benefits, aging immigrants must contend with uncertainty as they approach retirement age. At 60, Bizarro is no closer to retirement after exhausting his savings accounts since he’s been out of work. Bizarro plans on rejoining the workforce for four more years while two of his children finish university and his youngest decides between higher education or joining the workforce. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
Residents in Bay Point advocate to reopen a local park closed 20 years ago
From left: Luis Vigil, Nelson Lagos and Josue Pineda are Bay Point residents who wish the area had more parks. The only time they can play soccer at Lynbrook Park, they said, is in the evenings after all the youth league teams have left. Vigil, Lagos and Pineda say it can get competitive to carve out a space for yourself at Lynbrook Park and sometimes getting in other people’s way is unavoidable. Photographed Sunday, April 28, 2024. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
Aging farmworkers in Half Moon Bay want a place to ‘rest with dignity’
Left: Javier Torres, a farmworker, poses for a portrait near a shuttered fruit stand at the edge of Cabrillo Farms in Half Moon Bay on Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Right: Rocio Avila embraces a community member in support of 555 Kelly Ave, a hard-won affordable housing project on Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Avila’s eyes welled with tears as her peers relayed their congratulations in her ear. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
‘California is expensive and we have to make difficult decisions to survive’
Lyssette Mendoza poses for a portrait near her apartment on July 1, 2024, where she lives with her eldest daughter. Mendoza recounted living in a toxic household with her ex-husband for two years because of how challenging it was to find an affordable place to live on her own. When she finally moved out, Mendoza, who is from Acapulco in Mexico, purchased coastal-themed home goods at Dollar Tree to help her apartment feel more like home. She said it reminds her of her origins and brings her to her ‘happy place.’ Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
Lingering fears over past immigration policies are fueling a reluctance to enroll in Medi-Cal
Judith Peralta, an outreach worker with Monument Impact, pitches Medi-Cal health insurance to patrons at Speed Clean Laundry, a laundromat near a supermarket with a known Latino customer base, in Pittsburg, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. Though Medi-Cal expanded in 2024 to all people regardless of immigration status, fears about the use of public benefits that linger from when former President Donald Trump was first in office have made it challenging to convince some undocumented residents to enroll in the health care program. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
Cultural healing in the fields of Half Moon Bay
Pedro Perez (left), a farmworker from Mexico attends an accordion class with Hernan Hernandez (far right) at Cabrillo Farms in Half Moon Bay on Sept. 11, 2024. Perez, who participates in the group as a form of music therapy, has been unemployed since surviving the mass shooting at two mushroom farms that left seven people dead, including his older brother, in January of 2023. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
Toxic Inaction: Oakland’s lead funding languishes as residents live with serious health risks
Yazmin Alvarez, 30, and her four-year-old daughter Leyla Avelar discuss Halloween costume ideas in their living room on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 9, 2024. Avelar’s first blood lead level test was slated for the day after Halloween. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Durán for El Tímpano/Catchlight/Report for America corps member
