Mothers Helping Mothers of the Central Valley

In December 1990, record freezing temperatures destroyed most of the citrus crop in the Central Valley. More than 30,000 farmworkers had no work, and their more than 100,000 family members had no income. Even before the freeze, poverty, unemployment and hunger were serious problems in the area.

Community organizer M. Gloria Hernandez, on her own initiative, realized that when times are hard, rent, food and utilities come first and the last in line for scarce resources are women and girls. She put together a project to gather and donate personal hygiene products. That is how Mothers Helping Mothers began.

 Over the years, there have been droughts, migra attacks and just regular hard times. Mothers will always sacrifice to provide for their families.

Many people have helped with the project, which has expanded to include not only donations for children and men but also information about rights and the mochila colectiva to help people put together a list of documents to pack in case of a disaster, detention or deportation so that people can find each other after the nightmare.

Most recent donation bags have included whistles, a Sin Odio Sin Miedo/No Hate/No Fear door hanger with Rapid Response Network (559 206-0151), Valley Watch Network and Know Your Rights info, along with personal and feminine hygiene products.

Spread on tarps and tables at distributions are donated items, mostly clothing, which are completely free. The clothing donations date back to when Mrs. Anderson, a teacher in a north Fresno school, began donating lost and found items abandoned at the end of the school year, and Hernandez loaded up her pickup truck to take the clothes to labor camps and to people working in the fields.

When Anderson accompanied Hernandez to a labor camp in Kerman and saw a little boy playing with a donated pink barbie-car without batteries, she was moved to tears and shared that her parents had been sharecroppers, and she felt for the hardships of the children of farmworkers.

Irene Parra Serrano from the Chicano Youth Center (with her sister Irma Serrano until her tragic untimely passing) has been the other main organizer through the years.

There was a period when Mothers Helping Mothers even went to Tijuana to the refugee shelters. There were donations to unemployed oil workers in Coalinga. But the project has always been true to its roots, contributing time and material aid to people who work hard and live in usually neglected rural communities.

 The most recent distributions have been in Parlier and Mendota. The Mendota event had 105 households participate, representing more than 500 people. 

 “This is what we do,” says Hernandez. “When not on the protest lines, we give back to our gente.”