Amid the heat of Central Coast ICE enforcement this summer, leaders of Corazón del Pueblo knew they needed to help local students. Their goal was to develop a safe space for high schoolers, many of whom are the children of Indigenous migrant farmworkers or who are farmworkers themselves, Executive Director Esmeralda Garcia told the Sun.
“We recognized the need of safe spaces for youth, and I realized that there was no summer program for specifically Indigenous migrant students,” Garcia said.
She’s referring to the communities of indigenous people from Mexico and Central America who often migrate to the Central Coast for work.
Corazón del Pueblo is a nonprofit dedicated to uniting the community through art and culture, which is the philosophy it used to develop its summer program, the Indigenous Leadership Institute of Arts and Culture.
Local high school students gathered in the evenings during the month-long program at Corazón del Pueblo in Santa Maria for a few hours of cultural education and artistic expression. Garcia and her three coworkers picked the students up from their homes. Around half of the students worked during the day, so Garcia planned the program later in the evening to fit the students’ schedules.
Garcia taught about topics ranging from environmental justice to traditional Indigenous cooking, providing a transparent lens for the students to learn about their ancestry and the world around them, she said.
The students also painted a mural and sculpted with clay, something that many Indigenous cultures have practiced for centuries. Garcia explained that it was important for the students to learn about decolonizing the arts and how art outside of Europe is sometimes overlooked.
“As Indigenous communities, we bring so much to the table,” Garcia said. “We’ve been practicing arts for centuries. We just need to relearn our own identity.”
The pilot program ended in July, but the nonprofit is still raising money with hopes of giving $1,000 scholarships to each of the 23 students who participated and to cover the cost of the program. The scholarships will be given out on Sept. 25 at an exhibit at The Garden in Santa Maria from 5 to 8 p.m. At the event, the students will be speaking about their experience in the program and showcasing their art.
In years to come, Corazón del Pueblo aims to give scholarships to students so that they won’t have to work during summer break, Garcia said.
The nonprofit’s art program director, Helen Yanez, said she saw the students using their time in the program to process their feelings about ICE enforcement.
“Our people are the target. Our people are getting the biggest hit when it comes to their work environment,” Yanez said.
She remembers students painting the mural and talking about fears about their parents being taken away and not coming home from work.
“They open up a lot to one another,” Yanez said. “It was that support right there that was really healing while they were painting.”
Yanez and Garcia are still in contact with the students and periodically invite them to events at Corazón del Pueblo. They have also been meeting to prepare for the Sept. 25 event.
“We see arts as a way to heal more than anything, not necessarily to place everything in an exhibit and collaborate with museums, but more as a grassroots intervention program for the youth and expanding to the parents and the families,” Yanez said.
Highlights
• Charlie’s Place in Los Alamos hosts barbecue nights every Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. with live music. They also have chicken fried steak on the first Tuesday of every month and liver and onions on the third Wednesday of every month. Charlie’s is known for Mexican food, burgers, and tri-tip. The restaurant is located at 185 Bell St. in Los Alamos.
• The Santa Ynez Valley Grange offers a variety of cultural, educational, and social activities. Coming up are weekend family cooking classes, square dancing nights, and a nature film screening on Sept. 5. The Grange is located at 2374 Alamo Pintado Ave. in Los Olivos. Visit santaynezvalleygrange.org for more information.
Reach Staff Writer Madison White at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 4 – Sep 14, 2025.