Join us as we look back at another year of our collective work supporting, organizing, and empowering the indigenous migrant community!
“Harvesting Dignity: The Case for a Living Wage for Farmworkers,” sheds light on the realities surrounding the pay farmworkers receive and their workplace conditions but also underscores the pressing necessity for farmworkers to be justly compensated for their arduous labor. Read more below!
Who Are We?
The Indigenous Migrant Community that MICOP works with comes primarily from southern Mexico, including the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán, and Puebla.
Twenty thousand indigenous migrants live and work in Ventura County. Another 25,000 live and work in Santa Barbara County.
Soil erosion of the ancestral farmlands of the Mixteca region and economic opportunity here have drawn Mixtecs to California in search of agricultural work. Mixtecs have been a vital part of the Ventura County's economic success since the 1970's.
Concentrated in labor-intensive agricultural sectors such as row crops (strawberries and raspberries) and cut flowers, Mixtecs perform an increasing amount of the backbreaking labor which makes farming profitable and fresh fruits and vegetables available to the public.
Celebrating 20 Years
Founded in 2001 by Nurse Practitioner, Sandra Young, the beginning of MICOP was a direct effort to respond to the immediate needs of the Indigenous Mixteco community in Oxnard, CA. Twenty years later, the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project has grown to having 20 different programs, offices in Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, and helping dozens of indigenous families through advocacy and outreach.
How MICOP is Helping
Building Community
The communal tradition of “tequio” or community obligation promotes a spirit of mutual assistance and community building. Our celebrations of cultural traditions such as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Día del Niño (Children’s Day), Guelaguetza (regional dance festival celebrating all indigenous groups), and Fiesta Navideña (Christmas) build community strength and pride, and add to the richness and diversity of Ventura County life.
An Isolated Community
Mixtecs in Ventura County-and throughout the state-are culturally and linguistically isolated. MICOP - the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project is working to aid Mixtecs to draw on their community strengths and overcome existing barriers along California's Central Coast.
