The area's population doubled to 50,000. Once majority white, now it is more than 70 percent Latino. Most of them are strawberry pickers, but some now own small farms themselves. Many migrated from Mexico. The population boom, along with the 1989 earthquake and a subsequent flood, made housing scarce and expensive.
Schools are overcrowded, and violent gang activity increased.
Recent struggles over pay and working conditions between strawberry pickers and farmers are the latest stress in Watsonville. In the midst of this, Lutheran Community Church questioned whether it is right to enter the political turmoil. We can sit it out because it is controversial and political. But our council said we want this congregation to be a place where we can discuss controversial subjects. God calls us to be in the middle of the whole mess, not to stay above the struggles in our community.