We recently had the great pleasure to join a walk with Martin Rizzo-Martinez, a historian, author, film and podcast producer, and tribal liaison for California State Parks. This walk was set up by our friends at Life Lab in anticipation of our partnership for the Community Harvest public access program.

As a reminder, the Watsonville Slough Farm is an organic farm owned and operated by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. For the past 15 years on this farm, we’ve demonstrated that rare and important habitats and commercial farming can exist together and thrive. We are currently in the permitting process to bring people out to our farm to enjoy produce and the incredible nature of the surrounding wetlands.

Martin Rizzo-Martinez led us through the history of the land and the different people who called this area home. A very sad story Martin shared was the particular brutality of Mission Santa Cruz, which was one of the smaller missions. Because of its size, it was a place to put “problem” priests from larger missions. These priests were zealous and treated indigenous people unmercifully. The soldiers, who were outnumbered and feared uprisings, would eventually relocate these problem priests to smaller missions. While the survival rate of native people in any of the missions was dismal, very few people survived the Santa Cruz Mission.

Martin also shared stories from contemporary events. It’s such a shock to hear how Native Americans still must fight so hard to be heard and respected. Our history books leave a lot to be desired. I personally am looking forward to learning more about the history of the Central Coast, supporting our tribal partners, telling their stories, and honoring the native people who lived and still live here. If you are interested in learning more, subscribe to Martin’s podcast “Challenging Colonialism” and purchase his book “We Are Not Animals”.