If you could live in another country in 2025, which would it be?
JULIE
Ireland, I would love to go back there. It’s so green and outside of the city the only traffic is cows, it’s funny. My family is originally from a place called Dingle. It’s a silly name, but I love it there. There’s an ice cream shop, and when you walk past they keep giving you free samples. It’s a good time.
Julie Dee, 16, Student
DAWSON
Ireland for me too, my great-great grandparents were immigrants to New York when the potato famine hit, so my heritage traces back there.
Dawson David, 15, Student
RAFAEL
Mexico, so I could reconnect with some of my family’s roots down there. I’d like to find some of the family that never came to this country in the state of Nayarit, just north of Puerto Vallarta. Plus, Mexico City is a lot of fun. There’s a lot I haven’t seen there, like more of the ancient ruins. Mexico is an interesting place.
Rafael Silverman y de la Vega, 41, Interdisciplinary Scientist
NASH
Either Japan or Denmark. I love Japanese food, that appeals to me, and Japanese people are very friendly. I love the art and the history—and I love karaoke. I’ve been to Denmark and I loved it there—it’s a cool, different place from America.
Nash Karp, 28, Bartender/Gluten-free Baker
JOHANNA
The Netherlands, I was there a year ago, and I could see myself living there, biking around, eating good cheese. I love all the windmills, I love all the cows, all the farmlands. They’ve got great museums, health care, transportation, housing, all the things to live a more leisurely life and not have to grind really hard. It’s pretty awesome.
Johanna Johnson, 27, Bartender
REBECCA
Norway or Sweden. My family is from Sweden, so I have a lot of family history there and I’d like to know it better. I’ve never lived in a really cold place and I would like to experience it. It’s a very different way of life, so I don’t think I could commit to living there for my whole life, but I’d love to experience it for a year.
Two years ago, Leticia Ruvacalba opened La Misma Taqueria in Plaza Vigil, the tiny business park in the heart of Watsonville’s downtown corridor.
The little restaurant is often busy, and by all accounts Ruvacalba and husband Mario are successful members of the community.
But with incoming President Donald Trump’s promises to go after undocumented immigrants and begin mass deportations on his first day back in office, that life has been thrown into turmoil.
Ruvacalba is a naturalized U.S. citizen, but Mario only recently got his green card. Their two children, 5 and 6, attend a local school. It is unclear what will happen when Trump reclaims power.
Because Mario is La Misma’s primary cook, Ruvalcaba is unsure whether she can run the business by herself if he is deported.
“For me, I’m just in the middle,” she says. “What am I going to do if something like that happens? We have a business. I would have to make a very hard decision.”
Ruvalcaba has lived in Watsonville for 35 years, and has long felt like a part of the community. But that has changed in recent years, she says.
This includes hearing her kids describe increasing incidents of bullying at school.
“It’s been really hard, because I’ve been seeing so many things,” she says. “I’ve seen a lot of violence lately. It just hurts me, what Donald Trump is doing. I just wish he would change that. Life would be much better.”
Trump says his focus will be on immigrants who have been embroiled in the justice system, but according to immigrationimpact.com, his plans could include tens of thousands of immigrants who have been in the U.S. for more than a decade.
UNCERTAIN FUTURE Leticia Ruvacalba and her mother-in-law, Martha Salcedo, talk about immigration issues at Plaza Vigil. PHOTO: Tarmo Hannula
Staggering Cost
If Trump’s plans come to full fruition, they could have massive financial impacts on the state. According to the American Immigration Council, some 10.4 million immigrants call California home, with a combined spending power of $382.7 billion. That population pays roughly $151.3 billion in taxes annually.
According to U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, undocumented immigrants make up nearly 14 percent of all construction workers and around 42 percent of the state’s agricultural workers.
Local law enforcement throughout Santa Cruz County have said they will not cooperate with federal immigration officials if they come to enforce deportation orders.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors took a stance last month and passed a resolution stating the county’s supportive stance on its immigrant residents and reaffirming its status as a “sanctuary county.”
Supervisor Felipe Hernandez drafted the resolution with Supervisor Justin Cummings. Watsonville passed a similar ordinance in 2017 when Hernandez was a city council member there, and the Santa Cruz City Council approved one of their own.
As part of the resolution, county staff was directed to work with nonprofits to find ways to strengthen resources and to protect immigrant communities.
Hernandez said that, in addition to protecting residents, it’s important to consider the financial impact of deportation, with California’s economy built largely on agriculture.
“And the backbone is the workforce, and that workforce is immigrants,” Hernandez said. “So it’s imperative that we also protect our economy.”
TRIBUTE Augie WK and Jessica Carmen work on a mural on an exterior wall of the recently opened Elder Day of Community Bridges on West Lake Avenue in Watsonville. PHOTO Tarmo Hannula
Chilling Effect
The unknown ramifications of Trump’s plans have had a profound impact on the community.
“There is lots of fear,” says Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino. “People are very genuinely afraid of what’s going to come next and what’s going to change.”
Cancino says Trump’s fiery rhetoric and hardline stance on immigration is having a “chilling effect,” in many cases discouraging people from properly caring for themselves.
Cancino says he has seen a 30% decline in people applying for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medi Cal and Medicare, because they are scared they’ll be snared by immigration authorities.
“Individuals will stop going to the doctor and stop seeking additional support that is bringing health and wellbeing into their households,” he says. “And I think that for me is the number-one concern. The rhetoric spills over into individuals self-selecting themselves out of services that benefit themselves and their families.”
Most people who are here illegally, Cancino says, want to find a pathway to legal citizenship. But most do not have the ability to wade through years of red tape to make that happen.
“The reality is that most folks cannot operate in that way,” he says.
Cancino says that approximately one-third of the population in Monterey County is undocumented, while in Santa Cruz County about 8%–roughly 20,000—are here illegally.
It is too early to speculate about what impact the new immigration enforcement policies will have, says Claudia Magallon, Santa Cruz County Immigration Project Directing Attorney.
But it is vital for everyone to learn their rights.
This includes the right to remain silent if approached by an immigration officer, and to ask for an attorney.
“It’s the government’s job to prove they are here illegally,” she says.
In addition, there is no requirement to open the door for an immigration officer if there is no warrant signed by a judge.
Residents can also attend the Immigration Project’s presentations with topics such as naturalization and know your rights.
Supervisor Luis Alejo says the Monterey County Board of Supervisors has approved an Immigration Rights Ad Hoc Committee, which at its first meeting included more than 50 stakeholders, such as the Mexican consul general and members of the agriculture community, as well as representatives from hospitality, education, healthcare, labor and public safety.
The committee’s intent is to “bring local stakeholders together to solicit input, facilitate communication, and prepare for any massive federal immigration enforcement actions within Monterey County, and to utilize county resources to educate and advocate our immigrant communities,” Alejo says.
Padilla, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, has criticized Trump’s plans, which he says will “separate spouses and rip parents away from their U.S. citizen children, while causing massive economic hardship.”
In the days following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, I reached out to a longtime Northern California family farmer to gauge his level of concern.
Trump has, after all, already made full-throated declarations that his administration will conduct the largest deportation of undocumented residents in U.S. history. That should resonate in a place like California, with its estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants — and it certainly would shake up a state agriculture industry in which nearly half of all workers are undocumented.
But the farmer, who asked not to be identified to avoid political conflict with business partners, was unruffled. A self-described social moderate and fiscal conservative, he and his family have spent generations in the business. While his own seasonal employees are on work visas, his understanding of the industry’s historical reliance on undocumented workers runs deep, through direct experience, colleagues and a seat on the board of an agriculture lending institution.
He knows the stakes. Even at a time when some farmers use more authorized workers than ever, the industry overall remains heavily reliant on undocumented immigrants.
“I suspect it’ll be like it always has been: If you’re undocumented but stay out of trouble, not much is going to happen,” he told me. “Dragging hard-working people out of here does not go over well.”
That is hardly a poetic response. It does, however, have the ring of truth.
Trump’s notion to mass deport nearly 5% of the U.S. workforce is a recipe for such economic wreckage that it feels impossible. But that doesn’t mean those who study immigration and try to shape policy don’t take him seriously.
“It is unlikely that a large share of the unauthorized immigrant population will be deported quickly,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research for the Economic Policy Institute. “But there’s a lot the Trump 2.0 administration can do to remove a high number fast.”
Among the possibilities: Trump’s administration could go after immigrants who have received a final order of removal or are in the country under temporary protected status (TPS), which is usually extended to those whose home countries are experiencing problems that make it difficult or unsafe for them to return. Those nations include Venezuela, El Salvador and Haiti.
Costa, a visiting scholar at the University of California Davis’ Global Migration Center, also suggested that Trump could adjust federal policy to expand temporary work visa programs — one way to assuage employers, by theoretically replacing deported undocumented workers with those possessing a legal but short leash to remain in the country.
“Those visas give employers a lot of power and control over workers because their visa status is tied to the employer,” Costa said. “They cannot easily change jobs. And if they get fired, they become deportable, which keeps them from complaining about substandard working conditions or from [trying to join] a union.”
But all of that presupposes that the Trump administration would first locate and then expel hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers in California alone. On both counts, experts say, that’s a long-shot.
Jamshid Damooei, executive director of the Center for Economics of Social Issues at California Lutheran University, has been studying the economic impact of undocumented immigrants in the state for years. To Damooei, the numbers tell the story.
According to the center’s analysis, undocumented immigrants are the source of more than half a trillion dollars of products in California, either by direct, indirect or induced production levels. Their work adds up to nearly 5% of the state’s gross domestic product, or GDP.
And while 46% of the state’s agricultural workforce is undocumented, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For example, the center’s report found that in Los Angeles County, 28.7% of the construction workforce is undocumented, along with 17.5% in manufacturing, 16% in wholesale trade and more than 15% in retail trade.
“How could L.A. County function with a significant share of its vital workforce being deported?” Damooei said. “In my county, Ventura, 70% of farmworkers are undocumented. In Santa Barbara it’s closer to 80%. Then there is construction, manufacturing, transportation. … Look, this is just incredibly powerful.”
Employers aren’t likely to give up that kind of workforce willingly, especially considering how much less they generally pay undocumented workers than others. That’s one reason the Northern California farmer sounded relatively confident that, all political rhetoric aside, the status quo will hold.
None of this answers the larger questions of what Trump really wants or how his administration would achieve it. But even setting aside the sheer inhumanity of a mass deportation policy, the financial equation makes the idea untenable.
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants paid almost $100 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022. More than a third of those taxes went to fund programs the immigrants are barred from using, like Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance.
Six states raised more than $1 billion in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants that year, the institute found. The leader of the pack? California, at $8.5 billion (followed by Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey). And in 40 states, including California, undocumented immigrants paid higher state and local tax rates than the top 1% of households.
“Undocumented immigrants are not a source of depletion of our tax revenue — they subsidize our benefits,” Damooie said. “They are not the takers of our tax revenue but the makers, who receive very little in return.”
Damooie and others argue that a path toward citizenship, not deportation, ought to be the goal. That’s not a likely scenario over the next four years.
In the meantime, the Northern California farmer said, “These workers are mostly just going to keep working.” It is work destined to be continued in the shadows — where it’s almost always been.
The annual Fungus Fair is a fung-tastic event for budding and seasoned mycologists. There’s always something new to learn about mushrooms; for instance, there wouldn’t be beer, wine, cheese or bread without fungus. Another fun fact: people interact with fungi daily. The three-day event is perfect for exploring our relationship with fungi; whether learning about rare and exotic species or simply identifying a mushroom found in a local park, there is something for everyone. There will be children’s activities, speakers, shopping, fungi identification and demonstrations throughout the event. Aligning with the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz’s mission, this event puts the fun in fungi. ISABELLA MARIE SANGALINE
INFO: 2pm, London Nelson Center, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz. $10. 420-6177.
FOLK
CHUCK BRODSKY
Except for a trio of records he released in the final years of the 20th century, Chuck Brodsky has long been the model of the independent, do-it-yourself artist. It’s just that now, the music business as a whole is catching up with his approach. He crowdfunded his last three albums, the most recent of which is Them and Us. He’s a singer/songwriter who pens heart-on-sleeve songs with a social conscience but is equally likely to serve up an original tune about baseball. Brodsky possesses a keen wit that sets him apart from the pack. BILL KOPP
BB King once said, “Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.” And if that master is to be trusted, Hamish Anderson knows the blues. Joining Anderson is Quinn Sullivan, the 29-year-old prodigy from Massachusetts whose debut album dropped when he was the ragged age of 12. Read more on page 18. MAT WEIR
INFO: 8pm, Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $23. 713-5492.
SATURDAY 1/11
HARDCORE PUNK
BLACK FLAG
Old punks show their age by how amazed they are seeing Black Flag’s iconic black bars logo go so mainstream, appearing in mall stores everywhere. Geriatric moshers are even more baffled at Henry Rollins, Black Flag’s best-known (but by no means best) singer, becoming a staple on reality television. Black Flag are the “little engine that could” of bands, going through multiple lineups, traveling the country by van, squatting in an old church and now the respected elders of punk rock who hopefully get some of that T-shirt money. They’ll play their first four albums on Saturday in an explosion of early ’80s hardcore. KEITH LOWELL JENSEN
INFO: 7pm, Vets Hall, 846 Front St., Santa Cruz. $34/adv, $39/door. 454-0478.
SUNDAY 1/12
REGGAE
RAGING STONE
Kick-off 2025 with an irie start when Raging Stone plays Discretion Brewery for free Sunday. The Santa Cruz reggae group consists of Lennon Kozlicek on guitar and vocals, Mark Kner on bass and a rotating variety of drummers to keep the beat rocksteady. But in true Santa Cruz style, Raging Stone doesn’t stick to one genre, branching out into elements of ska, dub, dancehall and everything else that came from the islands. It’s a matinee show, so partiers can grab a pint and one of the savory appetizers or lunches made by local Italian restaurant Sugo and enjoy an afternoon of cold brews and hot beats. MW
Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti has cemented his place as a global favorite for nearly three decades, collaborating with countless music icons, including Sting, Paul Simon, Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Andrea Bocelli. Renowned for his chart-topping albums and performances, the musician’s career successfully bridged jazz and pop stardom long ago. Now, with his Blue Note debut Vol. 1, Botti returns to his roots in acoustic jazz, stripping away all of the orchestral layers and guest features. Botti’s renewed focus is on pure musicianship, inspired by jazz greats like Miles Davis and Pat Metheny. As Botti enters a new era of creation, the music evokes a refined, sophisticated ambiance apt for any setting or mood. MELISA YURIAR
INFO: 7pm, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $92. 423-8209.
TUESDAY 1/14
DJ MASTER CLASS
JARED GAMPEL
Jared Gampel is a Santa Cruz-based DJ and cofounder of People’s Disco, an all-vinyl socialist dance party that’s continued to spin since its launch in 2016. The artist earned his PhD in the History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz, with a dissertation exploring the rise of retro music cultures and how industry shifts have amplified our love for “old” music. Gampel teaches four courses at UCSC, including Learning to DJ and Introduction to Marxism, is a dedicated union organizer with the American Federation of Teachers and is a committed activist with the Democratic Socialists of America. MY
INFO: 7pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. Free. 427-2227.
WEDNESDAY 1/15
AUTHOR EVENT
LIZA MONROY
Novelist Liza Monroy drew upon her life experiences when writing her debut novel, 2008’s fictional Mexican High. She went on to pen a memoir plus numerous articles and essays in high-profile popular and literary outlets and anthologies. Monroy’s latest and fourth novel, The Distractions, draws from current concerns about social media and the online world and explores how technology enables a host of problematic phenomena: envy, ceaseless comparison, manipulation and even obsession. Monroy will discuss her work with host and fellow Santa Cruz-based novelist Malena Watrous. BK
INFO: 7pm, Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Free. 423-0900.
JAZZ
HIGH STEP SOCIETY
High Step Society is here to satisfy anyone who likes a heavy dose of jazz in their electronic music or the synthetic thump of a drum machine in their swing. Are they jazz with techno stripes or techno with jazz stripes? It doesn’t matter; what’s important is that when they take the stage, they play music optimized for dancing one’s ass off. Audience members are encouraged to dress to impress; this may be the chance to wear that suit or dress that friends or partners had the nerve to suggest donating to Goodwill! Just make sure it’s an outfit to groove in. KLJ
As the fledgling new year begins to find its legs, it’s important to remember that we get out of our community what we put into it. One of the qualities so many of us fell in love with about Santa Cruz is its diverse community where artists, creatives, fun weirdos and anyone in between can come together to share ideas, cultures, stories and a laugh or two.
It’s this love for connection and good times that spins at the heart of DJs Efrain Garcia (aka Dr. Funk) and Valeria Jara (aka Jet Jaguar). After all, they even named their KZSC program—where they play funk, disco, electro, dance and cumbia music, and which celebrates its four year anniversary on Jan. 11—the Mothership Connection.
“I love George Clinton, Parliament and the space motif,” Garcia says. “Plus the literal word ‘connection’ is in the name so it really brought together our different passions.”
The duo also deejay under the Mothership Connection moniker throughout the Central Coast with two monthly nights at the Blue Lagoon, spinning funk every first Friday for Funk the First (which celebrates its one-year anniversary later this year) and cumbia every third Friday for Firme Friday (which just celebrated its one-year anniversary in December).
The two originally met in the most unlikely—and also modern—of places: Tinder.
“It’s a tale as old as time,” Jara laughs.
They became friends online first in 2019 and started hanging out right before 2020. They were both interested in one another but neither knew how to approach the subject.
“At that point I had been at the station [KZSC] for about three years and I had a program that played oldies from the 1930s to the 1960s,” Jara remembers.
However, she had grown bored of it and in the fall of 2020 she started a show focusing on vogue and ballroom style music from the queer underground.
“I wanted an excuse to hangout with Ef regularly,” she says. “So I told him about the show and invited him on.”
Shortly after they started the Mothership Connection, blending their love for funk and dance music with the representation of marginalized communities. Over the years the show would grow to a beautifully eclectic blend of funk, disco, dance, lo-fi beat and cumbia.
“Curation is really important to us,” Garcia says. “We’re not just playing tracks. We’re creating a vibe and ambiance to add another layer.”
It’s this attention to detail—understanding the art of DJing to not only beat match but also vibe match—along with their pristine taste in music that makes Mothership Connection stand out in the local club scene (and the drag clown makeup doesn’t hurt, either). It’s also what makes them such great live DJs, with the ability to read a room so the party never stops.
For Firme Friday, the duo digs deep into the rich history of cumbia—a 19th-century style that originated in Colombia and blends Latin American and African traditions—along with current hits in the genre. The two noticed it was a style they loved that was severely lacking in local dancehalls.
“There’s too many brown people in Santa Cruz to not have a cumbia night,” Jara says about Firme Friday. “It’s pretty intergenerational with college folks to older heads.”
“Firme is a love letter to being brown,” Garcia agrees. “Cumbia holds a very close, familial place in my heart.”
Then there’s Funk the First, which the two host with a special set of refined tunes all played on original vinyl, a technique they’ve slowly integrated on their radio show as well.
The idea for a funk night came about as a collaborative team-up with Ruca Records, the womxn deejay collective out of Salinas. Each Funk the First features a rotating cast of local DJs from Ruca Records, along with Mothership Connection and guests Encounters of the Funky Kind (Monterey), Ugle Eye (Watsonville) and more.
It’s all part of a larger scene they all have been slowly curating and growing on the Central Coast.
“It’s lame to have to go to San Francisco for something cool,” Garcia says. “We want Santa Cruz to be a part of the conversation between San Jose and Seaside.”
In that same spirit, Mothership Connection doesn’t just play and support their own nights, but can be found throughout the community on any given month. Along with private events like weddings and corporate gigs, the duo has also deejayed everything from the Cedar Street Faire and the Santa Cruz Rollerderby to burlesque and drag shows like The Cherry Pit.
The last of these provides inspiration for Garcia and Jara to keep creating new environments for the community. Jara quotes the Cherry Pit hosts: “You want more shows? You can do this too!”
Garcia agrees.
“Be the change you want to see in the community.”
“Funk the First” takes place Friday, Jan. 10 at the Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Free. “Mothership Connection” airs Saturdays at 2pm on 88.1FM KZSC.
Not so many years ago, the only path to success for a recording and performing artist was to land a record deal. The marketing and administrative muscle of the major labels was essential to getting albums made and tours promoted.
But in recent years, the music industry has undergone seismic changes, and today it’s possible for an industrious artist to make his or her own way without the backing of a record label.
The success of Australian blues rock singer-songwriter-guitarist Hamish Anderson is a case in point. Touring a short run of West Coast dates in support of his latest release, Electric, Anderson comes to the Catalyst Jan. 10.
There’s a blues foundation to Anderson’s original music, but he was raised on a healthy and omnivorous diet of music thanks to his father.
“When I was growing up, my dad listened to all kinds of music,” he says. “Everything: rock, classical, Indian music. But he was very deep into the blues.”
Beyond listening to his dad’s CDs, Anderson’s first exposure to a blues artist was watching a film made more than a decade before he was born: 1980’s The Blues Brothers. “There was just something about John Lee Hooker,” he says. “I thought he was the coolest person I’d ever seen.”
Hooker became a hero of his; the legendary bluesman made an impression on Anderson just as he had done years before on guitarists like Keith Richards and Eric Clapton. Anderson dug deeper into the American music tradition and developed an enduring appreciation for other blues artists including Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin and Howlin’ Wolf, going back even farther to explore the work of Robert Johnson.
“I’ve always loved history,” he explains. “So when I discovered blues, it was a perfect [combination] of history and music.”
Anderson’s music is informed by artists who were influenced by those blues greats, too. His website features a playlist of artists whose work has inspired him, and the list includes tracks by T. Rex, Otis Redding, the Kinks, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, George Harrison, the Beach Boys and Wilson Pickett. He notes that at the end of T. Rex’s “Get it On (Bang a Gong),” Marc Bolan quotes a line from Chuck Berry’s “Little Queenie” (“Meanwhile, I’m still thinking”). “You can find all these little connections between all these amazing artists and amazing music,” he enthuses.
Anderson released his self-titled debut EP in 2013. Since then he’s released another EP and three full-length albums. There are significant threads connecting all five of those releases: one is that Anderson writes all of his own music.
“For me, it all comes down to the song,” he says. “You can’t have a really cool guitar solo [but] a shitty song; it has to all be happening at once.”
He’s a serious student of songwriting, exploring and learning from the nuances in songs by Lennon and McCartney, Joni Mitchell or the Kinks’ Ray Davies. “Just by listening to these amazing songwriters, you get a crash course in how a song should be.”
Another common characteristic of all of Anderson’s music is that it’s self-released. He’s one of the new breed of musicians who have found a way to build a career, tour, release albums and connect with fans, all without signing on the dotted line with a label.
“I’ve come up in an age when you can be unsigned and get your own path going, carve out a little something,” he says. Anderson finds that he’s able to self-release records and focus on playing in front of people. “Especially in America, there’s a real appetite for the live experience,” he says.
For most of his studio releases, Anderson worked with seven-time Grammy winning producer-engineer Jim Scott, renowned for his work with Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, Tedeschi Trucks Band and many others.
“He’s worked with everybody,” says Anderson. “Working with Jim is effortless.”
But along the way, Anderson learned a great deal about production himself, so when the time came to make Electric, he chose to co-produce with David Davis, engineer on The War on Drugs’ A Deeper Understanding, Frank Ocean’s Blonde and nearly two dozen other projects of note.
“I’m influenced by all the classic music,” Anderson explains. “But for Electric, I wanted to bring more of the influence of stuff that’s the modern version of that [music].” He says that he wanted to make a record that would fit on a playlist with artists like Alabama Shakes, Arctic Monkeys, Jack White and Gary Clark Jr.
There’s a through-line in his production approach, though. As with Anderson’s previous records, the tracks for Electric were laid down live in the studio; he believes that approach gives the music a more direct feel. “What my records have in common is that there’s a live band playing,” he says.
Ultimately, that live experience is what the music is all about for Hamish Anderson. For his West Coast tour, he’ll be fronting a classic power trio: guitar, bass, drums.
“It’s very electric, very heavy,” he says. “There are no backing tracks or any of that stuff.” When Anderson describes the music he’ll play, he could just as easily be summing up his music influences: “It’s a mixture of modern rock ’n’ roll, blues and soul.”
Hamish Anderson and Quinn Sullivan play at 8pm Jan. 10 at the Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Tickets: $22.50. catalystclub.com
This story was produced and originally published by Capital & Main.
In the days following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, I reached out to a longtime Northern California family farmer to gauge his level of concern.
Trump has, after all, already made full-throated declarations that his administration will conduct the largest deportation of undocumented residents in U.S. history. That should resonate in a place like California, with its estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants—and it certainly would shake up a state agriculture industry in which nearly half of all workers are undocumented.
But the farmer, who asked not to be identified to avoid political conflict with business partners, was unruffled. A self-described social moderate and fiscal conservative, he and his family have spent generations in the business. While his own seasonal employees are on work visas, his understanding of the industry’s historical reliance on undocumented workers runs deep, through direct experience, colleagues and a seat on the board of an agriculture lending institution.
He knows the stakes. Even at a time when some farmers use more authorized workers than ever, the industry overall remains heavily reliant on undocumented immigrants.
“I suspect it’ll be like it always has been: If you’re undocumented but stay out of trouble, not much is going to happen,” he told me. “Dragging hard-working people out of here does not go over well.”
That is hardly a poetic response. It does, however, have the ring of truth.
Trump’s notion to mass deport nearly 5% of the U.S. workforce is a recipe for such economic wreckage that it feels impossible. But that doesn’t mean those who study immigration and try to shape policy don’t take him seriously.
“It is unlikely that a large share of the unauthorized immigrant population will be deported quickly,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research for the Economic Policy Institute. “But there’s a lot the Trump 2.0 administration can do to remove a high number fast.”
Among the possibilities: Trump’s administration could go after immigrants who have received a final order of removal or are in the country under temporary protected status (TPS), which is usually extended to those whose home countries are experiencing problems that make it difficult or unsafe for them to return. Those nations include Venezuela, El Salvador and Haiti.
Costa, a visiting scholar at the University of California Davis’ Global Migration Center, also suggested that Trump could adjust federal policy to expand temporary work visa programs — one way to assuage employers, by theoretically replacing deported undocumented workers with those possessing a legal but short leash to remain in the country.
“Those visas give employers a lot of power and control over workers because their visa status is tied to the employer,” Costa said. “They cannot easily change jobs. And if they get fired, they become deportable, which keeps them from complaining about substandard working conditions or from [trying to join] a union.”
But all of that presupposes that the Trump administration would first locate and then expel hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers in California alone. On both counts, experts say, that’s a longshot.
Jamshid Damooei, executive director of the Center for Economics of Social Issues at California Lutheran University, has been studying the economic impact of undocumented immigrants in the state for years. To Damooei, the numbers tell the story.
According to the center’s analysis, undocumented immigrants are the source of more than half a trillion dollars of products in California, either by direct, indirect or induced production levels. Their work adds up to nearly 5% of the state’s gross domestic product, or GDP.
And while 46% of the state’s agricultural workforce is undocumented, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For example, the center’s report found that in Los Angeles County, 28.7% of the construction workforce is undocumented, along with 17.5% in manufacturing, 16% in wholesale trade and more than 15% in retail trade.
“How could L.A. County function with a significant share of its vital workforce being deported?” Damooei said. “In my county, Ventura, 70% of farmworkers are undocumented. In Santa Barbara it’s closer to 80%. Then there is construction, manufacturing, transportation. … Look, this is just incredibly powerful.”
Employers aren’t likely to give up that kind of workforce willingly, especially considering how much less they generally pay undocumented workers than others. That’s one reason the Northern California farmer sounded relatively confident that, all political rhetoric aside, the status quo will hold.
None of this answers the larger questions of what Trump really wants or how his administration would achieve it. But even setting aside the sheer inhumanity of a mass deportation policy, the financial equation makes the idea untenable.
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants paid almost $100 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022. More than a third of those taxes went to fund programs the immigrants are barred from using, like Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance.
Six states raised more than $1 billion in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants that year, the institute found. The leader of the pack? California, at $8.5 billion (followed by Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey). And in 40 states, including California, undocumented immigrants paid higher state and local tax rates than the top 1% of households.
“Undocumented immigrants are not a source of depletion of our tax revenue—they subsidize our benefits,” Damooie said. “They are not the takers of our tax revenue but the makers, who receive very little in return.”
Damooie and others argue that a path toward citizenship, not deportation, ought to be the goal. That’s not a likely scenario over the next four years.
In the meantime, the Northern California farmer said, “These workers are mostly just going to keep working.” It is work destined to be continued in the shadows—where it’s almost always been.
Born and raised in Lebanon where she immigrated to the U.S. from in 2010, Ramona Ismail fell for Mexican food flavors right away when they initially graced her palate. She and her husband, Frank, bought neighborhood favorite Grady’s Market 10 years ago, aspiring to one day offer high-quality affordable cuisine from the on-site kitchen. Almost a decade later, they found the right chef/partner in Marco, an award-winning executive chef specializing in authentic Mexican cuisine.
Offering on-site dining, take-out and catering, Casa Birria opened in November 2024 and is gaining a culinary foothold in the community. The namesake birria headlines, the slow-cooked tender shredded beef is available in tacos, tortas, quesadillas and even pizza and ramen. Other favorites are burgers and burritos, as well as street tacos with 12 different protein options. There are also breakfast burritos, chimichangas and asada fries, as well as a slightly spicy secret sauce. Daily specials like pozole, chili rellenos and camarones a la diabla are also available, and so is a scratch-made, match-made-in-heaven churro cheesecake for dessert.
What inspired your immigration?
RAMONA ISMAIL: I was born in Lebanon during the civil war, and I remember vividly not being able to go to school and not living the life that a child should. I didn’t want my own children to grow up like that, I wanted them to be in a safe place, live their age and have the childhood experience that I didn’t. Living here, I share my culture with my kids and it feels so good knowing we are here and that we are secure.
Where does your passion for Mexican cuisine come from?
RI: I think the cuisine is similar to Mediterranean food, and the flavors and spices they use are similar to what I ate as a child. Even though I didn’t grow up eating Mexican food, I love that it reminds me of home. And at the end of the day, I really just love authentic food from any culture, and that is what we serve here at Casa Birria.509 Bay Ave., Capitola, 831-475-2688; casabirriaca.com
My proverbial last meal would involve fresh Monterey Bay Dungeness crab.
My proudest trespassing crime came as Crab Santa, sneaking into friends’ and family’s houses to leave cooked crustaceans staged in the shelves of their fridge.
My greatest invention is the crab-bacon-avocado-pepper jack quesadilla.
For some, their favorite season is summer. For others, it’s the holidays or pro football. For me, it’s crab season, which started locally Sunday, Jan. 5.
I celebrated by reporting Jan. 6—you gotta give our MoBay crabbers time to drop and retrieve their traps, after all—to H&H Fresh Fish (493 Lake Ave., Suite A) at Santa Cruz Harbor.
David Mora at the counter weighed out a big beauty ($13/pound pound live; $21/cooked), noting there’s been a nice swell in business and customer calls.
Meanwhile industry advocates like Melissa Mahoney of Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust, where I’m a contributing writer, are relieved and hungry.
“After much uncertainty, consternation and out-of-state crab, our very own Monterey Bay crab has arrived,” she says. “Get down there, find a boat to buy from, eat it up.”
UPON FURTHER REVIEW
Hold up. Wait. Two things can be true at the same time, as can two favorite seasons. In this case, my other adored season often overlaps with crab: mushroom season! And Santa Cruz can make a formidable claim it’s a capital for that, full stop. The Santa Cruz Fungus Fair (held at London Nelson Community Center, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz) sits at the center of the celebration, and arrives this year Jan. 10-11, with all the vividness of the Exhibit Hall and its displays of local and exotic fungi, live cooking demonstrations, guided mushroom forays and inspired art. That combines with an ever-expanding lineup of guest speakers talking medicinal, sustainable, fascinating and ecosystemic mushrooms. Now c’mon, rain gods and goddesses, keep the moisture coming, ffsc.us/fair.
BONUS BOOM
More spores in store include: 1) a night called “Mycelial Magic,” with local herbalist Paul Gaylon talking power-to-the-soil biology of mycelium, Amanita muscaria expert Kenneth Lekashman demoing healing creams, and house-made medicinal mushroom teas at a discount from host venue Go Ask Alice (1125 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz) 6:30-8pm Friday, Jan 10, the same spot offering deals on fungus products all month, goaskalicesantacruz.com; 2) Big Sur Foragers Festival—featuring its “Wild Foraging Walk and Talk” and “Fungus Face Off,” the latter a culinary wonderland with a dozen chefs doing foraged dishes paired with selections from 20 local wineries—pops Jan. 24-26, bigsurforagersfestival.org.
FLAVOR SCAPING
Capitola Wine Bar & Merchants (115 San Jose Ave., Capitola) hosts a themed tasting + pairing + book spotlight Sunday, Jan. 11, featuring Good Times’ Elizabeth Borelli, author of Tastes Like La Dolce Vita, capitolawinebar.com…Moss Landing’s arty-eco-excellent Haute Enchilada (7902 Moss Landing Road) welcomed a surprise New Year’s Eve, an early barn owl egg from a new owl couple residing in the restaurant’s nest box high above, hauteenchilada.com…Oh dear or oh yes?: Native is partnering with Dunkin’ (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) on a line of donut-scented deodorant, body wash, shampoo, and more. “If your resolution was more self-care and fewer donuts, then maybe Boston Kreme deodorant is the answer,” writes The Hustle Daily…Khalil Gibran, see us out: “I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.”
As we glide into 2025, I realize I could write a book about New Year’s resolutions. As a wellness coach, I’ve spent years trying to solve the resolution riddle. I’m all for new beginnings, but with success rates so low, why do we keep making them?
The odds aren’t exactly in our favor. A 2023 poll from Forbes Health found most people give up on their resolutions within four months. The numbers tell the story: only 8% of people stick it out for a month, and here’s the kicker—just 1% make it the whole year.
Where are we going wrong? As it turns out, lasting change comes down to understanding how habits work. Research shows 40% of what we do daily is automatic. When people make resolutions, they don’t always focus on turning them into habits or creating a plan to make those habits stick.
Want to beat the odds and turn your resolutions into a lasting success? These local wellness experts have some ideas that could help.
One Day at a Time “A single, intentional shift can ignite profound change,” suggests Suzy Brown of Dynamic Reflexology & Nutrition. “All wellness begins with a thriving liver—the powerhouse that detoxifies, balances hormones, and fuels vitality.”
A certified reflexologist and nutrition practitioner, Brown offers one simple tip: “Start each morning with warm lemon water before coffee. This simple ritual jumpstarts digestion, revitalizes the liver and lays the foundation for a vibrant day.”
Brown asserts, “Commit to this one habit for four weeks to build consistency before introducing another.” The next steps, she says, could be “regular reflexology sessions to reduce stress, restore balance and support overall well-being.”
Get Crystal Clear
“One of the main reasons people fail to stick to their resolutions is that their goals are too vague,” says Eric Hand, a clinical exercise physiologist with Dominican Hospital’s Center for Lifestyle Management. “If you want to exercise more, you might set a goal to work out twice per week, but this goal is too ambiguous. The brain is overwhelmed by ambiguity and you are likely to spin your wheels trying to figure out exercise options and won’t know where to start.”
Hand explains, “Researchers in Great Britain found that people were nearly three times more likely to exercise if they wrote down the specific day, time and place they were going to work out.” For example, he says, the resolution should include a type of exercise, the days of the week, the time of the day, and the place.
Hand adds, “To make it even more impactful, consider adding your ‘why’ to the equation. Your new goal would now look like ‘I will take a cardio kickboxing class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5pm at my local gym because it helps me feel strong and confident.’ This goal is crystal clear to the brain and reflects the type of person you want to become, greatly increasing the likelihood of success.”
Mindful Moments
Maaliea Wilbur, a licensed marriage family therapist and CEO of Therapy Works, says that as she steps into the new year, she encourages clients to take “a mindful moment to pause, reflect and set new intentions. Reflection is a powerful practice that allows us to honor our achievements, acknowledge the challenges we’ve faced, and uncover the valuable lessons they’ve taught us. This intentional process creates a strong foundation for setting meaningful goals—whether they focus on personal growth, health, relationships, or career aspirations.”
Wilbur adds, “Another simple yet highly effective habit to elevate your life is the practice of daily gratitude. By focusing on gratitude, you can quickly shift your perspective to recognize what’s going well, fostering a sense of positivity and increasing resilience throughout the year.”
She recommends one specific tool: the 5-Minute Journal. “You can simply take a few moments each day to jot down three to five things you’re grateful for,” she explains. “These can be big milestones or small, meaningful moments. Over time, this consistent practice enhances your ability to notice and appreciate the good around you, creating a lasting positive impact on your mood and overall outlook.”
Two years ago, Leticia Ruvacalba opened La Misma Taqueria in Plaza Vigil, the tiny business park in the heart of Watsonville’s downtown corridor.
The little restaurant is often busy, and by all accounts Ruvacalba and husband Mario are successful members of the community.
But with incoming President Donald Trump’s promises to go after undocumented immigrants and begin mass deportations on his...
Trump’s notion to mass deport nearly 5% of the U.S. workforce is a recipe for such economic wreckage that it feels impossible. But that doesn’t mean those who study immigration and try to shape policy don’t take him seriously.
High Step Society is here to satisfy anyone who likes a heavy dose of jazz in their electronic music or the synthetic thump of a drum machine in their swing.
Beyond listening to his dad’s CDs, Anderson’s first exposure to a blues artist was watching a film made more than a decade before he was born: 1980’s The Blues Brothers.
As a wellness coach, I’ve spent years trying to solve the resolution riddle. I’m all for new beginnings, but with success rates so low, why do we keep making them?
