Mother’s Day event builds bridges between families, cultures in Empire

Mother’s Day served to do something for Empire that mothers have been doing for centuries: bring people together.

At migrant farmworkers’ housing on South Avenue, volunteer moms pulled together a celebration with all the essentials – huge trays of free food, children dancing and shaded chairs for families to lounge in and enjoy the sunny Saturday.

Maria Ambriz and Sophia Rodriguez said they set out to bring together the small town of Empire. “We want to show the community the way we celebrate Mother’s Day in our culture,” Ambriz said in Spanish. “Children give gifts to the mothers,” she said, by dancing or reciting poems.

The two women made all the food and got donations to help cover the cost. “We wanted to bring together the community,” Rodriguez said. “We don’t have any president. We don’t have MAC meetings,” she said, referring to the Empire Municipal Advisory Council.

The Empire MAC listed on the Stanislaus County website has only one member and four vacancies. The unincorporated town hangs off Yosemite Boulevard east of Modesto and has no mayor or other town dignitaries.

The women have banded together with the Hughson Family Resource Center to offer families a link to social services. The center offers counseling, support groups and information on other services, said promotora Victoria Trujillo, a job title that translates roughly to outreach worker.

The Empire “campito,” as it is called by those who live there, opened the first week in May. Third-grade teacher Rachel Hall said she got her first three pupils last week; they will be at Empire Elementary until school ends May 29 and next year until their families leave in October.

“They’re just here for the last three weeks of school. It’s very difficult for them, for the family,” said Hall, whose parents were farmworkers. Her class has been practicing the conga for the Empire Elementary talent show Tuesday night, and joined in the Mother’s Day festivities.

Among Hall’s conga dancers Saturday was Adrian Ambriz, son of Maria Ambriz. Hall said it was the first time in 24 years of teaching in Empire she has seen parents take such initiative.

“I believe they’re trying to instill friendship and some form of stability,” Hall said. In Mexican families, she said, “mothers are the foundation. Even though the men are dominant, mothers are the strong ones.”

This Mother’s Day celebration was very special, she said. “It’s mothers doing it for mothers.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 8:26 PM with the headline "Mother’s Day event builds bridges between families, cultures in Empire."