Meet entrepreneur and community leader, Darlene Tenes. She has a flair for planning festive and creative Hispanic events, which incorporate the traditions and customs of Spain, Mexico, and Latin America. Her passion for Latino culture is the foundation of her successful business CasaQ. Founded in 2005, the San Jose-based company provides unique products, services, and content geared toward people who embrace the Latino culture.
Darlene is also heavily involved in the community with her volunteer work. When she saw a post by Assemblymember Robert Rivas, who was hosting a Farmworker Relief Drive in Watsonville, with her marketing and event planning background, she quickly mobilized the community to bring critical donations to agricultural workers who have been severely impacted by COVID-19.
“The next day, I put something up on Facebook, and in 48-hours, we had 90 cars registered. Then on Wednesday, I shut down the caravan registration and decided to organize a donation drive in 24-hours getting volunteers, three large box trucks, and a location to collect donations. By Friday, we had a line of cars backed up on 11th Street in front of the San Jose Woman’s Club dropping off donations. It was great!” recalled Darlene.
This grassroots effort is now called the Farmworker Caravan, and since April, it has been providing donations monthly to farmworker families.
It takes a village! Darlene said that there is a group of amazing and dedicated people behind the scenes who have been volunteering alongside her, making these humanitarian efforts possible.
“The Farmworker Caravans are an eye-opening experience for people, and they get very emotional. I’ve been told time and again how beautiful it is to see people come together in unity to do something good, especially during these trying times in history,” she said.
Darlene will be one of the recipients of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley Sisterhood Award for her tremendous impact in our community at the upcoming LCSV Sisterhood Brunch on October 11, 2020, at 11:30 am – 1:30 pm PST. There is still time to get tickets to this wonderful event to celebrate the Sisterhood Award recipients, connect with fellow Latina leaders, and learn more about LCSV. For more than two decades, LCSV has been committed to developing a pipeline of Latina leaders to empower our community to be more civically engaged, take on leadership roles, and bring about systemic change for Latinas in Silicon Valley. Visit bit.ly/SisterhoodBrunch2020 to reserve your spot.
What are some of your favorite Mexican traditions that your family celebrates?
It’s funny because I had to really think about this because some of our traditions are so entrenched that we don’t realize that other people don’t do it. Particularly during this time of the year my mother puts up a Dia de Los Muertos altar in the family room with pictures of our family that have passed away. During the Christmas season, we go to Las Posadas in December, then rise early in the morning on the 12th for Las Mañanitas on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In many Mexican homes such as ours, the nativity scene or nacimiento is more important than a Christmas tree. My mother has a collection of nativities and has the youngest children in the family place the baby Jesus in the crib on Christmas Eve. Every year on New Year’s Day, I host a large open house with all of my family and friends and make a big pot of pozole to kick off the new year. Then we finish the season celebrating Dia de Los Reyes with a rosca de reyes bread and finish off the last of the tamales.
What are some new products or workshops by CasaQ?
I’m very excited to be introducing my new Xocolatl – Mexican Artisan Chocolate. It took me a long time to get the recipe just right and go through tasting panels and revisions till I finally got the perfect blend. Xocolatl is a sweet and savory mixture of cocoa, cinnamon, and vanilla along with a touch of chile and other spices to make a wonderfully luscious drink like no other. This ain’t your abuelita’s chocolate! In addition, I am excited to pair my hot chocolate with pan dulce gift boxes that have a picture chart with the names of each bread type and the history of pan dulce in Mexico that you can send to friends and clients.
What inspired you to start the Farmworkers Caravan?
Just a couple weeks into the Shelter-in-Place mandate, I woke up on April 25th at 4 am. As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, I spotted a post by Assemblymember Robert Rivas, who was hosting a Farmworker Relief Drive in Watsonville the same day. Knowing that few people were awake at that hour, I waited until just before 8 am to post and see if anyone wanted to caravan and take donations to the farmworkers. My parents and I were in one car, my sisters Celeste and Diana in another, my other “sistas” Gabby Chavez-Lopez, her mom Janice and my high school friend Diane cleared out their pantries and jumped in their cars to meet up at 11 am. We had four cars headed to Watsonville, and when we got there, they were collecting donations at a small home with a narrow street. This got me thinking.
I was really bothered that everyone was giving accolades to all of the essential workers, but they never mentioned the farmworkers. From day one during the Pandemic the farmworkers have been working from dawn to dusk to put food on the tables of everyone across America. I felt the most essential workers of all were not being recognized as they endured heat waves, wildfire smoke, and fear of COVID-19, and I wanted to do something about it.
How can people donate or volunteer for the Farmworkers Caravan?
What I thought would be a one-time effort has turned into a monthly endeavor since the Pandemic started. People think that it is a full-blown nonprofit, and I have to remind them that it is a grassroots effort by individuals who are just trying to make our little corner of the world a better place to live. Because so many people were calling, texting, and messaging me with tons of questions, I ended up making a website at FarmworkerCaravan.com just so I could refer them there rather than answering everybody individually. On the website, there is lots of information, pictures, and videos plus Ways to Get Involved, which could be anything from hosting a donation drive to making Thank You cards for the farmworkers.
Because of the Pandemic and change in weather, we will not be able to safely do donation drops and caravans indoors or outdoors throughout the winter. So, the next and last caravan will take place on Saturday, October 17th, where we will be headed to beautiful San Juan Bautista with lots of wonderful surprises in store.
Note: All images provided courtesy of Darlene Tenes.