History

There has been a long history of day laborer presence in the town of Graton, even before the railroad was build in 1906. Long-term residents can recall Graton as a gathering place for Chinese day laborers in the early decades of the twentieth century, followed by transplants from the dustbowl of the depression, looking for seasonal work on the street corners of our little town. Over the past few decades, the day labor population has been primarily from Mexico, most recently from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Over the last few seasons, the population of day laborers congregating daily in Graton has ranged from 50 to 130. Since the opening of our center in September of 2007, most of the hiring activity in town has been focused at our day labor center. There, workers can search for work in a more just, dignified and organized manner, using their downtime to participate in activities that build language and job skills, or promote leadership and community.

The history of our center has been an inspiring experience for all in Graton. In order to develop a center that met the varying needs of the larger community, we all needed to learn how to find our common interests. Many hundreds of hours were dedicated by a large group of dedicated people, representing different interests in town, in order to find common ground and jointly agree on how to proceed. For details on that community consensus process, click here.

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