Odell farmers market cancels after ICE sighting

Mercado del Valle, founded by the Gorge Grown Food Network in 2013, takes place in downtown Odell on alternating Thursdays throughout the summer. El Mercado celebrates and centers on the Latino community of the Gorge, with vendors selling fresh produce, Mexican breads and pastries, prepared foods, and crafts. Under El Mercado Coordinator Yelitza Vargas-Boots, it has grown considerably since the pandemic.

“Mercado has always been more than just an event — It’s been a reflection of our community’s resilience, culture, and commitment,” said Vargas-Boots. “That’s why it’s heartbreaking to share that we made the incredibly difficult decision to cancel it.”

The cancellation was not due to a lack of support, Vargas-Boots said, but rather fear and uncertainty over the presence of ICE in Hood River. Mercado’s role as a treasured space for the Latino community could have placed it at heightened risk, she said.

Atkinson Drive in downtown Odell was unusually quiet that afternoon, with the exception of a lone makeshift table set up in front of Odell Cafe. Despite El Mercado’s cancellation, Maribel Martinez and Jenny Gonzalez decided to table in their roles as certifiers at WIC. Women, Children, and Infants, a nationwide supplemental nutrition program that provides benefits and counseling for new parents and families with young children, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Martinez and Gonzalez have both worked for the Hood River WIC office for almost two decades and have tabled at El Mercado since its founding.

“We came [July 17] to provide benefits vouchers for our clients,” Gonzalez said. “They sign up ahead of time and they come and pick them up. Then they can use them at the local farmer’s market and farm stands.”

Gonzalez and Martinez had 66 clients on their list who had signed up to pick up vouchers that day. When the market was canceled, some clients asked if WIC would still be there to distribute them. Gonzalez and Martinez reassured their clients, calling, texting, and emailing to say, “We’re going to give you your benefits. Don’t you worry!”

“A lot of people depend on [WIC] for many reasons because we need food to put on our table for our little ones and our family. Right now, everything’s expensive,” Martinez said. “So if we can help out a little with that, we’re gonna do it.”

WIC tries to prioritize tabling at farmers markets so clients can then use their vouchers immediately on fresh produce, fruit, and herbs from local vendors, Martinez explained. This also supports the local community, because farmers and vendors then get reimbursed through the program.

However, vendors who had prepared food to sell at Mercado were at risk of losing income that day. “It’s unfair and disheartening to be pushed into silence when Mercadito has always been about joy, celebration, and togetherness,” Vargas-Boots said. After the cancellation, Vargas-Boots made an emergency pit-stop to support Marivel, a vendor who prepared dozens of home-made cucumber and raspberry aguas frescas for the market. Gorge Grown Food Network bought out Marivel’s stock so that her drinks would not go to waste.

The drinks found a place across town, to the parched mouths of protesters and community members in downtown Hood River. The protesters were there for a John Lewis National Day of Action rally organized by the Hood River Latino Network (HRLN), as part of their sustained effort organizing regular rallies and protests in support of immigrants, according to HRLN Community Organizer Amber Rose. The rally that day just happened to coincide with the urgent need to uplift immigrants in light of the ICE sighting.

“We are kind of responding to the community and responding to the moment,” said Rose. “This was one that was planned as a nationwide rally, and we decided to join in support of our immigrant community.”

Later that evening, Rose and HRLN Co-Founder Martha Verduzco-Ortega continued their advocacy at The Ruins, which was hosting a fundraiser benefit concert for HRLN. The two tabled and spoke about their work with community members. In between songs by Grupo Masato, Rose led the crowd in a protest chant against ICE and shared words from the heart: “We are going to do everything we can to continue to work, to build community, and mutual aid networks until we get through this really awful moment in time.”

“As a community we are stronger together,” Vargas-Boots said. “I ask others who have the privilege to stand up for what’s right, stand with their neighbors, protect their communities, as we do not have to live in fear or hide. Mercado has grown as a beautiful part of our community and at all costs we must protect that.”

The next Mercado is on Thursday, Aug. 7 at 5 p.m.

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Stella Xu is working as an intern for Columbia Gorge News this month.