Gentle soul, accordion player, mushroom lover: Half Moon Bay victim
mourned
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[January 26, 2023]
By Alexandra Ulmer
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (Reuters) - When friends of farm supervisor
Marciano Martinez heard of the shooting at the Half Moon Bay mushroom
plantations on Monday, they had a sinking feeling.
They knew he had to have been there: Martinez, a migrant from Mexico,
worked every day except Saturdays. He rarely took time off for holidays
like Thanksgiving. When an alarm went off at night, he'd rush on site.
Even with friends in social situations, he'd lament when a crop didn't
turn out well, blaming poor seeds, or he'd rave about a stellar harvest.
"He took so much pride in his job," close family friend Alicia Ortega
said in an interview, looking at the ceiling as she tried to hold back
tears.
"He used to send me pictures of mushrooms. 'Look how beautiful they
grow,' he'd say. His phone was full of pictures of mushrooms."
Martinez, 50, was among seven people killed by Chunli Zhao, 66, a fellow
immigrant mushroom farm worker who appeared in court on Wednesday after
he was charged with murder.
Beyond his devotion to work, Martinez was praised as a fiercely loyal
and good-hearted man. Unmarried and with no children, he gradually
became a part of Ortega's family, she said.
On Christmas Day 2020, she and her family even managed to drag Martinez
away from the farm to open presents — for just half an hour, before he
went back to work.
When Ortega's husband, Reyes Vargas, was ill, Martinez would rush to the
hospital after work. He helped them fix their car — even though, Ortega
remembered with a laugh, he wasn't very handy.
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Alicia Ortega, a close friend of
Marciano Martinez Jimenez poses for a portrait at her home in Half
Moon Bay, California, U.S., January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills
McKnight
As Ortega's husband took a turn for the worse, he asked Martinez to
look after his wife, Ortega recounted. Martinez promised.
And after her husband passed away in 2020, a devastated Ortega said
Martinez indeed became a rock of support.
"Even when I was sad or crying, he made sure that I smiled. He
turned my life around," Ortega said during the interview in her
living room, the warm California sun hitting her face.
Martinez loved romantic Mexican bands, and he played accordion at
church and parties.
In turn, Ortega, a talented cook, would prepare Mexican chiles
rellenos, tongue tacos or her coveted homemade tortillas.
On Monday, the day of the shooting, she had surprised him with one
of his favorites for lunch: rib-eye steak, peppers and baked potato.
"A coworker told me he enjoyed his meal like never before," Ortega
said. She took a deep breath. "I had no idea it was going to be his
last."
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Mary Milliken and Sandra
Maler)
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