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It starts with a phone call from the 707 area code.
“Hello, my name is Damián Diaz. I’m calling on behalf of No Us Without You.”
From his end of the line, Diaz often hears the hurried shuffling of someone stirring, as if his call is what this person has been waiting for. Sometimes he’s put on speaker and can hear a voice call out, “Please, mijo. Come here. I need you to translate.”
As part of the enrollment process for No Us Without You LA, a Boyle Heights-based nonprofit that provides food and support for back-of-house hospitality workers without legal status who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Diaz begins with a series of questions to verify employment history: “Where did you work? How long haven’t you worked? Do you have a pay stub to prove that you worked?”
Listen 9 min MORE Othón Nolasco and Damian Diaz are the men behind No Us Without You, which fed 10 families on their first day. Nine months later the organization is feeding 1400 families a week. Photo by Mel Castro.
When the hospitality industry shut down this spring, the men of Va’La Hospitality spent $400 at a restaurant supply store and vowed to assist undocumented restaurant workers through the Boyle Heights-based initative,
No Us Without You. A “no questions asked” service, they are serving 1400 families a week with groceries, free tutoring to students, job placement, reliable transportation, and this week Christmas toys. Othón Nolasco founded the program with his business partner, Damian Diaz.