Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda visited San Quintín on March 31 to announce progress on a sweeping development plan for the agricultural region, including a new community high school for farmworkers, electrical infrastructure upgrades, and government services in indigenous languages.
The centerpiece project is the Telebachillerato Comunitario Santa María, a community high school aimed at farmworkers and their families. The school carries a price tag of 13.8 million pesos (approximately $690,000 USD) and is being built in coordination with the federal government. Phase one includes three classrooms, a computer lab, and administrative facilities. Phase two will add a multi-use sports court and utility connections.
Indigenous Language Services Launch at Women’s Justice Center
The governor also opened a new citizen services model at San Quintín’s Women’s Justice Center (CEJUM), where government services are now available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in indigenous languages. The program, called the Modelo Único de Atención Ciudadana en Lenguas Indígenas (MUAC LI), is run through the state’s digital agency.
Gabriel Alberto Palombo, director of the state’s Agencia Digital, said more than 48,000 people in Baja California belong to an indigenous community. Belinda Rodríguez Moreno, the state’s Secretary of Social Inclusion, said translators and interpreters are essential so indigenous residents can exercise their right to be heard in their own language. During the visit, the state delivered 53 financial aid packages through the Social Inclusion Program and 16 additional payments to indigenous language interpreters and translators.
Mobile Health Clinics to Stay Permanently
Ávila Olmeda announced that mobile health clinics will become a permanent presence in San Quintín. The clinics offer free mammograms, dental care, clinical lab work, pharmacy services, eye exams, and ophthalmology consultations.
The San Quintín visit is part of a larger Comprehensive Care Plan the governor announced in mid-March in coordination with President Claudia Sheinbaum. That broader plan covers communities from Camalú and Vicente Guerrero south to Bahía de los Ángeles and Isla de Cedros, with over 1.578 billion pesos earmarked for water infrastructure alone, including a new desalination plant.
San Quintín, located about 190 miles south of the U.S. border on the Pacific coast, became its own municipality separate from Ensenada in 2020. The region is home to tens of thousands of indigenous farmworkers, many originally from Oaxaca and Guerrero, who migrated to work in the booming export agriculture sector. Electrical infrastructure in the Internacional neighborhood is also being upgraded as part of the current plan.
This story was first reported by La Jornada Baja California.