Beer, Borders, and Being a Good Neighbor
Your Favorite Brewery Should Be Signed Up For Hasta La Raíz
“The fundamental civic unit in this nation is neighbor.” —William Jelani Cobb
During the years I spent working at HenHouse Brewing Company, whenever we and our fellow craft breweries coalesced to address a natural disaster or a major tragedy—as we did following the fires in Northern, CA, the murder of George Floyd, or our own industry's “Me Too” moment—my former boss, HenHouse founder Shane Goepel, would often quip,
“No one is asking what the breakfast cereal industry is doing about all this.”
It was his way of acknowledging the special relationship that local breweries have to the communities we serve. People simply expect more from breweries than from the manufacturers of other consumer packaged goods. As I have covered in previous pieces, that special regard is something we should all be extraordinarily grateful for; without it, the logic of late-stage capitalism wins out, and the small companies cease to be.
Part of why people care about their local breweries is that in our best moments, we demonstrate to our communities that we care about them. Even earlier this year, as many small breweries faced their most precarious financial times yet, more than 100 different breweries came together to do what they could for those affected by the January fires in Southern California.
We showed up.
Now, as classic, unvarnished fascism has arrived on the streets of Southern California, selecting the region’s predominantly Latino population as its scapegoat du jour, industry veteran Jessica Salas is asking us to show up again.
Jessica’s résumé reads like a beer obsessive’s dream—Beachwood, Riip, Smog City, Ruse, and a stint as GM at Brujos Brewing in Portland.
“It shaped so much of who I am,” she says. “It’s where I built community, made lifelong friends, and even met my fiancé… I care deeply about this industry.”
Jessica felt “called to act” after watching footage of everyday Angelenos standing up for their neighbors during recent protests in Los Angeles.
“I was born in the Inland Empire, spent a lot of time exploring LA, especially places like Santee Alley, and lived in Long Beach before moving to Portland. I knew I wanted to create something rooted in visibility, action, and love.”
On June 11th, she launched Hasta La Raíz, a beer and beverage collaboration and community fundraising effort inspired by Bow & Arrow Brewing’s “Native Land” collaborations and Marcus Baskerville's “Black Is Beautiful” campaign.
Hasta La Raíz aims to raise funds for Freedom for Immigrants, a California-based nonprofit working to end immigrant incarceration and advocate for the dignity, freedom, and human rights of all immigrants.
One of the first to sign on was ISM Brewing in Long Beach. I asked founder Ian McCall why they moved so quickly.
“Our slogan is Friends. Family. Fresh Beer. And Jessica Salas’s Hasta La Raíz embodies that in the best way possible… Every ounce of beer consumed worldwide has the hopes and dreams of immigrant labor imprinted on it.”
The data backs him up. A 2021 study from the American Immigration Council found that undocumented immigrants make up nearly 31% of the nation’s crop production workers. When it comes to the hop fields in Oregon and Washington, studies show, the percentage is likely even higher.
Stated simply, there is no American beer industry or culture without the contributions of those who today find themselves in the crosshairs.
As Jessica puts it, “Supporting this project means supporting the people who make the beer industry possible. If your brewery believes in community, inclusion, and standing up for what’s right, this is a meaningful way to make a positive impact.”
Local breweries are not powerful enough to transform systems that concentrate the world’s wealth, resources, and opportunity in an increasingly small number of affluent pockets. We do not have the luxury of opting out of an economy that requires a permanently subjugated class of laborers to deliver goods at prices the rest of us can afford.
But we’ve shown that we can be good neighbors.
And good neighbors don’t disappear during difficult times.
I know this personally: I exist because my paternal grandfather’s neighbors hid him from the Nazis in their attics and cellars.
When Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps, it was their neighbors who maintained their farms so they’d have something to return to.
When the Fugitive Slave Act empowered federal agents to kidnap Black Americans, their neighbors formed vigilance committees and passed personal liberty laws to clog the gears of an immoral and unjust machine.
These are ugly, catastrophic times. Local breweries, the smart ones at least, aspire to be threads in the civic fabric—part of what binds a place together. That is a sacred responsibility. One that requires us to be at our strongest in the face of attempts to tear our communities apart.
“We have a small but mighty voice in the beer industry and (with Hasta La Raíz) an opportunity to effect change at a community level,” says McCall. “Not participating is equivalent to silence and complicity. Justice for immigrants and immigrant families should be a foundational principle.”
Ready to Brew?
To learn more, get involved, or access branding and beer guidelines:
🌐 www.hastalaraizbev.org
📧 Email: HastaLaRaizBev@gmail.com
Don’t see your favorite brewery on the list of participating breweries yet?
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