Mexican band Maná concert will benefit family of farmworker who died in 100-degree weather
Mexican pop-rock band Maná will spread more than musical entertainment in its Friday (Dec. 1) concert at the Save Mart Center.
The band’s philanthropic effort will benefit the family of Elidio Hernández Gómez, a 59-year-old farmworker who died earlier this year while harvesting tomatillos in 100-degree weather near Selma.
The band – which has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide since it formed in 1986 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México – will donate a portion of its concert proceeds to the United Farm Workers Foundation to help the family of the farmworker from Guanajuato, México.
“Maná has said in the past that they provide $1 of each ticket sales to a social cause, but we’re not going to be able to know how much money from that concert is going to be given to us or to the family until after the concert,” said Leydy Rangel, communications director for the UFW Foundation.
Maná’s Friday stop at the Save Mart Center is part of the second leg of its México Lindo y Querido Tour in the United States.
Rangel, who spoke with The Fresno Bee in August, said Hernández Gómez experienced heat illness symptoms while picking tomatillos on Aug. 8.
According to the National Weather Service in Hanford, temperatures reached 100 degrees that day, following days of triple-digit heat that prompted Cal/OSHA to issue a high heat hazard alert.
Heat-related deaths are historically undercounted in California, since many heat-related deaths are recorded as heart failure, strokes or respiratory failure, according to a 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation.
Rangel said Hernández Gómez’s family, which is in México, won’t be at the Maná concert on Friday, but there will be two farmworkers representing the UFW Foundation.
“They’re both UFW Foundation members. And during the hot summer days, they helped us to promote our heat hotline,” Rangel said.
Maná, which has 10 million followers on Spotify, is committed to altruistic work.
For the México Lindo y Querido Tour in the U.S., Maná has supported different causes.
Earlier in November Maná donated part of the proceeds from its concerts in Los Angeles to support Latino Street vendors. A donation was given to the L.A. Street Vendor Campaign and Community Power Collective for the purchase of street vendor carts approved by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
At one of its concerts in San Antonio, Texas in September, Maná teamed with Ana Rodríguez – whose daughter Maite was among the 19 students massacred at an Uvalde, Texas elementary school – in support of a school scholarship program.
In March, a portion of the proceeds of Maná’s concert in San José helped Parajo Valley flood victims, many of them farmworkers.
“It’s one of the hardest jobs somebody can have working in the fields and providing food on the table,” Maná drummer Alex González told Bay area KTVU Channel 2 News in March after the San José concert.
Gonzalez said Maná wanted to donate $1 for every ticket sold with Live Nation, doubling the money raised. Maná partnered with Community Bridges, a nonprofit that provided services for the flood victims.
In 2016, Maná discussed undocumented rights at the White House with former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
In January 1996, Maná created the Selva Negra Ecological Foundation with the aim of raising awareness, protecting, restoring and promoting the care of the planet.
Over the last three decades, Maná has used its international recognition and voice to raise awareness about environmental, social, political and human rights issues around the world.
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