Bellarmine’s Christian Service for Justice and Advocacy Program and Partners in Mission and Ministry hosted an all-school Justice Assembly on February 13 as a follow-up to the Summit on Human Dignity that took place on January 31.
The keynote speaker at the assembly was award-winning NBC Bay Area News reporter Damian Trujillo, who was introduced by his son, Michael Damian ’26, following Michael’s reflection about his participation in the 2024 Rural Plunge in Salinas in January. “I’m a product of farm workers,” he said. “Farm working is in my blood and I’m proud of that.”
Since 1996, Damian has been an NBC Bay Area News reporter, host, and producer of Comunidad Del Valle, the longest running public affairs program in the Bay Area, which also airs in Spanish on Telemundo 48. The focus of his message to students during his address was the importance of service to others. “You’re a Bell … You have a commitment now to lifetime community service,” he said.
Damian was raised in Greenfield and, while attending high school, worked in the agricultural fields of the Salinas Valley with his family. Damian now honors this first job each year on the Cesar Chavez holiday as his family hosts relatives, friends, and students, making sack lunches and distributing them to approximately 250 farm workers. Damian considers this as a “thank you” to farm workers for their tireless work. In addition, each year, the Trujillo family awards a college scholarship to the son or daughter of a farm worker in Greenfield.
Visually powerful symbolism occurred at the assembly when Damian held a short-handled farming tool, known as a Cortito – which is now banned from use – to represent his past, and placed it beside an Emmy award, representing where he has come to be in his life. Even more powerful, perhaps, was when Damian said that he is most proud of his past.
Student Noah Liu ’25 followed Damian with a reflection on his experience on the Rural Plunge in Salinas, and then Mr. Manny Cardenas, assistant director of Christian Service for Justice and Advocacy, concluded the assembly, reminding all that “Together we have the power to shape the future …”, one of equity and justice.