What began as a simple act of compassion for one Modesto woman — driving around with her daughter to bring water and sombreros to farmworkers laboring in the relentless Valley heat — has evolved into Colores de Futuro (Colors of the Future), a program that uses art to bring healing, creativity and recognition to migrant farmworkers and their families.
For the past year, Veronica Torres has coordinated a series of workshops in the migrant farmworker camps across south and southeast Modesto. Torres, a single mother and artist, has collaborated with several Valley and Bay Area arts groups including the Modesto Artists Movement, Stanislaus Arts Council and Clarion Alley Mural Project in San Francisco.
Her workshops bring art, poetry and music activities to help migrant families manage their trauma and mental health. She also provides resources such as school backpacks, sombreros for the harsh sun, and cold water during heatwaves.
“Through poetry and through music, I feel that it stimulates all these areas in your brain and your creative mind that can help express emotions that you cannot verbally express,” the Modesto native said. “I truly believe in the healing of mental health, healing your soul, healing your body through different sources of art.”
Growing up around migrant camps inspired project
Her personal experience as a child of migrant workers sparked the idea for the project. Her mother was raised in a camp, and as a young child Torres attended a daycare called “La Escuelita” (Little School), in the center of a camp just outside of Modesto. She now sees herself in the young children she teaches, as well as in her 7-year-old daughter.
After living in the Bay Area for almost four years, Torres moved back to Modesto in 2016 when she was four months pregnant with her daughter. Her return reminded her of the migrant camps and what it was like to live there as a child.
During her time in the Bay Area, she worked with the Clarion Alley Mural Project in San Francisco as a project coordinator, where she found her love for mixing art and social justice. She learned how to handle large art projects, balance funds and navigate the arts world.
In late 2023, the idea of Colores de Futuro was born to uplift the area’s migrant families.
“Art saved my life when I was struggling with depression and PTSD. And I believe it can change theirs too,” Torres said.
Since then, she has used her knowledge and love for art and self expression to help migrant children find ways to cope with their mental health – issues she said she didn’t get help with as a child in Stanislaus County.
Torres reached out to other community advocates and local arts groups, including Modesto Artists Movement (MAM) and Central Valley BIPOC Coalition, to organize her first outreach effort in south Modesto in July 2024.
Torres never intended for Colores de Futuro to be a solo endeavor. She envisioned it as a collaborative community project, a patchwork of people and organizations united by care. The first grant she received to launch her program was $250 from MAM, which she used to purchase art supplies and invite other local artists such as poet Ydelka and lyricist Rhinosaurous (Orlando “Zepps” Zapata).
“Every time I post about an event, the community responds,” she said. “People donate supplies, money, pumpkins, backpacks, whatever they can. It reminds me that there’s so much good here.”
Local arts groups help efforts with donations, cash
Modesto Junior College professor and longtime area arts advocate Sam Pierstorff, executive director of MAM, has believed in Torres’s cause from the beginning.
“We feel like art is more than just entertainment. It’s transformative. It gives people purpose, confidence,” Pierstorff said. “We just believe in the value of providing art to everyone possible. So when she came to us with this program idea, it was kind of a no brainer.”
Torres’ first event had three creative stations — writing poetry, decorating backpacks and creating visual art. The poets guided participants through workshops on poetry, graffiti lettering and storytelling.
Through a donation from Modesto-based ChalkWild Backpacks, each child received an erasable canvas backpack to decorate and keep – a simple gift that carried enormous symbolic weight.
“Many of these kids move often,” Torres said. “I wanted them to have something personal they could take wherever they go.”
For many of the farmworker families, it was their first experience with an organized art activity.
“At first, the parents just watched,” Torres said. “But soon they joined their kids, painting and creating together. It became this beautiful, collective moment.”
Program helps farmworker families create together
Torres emphasizes that Colores de Futuro is more than art workshops. It’s about mental health support, learning coping skills and discovering self expression – not only for the children but for the whole family.
She said the children she serves struggle with finding a sense of belonging as they move with the seasons for their family’s work. As their parents work long hours under physically demanding conditions, access to enrichment programs is scarce and expensive.
“Art lets them express what they can’t always say,” she said. “They draw, paint or write things that show their fears, hopes and memories.”
One poem written by a young participant described fleeing from a “zombie monster” and finding safety on a plane under a rainbow. Others wrote about missing friends they met in the camps, children they might never see again.
“It’s heartbreaking but also healing,” Torres said. “They learn they’re not alone, that their voices matter.”
In 2025, her program expanded to other migrant communities in Stanislaus County. More organizations joined her efforts, including the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation, Stanislaus Arts Council, Visit Modesto and Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority.
Torres’ long-term dream is to bring Colores de Futuro to every farmworker camp in the region, establishing regular art, poetry and music sessions across the Valley.
Ximena Loeza is the bilingual communities reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at ximena@cvlocaljournalism.org.
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