Music Cures: The Healing Power of the Accordion After a Shooting

A farmworker opened fire at two farms in Half Moon Bay, California, in January 2023. He killed seven men, six co-workers and a supervisor, all immigrants. He also shot an eighth man —five times— but he survived.

The physical recovery for Pedro Romero Pérez has been a long one, but his emotional healing has been even longer. José, Pedro’s older brother and only family in the U.S., didn’t survive the shooting. In this episode, we go to Half Moon Bay, where an unconventional music program is helping Pedro and others heal from their deepest wounds through the keys and wails of the accordion. 

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

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