Mudslides take heavy toll on immigrants serving posh town

Oprah Winfrey and Rob Lowe give Montecito its star power, but it's people like Antonio and Victor Benitez who keep the wealthy Southern California community running.

The Mexican brothers are gardeners and part of the town's workingclass immigrant population, which suffered outsized losses from the recent mudslides that killed at least 20, injured dozens and damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes.

Antonio and Victor Benitez suffered broken bones and each lost a child. Antonio's wife was killed, while Victor's wife is missing and his toddler son was injured.

Nearly a third of those killed in the Jan. 9 mudslides were from immigrant families working in service jobs in the largely white and retired Pacific coast town of 9,000. Many of these families are from developing countries seizing the opportunities provided by the area's wealth to make a better life for their children.

Among them was 30-year-old Pinit Sutthithepa from Thailand who worked at a Toyota dealership in Santa Barbara and sent money to his wife and two children for years before being able to bring them to the United States in 2016. The mudslides killed him, his 6-yearold son and his 79-yearold stepfather. Crews are still searching for Sutthithepa's 2-year-old daughter.

His wife and mother were working at a grocery store when rocks and rushing water obliterated their home, Mike Caldwell, Sutthithepa's boss wrote on a Gofundme page seeking help for the family.

Martin Cabrera Munoz, 48, worked long hours as a landscaper so he could send money to his children in his native Guanajuato, Mexico. He was sleeping in the room he kept at his boss's home when an avalanche of mud ripped through the property.

“He wanted to give his kids a better life,” his youngest sister, Diana Montero, told the Los Angeles Times.

His funeral was held Wednesday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Santa Barbara, where people are also mourning the Benitez family deaths.

The Rev. Pedro Lopez has tried to offer words of comfort to his tightknit, Spanish-speaking parish — but he knows the healing will be slow and painful.

“We've let everyone know the importance of being available to one another to share their grief,” Lopez said.

Many members of the modest church are without work now that the million-dollar homes they cared for have been destroyed by the storm-triggered landslides, which also closed U.S. Highway 101, a major route for commuters between the coastal region's two major cities, Santa Barbara and Ventura.