Matthew Sean Bergquist
Matthew passed away unexpectedly in the early hours of Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, from a respiratory failure on his way to the hospital, at the age of 41.
Matthew was born in Santa Barbara in 1984 at Cottage Hospital to Jennifer and Michael Bergquist, but he always insisted that he was “Hecho in Mexico” where his parents met on a study-abroad program and where they still visit their Mexican host family regularly.
Since Matthew was very little, he thrived outdoors and was excited to join the Scouts and be hiking the Sierras, which led to his most nurturing years at Santa Barbara Middle School. There he was taking many long bicycling trips and diving into real-world knowledge about various cultures, religions, and political systems in an environment that inspired his wanderlust later in life. Next, he attended Midland School in Los Olivos, where he loved living close to nature, chopping his own wood to warm up the water needed for a simple shower.
He discovered his passion for farming while at Midland and made it his life’s goal to excel at growing organic food and satisfying the critical need for healthy vegetables, being especially in love with their heirloom varieties. He started his first farm at 21 years old, calling it Siddhartha Gautama Organic Farm.
Being an avid cinephile, Matthew pursued a degree in Film Studies at SBCC and had the honor of being a part of the SBIFF team. He most enjoyed Eastern European cinema and was one of those people who have seen the whole 7.5 hours of Satantango by Béla Tarr and who would rewatch Dekalog by Krzysztof Kieślowski every year as part of his winter hibernation routine. Matthew fell head over heels for the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s films, consistently naming Mirror (Zerkalo) as his personal favorite of all times.
He strived to keep exploring different cultures and to learn from his travel experiences: founding an organic garden program in New Zealand; falling in love with Buddhism, spending time in India looking for its origins and seeking enlightenment; traveling extensively through over 60 countries on self-organized trips; actively participating in the WWOOF movement across the world; working to begin an organic farm in Central Chile. He loved being on the road with his backpack while getting his hands dirty with anything that grew organically. All of this led to his dream of starting a farm in Portugal, a country he took a particular liking to.
On one of his trips traversing the world, in Russia in 2015, Matthew found the love of his life, his wife, Margarita. They moved to Santa Barbara together just after the war with Ukraine broke out and were soon married at the courthouse. She survives him, as do his parents and his younger brother, Andrew.
As a true believer in the natural order of things, Matthew envisioned once finding his resting place on this planet in a compost pile on his own vegetable farm, turning himself into what he loved most – his plants. We find it most comforting to have been able to fulfill his wish with a soil transformation process that will honor Matthew’s dedication to farming and bring him back to us in the most beautiful way.
A celebration of Matthew’s life will be held as a potluck gathering of friends and family at Tucker’s Grove (Area #5) in Goleta on Friday, November 28th at 2pm. In case of rain, the celebration will be moved to Trinity Episcopal Church, 1500 State Street. Please RSVP on EventBrite (https://bit.ly/4oCLZqZ) to stay updated about the location.
We ask everyone who knew Matthew to share their memories and stories with us in a written form, if possible, as the most precious gift.
Contributions in Matthew’s memory can be made to SBMS or the 805UndocuFund, as Matthew believed in nonviolent anarchy and education for people in regard to self-organizing and protesting the political status quo.
