Eleven years after his death, labor leader and United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez still has a long-lasting influence. Palisades High School received a grant this school year to incorporate ideas about Chavez’s values and ideals into the curriculum and organize community service projects, inspired by Chavez’s grassroots activism. The $44,000 grant from the Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism (GOSERV), was called ‘From the Mountains to the Sea, Honoring the Legacy of Cesar Chavez.’ Last week, Gretchen Miller, the director of Pali’s community service program, several teachers, Cesar E. Chavez Foundation programs director Shaun Hirschl and LAUSD Service Learning Task Force chairs Bud Jacobs and Tim Johnston met to discuss the success of the program in which 400 PaliHi students participated in five different service projects. Chavez, who experienced the life of a migrant farm worker, characterized by low wages and inadequate health and safety conditions, started the United Farm Workers of America which brought about the 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act to protect farm workers. He was also active in the civil rights movement and the use of nonviolent social change. Math teacher Angelica Pereyra and her students are completing a mural at the Access Center, a drop-in center of the Ocean Park Community Center, where homeless clients can check mail, take a shower or access food, clothing or other services. Students learned about the theories of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siguerios, which uses a system of graphing and geography with proportions and ratios to create a mural. The students discussed the concept of dignity, one of Chavez’s ideals for all people, Pereyra said, ‘We asked where does it exist, how do you learn it? It can exist everywhere’in the spaces in-between.’ The mural design encompasses lettuce fields, a large tree with a young Cesar Chavez sitting beneath it, and an overlay of the UFW flag design, featuring an Aztec eagle. Quotes from Chavez’s speeches are written in between the lettuce fields. Spanish teacher Sandra Martin, who teaches a class to native Spanish speakers, asked her students to interview family or community members about their life histories and experiences coming to the United States. The students inquired about the significance of keeping heritage alive, to tie into the importance Chavez gave to family legacies. In addition, the students created illustrated children’s books, written in Spanish, about the life of Cesar Chavez and his affect on community members. The children’s books on Chavez will be donated to an elementary school. Shirin Ramzi’s American literature class wrote essays on Chavez, analyzing one of his quotes, focusing on his life and what led him to the United Farm Workers movement. Some students weren’t familiar with Chavez. Others, who had already studied Chavez, wrote about activists he had influenced such as lawyer and writer Oscar Acosta and co-founder of the UFW Dolores Huerta. Ramzi also wanted her students to get a little experience working on a farm. Although it didn’t work out to take them to actual farms in Oxnard, students participated in a short exercise, simulating the experience. They dropped sunflower seeds on the quad and wore heavy backpacks while picking them out of the grass. The exercise inspired a lot of complaints, Ramzi reports especially when she asked them, ‘What if I now brought the extra credit I promised for this exercise from 50 points to 0 points?’ In Libby Butler and Jeannie Saiza’s AVID class, a college preparatory class that provides academic and social enrichment, students went out into the community to help save an underutilized government-funded senior center. Students came into the inner city community where the center was located and talked to people and handed out fliers outlining the services available. Some of the students at first ‘wanted nothing to do with the elderly,’ said Saiza, but later warmed up to the project. Ray Millette took his marine biology students to Ballona Wetlands to help restore the saltwater marshes which are being reopened to the public after being privately owned. Millette believes this project ties into Chavez’s emphasis on access for all people. The students spent the day helping dig up non-native species. In the classroom they spent a month studying wetlands, specifically Ballona. ‘This wouldn’t have happened without Gretchen Miller,’ Millette said. ‘She spearheaded the program and made it a success.’ Miller was assisted with grantwriting by Melodye Kleinman of Wise Senior Services. The PaliHi Booster Club also assisted with funds until the grant money came in. The GOSERV grant will not be available next year due to budget cutbacks, but the PaliHi teachers hope to continue the projects.
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