Day in laborer’s shoes

It wasn’t exactly the sun-scorching day that teacher Jeff Qualey hoped for, but his students still got their hands dirty.

Qualey took his fourth-grade class, as well as two other classes from Anderson Elementary, to the Field of Greens in Santa Ana on Monday for Cesar Chavez Day. But this wasn’t any ordinary field trip — the children had to work for their lesson.

“I love making history come alive,” Qualey said.

Qualey’s curriculum: Have the children become farmworkers for a day.

They dug holes for zucchini plants, cut celery for harvest and loaded trucks with food to learn about what migrant workers went through and why Chavez fought for farmworker rights.

“I can feel how doing this every day without breaks can be very back-breaking,” 9-year-old Max Duvall said.

Qualey has worked with Volunteer Center Orange County for seven years to make this field trip happen. In the past he would take one class, but this year about 85 students accompanied him.

“The idea is to work them hard,” Qualey said.

The field trip is the culminating event in a monthlong lesson about migrant workers, farm labor and Chavez.

Qualey starts their education with migrant workers, showing their plight, and then it moves to Chavez, depicting him as the “knight riding in on the white horse” to help farm workers, Qualey said.

Qualey also brings in guest speakers, including a friend who used to be a migrant worker. But this year, Qualey had a special treat when Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Cesar Chavez’s granddaughter, came to speak at Anderson.

“He tried to win higher wages,” 10-year-old Ben Brooks said. “It was a smart idea and good he didn’t use violence. I think he did a good job.”

The crops the children picked and cut Monday will go to Second Harvest Food Bank for needy families — about 2,000 pounds making 8,000 meals, according to officials.

“Once the kids get into it, start doing it, they want to do it well,” said Second Harvest Program Coordinator Sam Caruthers. “They like playing in the dirt.”

The fields function as both an educational opportunity and community service project, according to Caruthers.

They have students come to the fields six days a week, producing about 200,000 pounds of food a year, equaling 2 million meals for needy families.

The service learning project is what Qualey likes to do.

Teaching students history isn’t the end game; the children should also learn perspective, according to Qualey.

“They understand they wouldn’t want to be out here for a 12-hour day, six days a week, [for low wages],” he said.

WHO WAS CESAR CHAVEZ?

• Cesar Chavez was a second generation American, born March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Ariz.

• At age 10 he and his family became migrant farmworkers, traveling throughout the southwest working on farms and vineyards. Chavez dropped out of school after eighth grade to work in the fields full-time.

• Chavez joined the U.S. Navy in 1946.

• In 1962, Chavez formed the National Farmworkers Assn., which later became the United Farm Workers of America.

• His union’s efforts brought about the passage of the 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act to protect farm workers. It remains the only law in the nation that protects the farm workers’ right to unionize.

• In 1988, at the age of 61, he fasted for 36 days to highlight the harmful impact of pesticides on farm workers and their children.

• Chavez died April 23, 1993, in San Luis, Ariz.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at [email protected].