A Turn in the Spotlight

The son of migrant workers, Jose Gonzalez has moved around a lot for an 8-year-old--every two or three years as new jobs came up for his parents or old ones fell through.

But nowhere, in Mexico or California, had anyone realized that this boy can dance a mean jitterbug.

They did on Wednesday, when Jose and a troupe of other migrant youngsters hopped, swayed and kicked their way through a Benny Goodman tune in a USC studio.

“Excellent!” professional choreographer Francisco Martinez shouted after the three-minute routine was over.

Rehearsing for a Friday performance scheduled for teachers and parents, the jitterbuggers were among about 250 migrant children taking theater, music and dance classes given at the college this week by the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County.

In its seventh year, the program, co-sponsored and funded by the county Office of Education, aims to boost the self-confidence of children who find it hard to have any because of their frequent migrations to their parents’ new jobs.

Program coordinator Leo Valdez remembers that problem well.

While growing up picking strawberries alongside his parents, Valdez said, he and his five siblings were embarrassed about their home life and hated having to switch schools every few years.

“It was dreadful,” he said. “When we drove by the school in our truck on our way to the fields, all us kids used to duck so no one would see us.

“My mom used to scold us, saying, ‘You should be proud of who you are. You’re helping the family.’ ”

But pride is rare when you are a child trying desperately to adapt to a new school and, often, a new culture and language, Valdez said.

The migrant life has a dual, contradictory effect on children, he said. On one hand, watching parents toil in the fields or return home exhausted from a factory job can inspire a child to work hard to avoid the same lifestyle. That idea worked in his family. “Most of us are teachers or nurses,” Valdez said.

But when you are young, hungry and constantly being uprooted, it is difficult to imagine living any other way, he said.

That is where the performing arts program comes in. Designed for children from first to eighth grade who have recently been forced to switch schools because of a parent’s job, the weeklong program encourages children to think big about their goals.

That is partly why this year’s session was held for the first time on a college campus, said Melinda Williams, education director for the Performing Arts Center.

At a time when performing arts instruction is scarce in California schools, the program is often the only exposure many of the young students have to acting, dancing and singing exercises.

The roughly 30 first- and second-graders taking part in an acting workshop Wednesday were giddy about the play they created during a brainstorming session.

Based on a list of “job wishes” written by the children beforehand, the play’s story line is a fantastic journey showing that anything in life is possible with a little imagination, said Reseda theater artist Christina Conte.

For example, Ariana Tostado, 7, learned that her desire to protect others does not necessarily mean a job as a police officer, though it could.

In the play, she is the flying horse Pegasus coming to rescue a school of trapped fish.

The text reveals a social conscience that might be expected from the children of factory workers and grape and strawberry pickers.

In a battle against insurance companies, a teacher is unable to contribute financially because “the rich man and the movie star have all the money,” the play reads. As the story goes on, the rich man loses his wealth and his money is redistributed. The play’s final song rejoices: “Now, the money can help everyone!”

Marta Navarro, who raised five children while picking lettuce in the Central Valley, doesn’t necessarily endorse such a treatise. But, as a part-time aide in the program, she is happy that the children are given encouragement in creativity and exposed to new things.

“It’s good for the entire family,” she said. “The parents learn too.”