Students Sample a Fruitful Harvest

They are the children of a new harvest, one expected to shape the lives of the next generation of migrant workers.

Through a series of workshops and lectures, the children of migrant farm workers learned the inside story of their world and the impact they could have if they finish college.

On Saturday, 146 high school sophomores and juniors graduated from the UCLA Migrant Student Leadership Institute in a ceremony that pounded home one point--si se puede (“yes, we can”).

They were the second group to graduate from the institute this summer. The first, made up of only high school juniors, spent a month taking classes at UCLA, earning college credit.

During Saturday’s commencement, the students occupied most of the first eight rows of an auditorium in UCLA’s Moore Hall. Their parents, many holding cameras, listened as organizers recapped the weeks’ lessons.

“This program is the parents,” Larry Jaurequi, director of the Migrant Education office, told the audience.

Numerous times, the students broke into a “migrant clap,” a burst of short claps that begins slowly, then picks up speed and force. Farm workers have used it to motivate each other for hundreds of years, UCLA professor Kris Gutierrez said.

To add emphasis, Cal State Los Angeles professor Carlos Tejeda contrasted the average life expectancy of workers in the U.S.--76 years--versus that of migrant farm workers: 49.

Those numbers were sobering, Zarmina Gorsi said. Her parents, originally from Pakistan, have worked in the orchards around Yuba City for the last 15 years.

She said the institute made her realize the importance of helping other students and workers. “If I don’t make a difference, nobody will,” Gorsi said.

Jesus Quevedo, 67, a migrant farm-working parent who has helped run the program for years, said he has learned the value of education over the decades of hunching in the sun or reaching high for crops. There was a time when he plucked his children out of class to help in the fields as easily as he plucked oranges in the San Joaquin Valley.

“We needed the money.... But eventually the importance of education sunk into our consciousness,” Quevedo said. “The only way to liberate our children from the oppression of others and from poor wages was with education.”

With its migrant worker spirit, it’s no surprise that the program tries to instill in the students an activist spirit, a willingness to question rules and unjust practices. Institute graduates said Saturday that they would encourage more students back home to apply for the program.

Alfredo Vieyra’s parents work the strawberry fields near Oxnard. He was the only student from his high school to attend the institute this year. He said it would be his mission to recruit more students next year.

As they were eating lunch, Vieyra thanked his parents for their support.

At the end of commencement, Tejeda told the students to stand and face their parents.

“Students,” he said, “the situation of immigrants and migrant workers is not going to change if you don’t change it.”

Spontaneously, parents and children acknowledged one another the best way they knew how. They filled the auditorium with a migrant clap.

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Times staff writer Hector Becerra contributed to this report.