The People of Watsonville 2 - Migrant Head Start By David Bacon Watsonville, CA 9/29/10
Children of migrant farm workers, many of them from indigenous Mixtec families from Oaxaca, begin learning basic reading, writing and social skills in a day care nursery school program run by Migrant Head Start, part of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. Children who go through Head Start programs learn much more quickly, and have an easier time making social adjustments, once they begin regular school. The Migrant Head Start program has been going on for two decades. It tries to provide both childcare and a learning environment for the children of people who work in the fields, including families who travel with the crops. Other families work several months in the U.S., and return to Mexico during the off-season. Many of the teachers who run the centers were field workers themselves earlier in their lives, and know the difficulties migrant families face introducing children to schools and education. Some teachers speak the same language the children speak, not just Spanish, but Mixteco. They help children to begin learning English as well. Learning in a home environment has important advantages, according to Teresa Gallegos, whose center is in a Watsonville working-class neighborhood. "Parents who live in this neighborhood can drop their kids off before they have to be at work," she says. Field labor jobs start at 6 or 7 AM, while it's still dark, long before schools open. "Plus we share the same culture and know what's happening in their lives." Karen Osmondsen, a member of the Pajaro Valley school board, goes to every one of the monthly meetings organized for Migrant Head Start parents. "I really love this program, and I'm very close to the families here," she says. "This is what we really need to make sure the children from farm worker families can make it into and through our education system. Like the name says, it's a head start." Teresa Gallegos and the children in her center. Maria Juarez and her sister Clarita taking a nap. Clarita Juarez learning to look at books. Yesenia Gallegos and children look at books. Marcos Gonzalez and Nathaniel Rivera are friends and are learning to read in the center run by Ofelia Ortiz Maldonado. Yareli Reyes shows the paper where she is learning to write letters, in Maria Ines Rocha's center. Brisa Avalos' parents work in the fields, and she's using the plastic vegetables to explain what they do. Children sing and gesture with their hands as they follow Veronica Fernandez in her center. Children playing ball outside Veronica Fernandez' center. Olivia Diaz draws on an easel with her marker. For more articles and images, see http://dbacon.igc.org See also Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press, 2008) Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008 http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2002 See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006) http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575 See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004) http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9989.html -- __________________________________ David Bacon, Photographs and Stories http://dbacon.igc.org __________________________________ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
