On Friday, March 25, hundreds of San Benito High School students filled the school’s auditorium for an assembly commemorating the life and efforts of the late labor organizer, Cesar E. Chavez.
Hosted by the high school, the event was organized by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Youth of San Benito County, Chapter #705.
Guest speakers included former Baler and now Salinas educator, Oscar Ramos, his former student, Jose Ansaldo, and Ramos’ life-long friend, Martin Lopez. (Ramos and Ansaldo were featured in a 2015 Independent Lens documentary, “East of Salinas“). The message that each speaker imparted on the student body that afternoon was: Through commitment, hard work, unconditional support, and a positive attitude, insurmountable obstacles can be overcome.
Following welcoming remarks and introductions by LULAC Youth executive officers, Ramos spoke first. He reminded the audience that Thursday, March 31, marks Cesar Chavez Day, a California state holiday that honors Chavez’s legacy.
Ramos then provided a brief history of Chavez’s life and the farmworkers’s union he founded. As the organization, grew “in numbers, strength, and political power,” it effective change, Ramos said.
Ramos also shared stories from his own youth, explaining that when he was 8, he toiled alongside his parents in the fields and orchards throughout San Benito County during the sweltering, summer months. “It was labor intensive work,” he explained. The work day started before dawn and usually ended after sunset. Farmworkers’ cars were parked adjacent to fields, their headlights illuminating the rows of crops that needed to be picked.
Despite the circuitous work performed by his migrant, farmworker family, the one constant in Ramos’ life was education. “It was stressed by my parents,’’ he told the students. Ramos also surrounded himself with friends who shared his family’s values and who had “common goals.”
Educators, too, made a difference in his life.
Retired SBHS counselor, Jim Caffiero, played a significant role.
The two met when Ramos was a high school senior. When Caffiero heard that Ramos, a gifted student, hadn’t applied to any colleges, he called Ramos’ mother and asked if he could “lock her son in his office for a few hours,” Ramos said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
The time was well spent. Ramos graduated from University of California, Berkeley, one of the three schools he applied to that afternoon.
Before introducing Ansaldo, Ramos said of his former student, “Jose has had tons of challenges, but he’s overcome them always with a smile.” A 10-minute video clip from East of Salinas was played, underscoring Ramos’ comments about Ansaldo.
A round of applause welcomed Ansaldo to the podium. The 7th grader stood on a step stool as he spoke to the crowd of nearly 500.
Born in Mexico, Ansaldo arrived in the United States at age four. Like Ramos, he’s the son of migrant farmworkers.
By the time Ansaldo entered Ramos’ third-grade classroom at Sherwood Elementary School in Salinas, he had lived in eight different houses and attended six schools. “It was depressing,” the middle-schooler said.
Sleep-deprived and hungry, Ansaldo explained that he often nodded off as Ramos introduced mathematical rules and properties. Having walked in his pupil’s shoes, the teacher relied on an unconventional pedagogy, allowing the boy to periodically take a 10-15 minute nap. “It refreshed me,” Ansaldo said.
Ramos alerted school staff to Ansaldo’s situation. Soon, the boy was receiving free and reduced breakfast and lunch, a welcome change from the empty refrigerator that greeted the boy before he arrived to school and when he returned home.
Rested and feed, Ansaldo excelled in school. Math became his favorite subject. And Ramos became his biggest supporter, offering words of encouragement and, at times, a ride to and from school following a series of address changes.
When Ansaldo reflected on why Ramos had done so much to help him, he said, “He cared for my well being. He understood my situation. And he believed in my potential.”
Ansaldo added that some day he’ll “contribute a lot…and pay it forward.”
In closing, Ansaldo explained that he hopes that through the documentary peoples’ perceptions of undocumented individuals, like himself, change. “We’re not lazy or gang bangers. We’re people looking forward. We want to contribute to this great country,” he stated.
Martin Lopez followed Ansaldo’s speech. (Lopez and Ramos first met as kids in the fields. They attended school together, too, graduating from SBHS and later U.C. Berkeley.)
As Ramos had done earlier, Lopez talked upon Chavez’s legacy.
“All students have some contact with farmworkers,” he said. Their sons and daughters might be classmates, and “our veggies are picked by their parents.” He opined that understanding this is important.
Lopez also touched upon some of the lessons students can learn from East of Salinas.
“It covers a spectrum of pockets,” he said. (In one scene, Ansaldo and his older brother receive bikes from an annual toy drive organized by Lopez.)
Lopez’s message to his audience: “Whatever we can do to make the world better, do it. And take the time to learn from each other.”
The assembly concluded with final remarks by Ramos and the three LULAC Youth members who organized the event.
A longtime LULAC member, Ramos urged students to join the youth organization, which is unaffiliated with the high school though its pays the district for classroom use to hold its bi-monthly evening meetings. “Join LULAC Youth. Get out there and speak-up,” Ramos declared.
As students exited auditorium for Spring Break, several stopped by the stage, shaking hands with their guests and thanking them for their time.
LULAC Youth Advisor, Vince Luna, who attended the event, explained to BenitoLink that the entire assembly was organized by the organization’s president and San Benito High School senior, Bernardette Hernandez, its vice-president and high school junior, Natalie Delagado, and its secretary and SBHS junior, Riana Gutierrez.
Asked to share his thoughts about the assembly, SBHS junior Candi (Candelario) Hernandez said that before Friday he really didn’t know a lot about Chavez.
Prior to taking his seat in the auditorium with his United States history class, Hernandez had learned something about the union organizer from his teacher, Chris Lasley, who had presented a Prezi on Chavez shortly before the assembly.
Hernandez admitted that he was moved by Ansaldo’s story of overcoming adversity. “I learned that nothing can get in your way,” he said.
While he built his farmworkers’ union and championed its cause, Chavez often told his rank and file, “¡Si se puede!” (Yes, it can be done!)
Whether he realized it or not, Hernandez grasped Chavez’s legacy, articulating it with same degree of brevity and profoundness that has inspired generations.
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