Farmworker struggle depicted in film
When the Southern Poverty Law Center premieres its newest documentary, "Viva la Causa," at the Wilshire Theater on Sunday, 17-year-old River Marcano will be paying special attention.
The film depicts the California grape boycott led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in the late 1960s, which served to expose the poverty-stricken plight of migrant farm workers and boosted formation of the United Farmworkers Union.
"Viva la Causa" places the struggles of farmworkers within the larger context of civil rights movements, and highlights the common goals of human rights and social change.
Part of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance program, the 40-minute documentary will be distributed free with teaching resources to an estimated 50,000 educators over the next two years. The SPLC, based in Montgomery, Ala., is a nonprofit group that combats hate and discrimination.
Hundreds of high school students and farmworkers will be bused in to Sunday’s screening, which is scheduled to include an appearance by Huerta and SPLC founder Morris Dees.
Marcano is Huerta’s adopted granddaughter and is an example, she said, of how the seeds of social activism are passed down through generations.
“I have been inspired to be an activist because of the courage and influence of my grandmother and have been involved in a number of protests with her," said Marcano, a junior at New Roads, a private school in Santa Monica. “My grandmother means the world to me. She is so positive about an individual’s ability to create change for the better.”
New Roads uses the SPLC’s tolerance materials in its curriculum, and through the facilitation of parent Janice Jay-Holland, the school contributed $1,000 to help underwrite the documentary.
New Roads history teacher Kathy Hartley said the teaching tools “make issues of racial equality and justice for minorities concrete, immediate and personal for my students.”
“It always amazes me to see the impact that these films have on my 11th-graders,” said Hartley, “and they are stunned and excited to see the impact that a bunch of kids had on the civil rights movement. The kids in the film are so much like my students!”
-- Carla Rivera
