La Causa: The Migrant Farmworker's Story

Title: La Causa: The Migrant Farmworker’s Story

Author: Catharine de Ruiz, Diane & Larios, Richard

Illustrator: Gutierrez, Rudy

F&P Level: U

Lexile: n/a

Interest Level: Grade 4-7

Genre: Non-fiction

Identity Group: Migrant Farmworker, Latino, Mexican American

Themes: Social Justice, Social Change

Summary: 

"A crisp, clear accounting of the founding of the National Farm Workers Association in the 1960s. Brief biographical sketches of Chavez and Dolores Huerta tell of their meeting and deciding to work together to organize a union to help their fellow workers. The book ends as a first grape boycott and NFWA strike are settled. Because of this title's focus, it is easy to assume that all farm workers are Hispanic and work in the West. Libraries will want to balance their collections to avoid this misconception. James Terzian and Kathryn Cramer's Mighty Hard Road (Doubleday, 1970; o.p.) gives more information on Chavez, has photos instead of the black-and-white illustrations found here, and covers La Causa . DeRuiz's book is a useful addition to any library needing materials for short reports, additional information on Cesar Chavez, or a peek into part of the life of Dolores Huerta." --Jody McCoy, Casady from School Library Journal

Instructional Suggestions:

At the beginning of the text, Chavez describes an instance where his family was cheated out of money while picking fruit. Help students understand the unfairness of this situation by painting a scene of an example scenario for them to relate with. For example, talk about the students being "hired" to pull weeds in their own neighborhood, but being cheated out of their pay. This example can be returned to throughout the book when defining the other key vocabulary.

Show students video clips of the two leaders speaking, leading rallies, marching, etc. Teaching Tolerance has an excellent, free DVD for teachers, but many other short clips can be found online.

Discuss other social change leaders in history that have used non-violent protest to diminish the inequity between privilege and underprivileged groups. Interdisciplinary Connections: Social Studies: In the text, Cesar Chavez talks about drawing inspiration from Martin Luther King, Jr. in thinking about non-violent protest. As a result, this book easily pairs with teaching the civil rights movement to tie reading/guided reading into social studies.

If current events are incorporated in social studies, students can compare and contrasts current protests taking place in the world to aid understanding that there are still underprivileged groups and that social change is still necessary.

Vocabulary: Migrant farm-working

Strike

Labor unions

Boycotting/non-violent protesting

Associations

Activist

The Civil Rights Movement

The Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.

Family/Community Connections: Depending on student's age and previous experience with evaluating privilege, students can examine underrepresented groups in their neighborhood/local community and discuss increasing the equity between groups. If students are not yet able to make this leap, they can discuss privilege and its representations with teacher support.

Students might discuss poverty and talk at home with their families and at school about why it exists and how they can use the text to think about reducing the causes.

Think about current groups that are using non-violent protest to share an important message. Why have they chosen non-violent protest? How does this help their cause?

Resources:

http://www.tolerance.org/kit/viva-la-causa

http://www.tolerance.org/lesson/united-we-stand