In the second or third grade, Alicia Blanco took cover in her elementary school classroom amid the chaos of a shooting threat. Her family had just moved to Santa Maria from Mexico, and Blanco, now 16, didn’t realize how frequent lockdowns would become at school.
“People would just be messing around. I thought it was serious,” Blanco remembered. “I guess it really impacted me in a way. I couldn’t understand how somebody would joke about something like that.”
Para la comunidad
Learn more about Corazón del Pueblo or make a donation at corazondelpueblo.org. Follow on Instagram @culturalandcreativearts for updates on future events.
The incoming junior at Ernest Righetti High School chose to depict a school lockdown in her painting for Nuestra Lotería, a project organized by Corazón del Pueblo. The nonprofit is a cultural arts center that supports indigenous migrant farmworking youth in the Santa Maria Valley.
Nuestra Lotería was one of two projects that the nonprofit featured at an exhibition and panel discussion for the artists, their families, and higher education leaders, planned for the evening of Aug. 18, after the Sun’s deadline. The artwork will be up at Allan Hancock College’s Boyd Hall until Aug. 21.
‘Me hizo ver que las fotografías siempre tienen una historia.’
—Elena Pérez, Allan Hancock College student
This year was the first time Corazón del Pueblo hosted a joint event for Nuestra Lotería and a brand-new project in collaboration with UC Santa Barbara researchers called Photo Voices. At the public exhibit and panel discussion, high schoolers planned to share their experiences in both programs and reflect on what it means to be indigenous migrant farmworkers today. Paintings from Nuestra Lotería (a recurring project reimagining Mexican bingo) and photographs from Photo Voices were on display.
Blanco’s square shows a young boy hiding under his desk and a bullet-ridden American flag. Other students painted scenes of sexism, labor abuse, and immigration enforcement raids.
Blanco said she was looking forward to hearing stories from her peers about their lives at the exhibition. Her parents are farmworkers, and though she doesn’t work in the fields herself, Blanco has other responsibilities.
“Somebody has to take care of the house when everybody is gone, so during the summers, I do all the chores around the house. I think people don’t really understand that, so just sharing our story and also my peers sharing their stories, … everybody hearing what our life looks like as students and children of farmworkers,” Blanco said.
The Righetti student also participated in Photo Voices and documented some of her goals, like pursuing a higher education and excelling professionally. Seven students enrolled in Photo Voices earlier this year, and they’ll continue on to the second phase later in August to learn about editing. They got personal instruction from researchers with the UC Santa Barbara Community Labor Center. The students have met every other week since March to dissect their pictures and talk about their meanings.
For Esmeralda Garcia, executive director of Corazón del Pueblo, the new program is another way for her students to express themselves and contribute to meaningful academic research in their communities. She said their creativity is inspiring.
“I knew that when researchers want to support field workers, what better way than connecting with field workers? Especially the students that work in the fields because they have a lot to tell,” Garcia said. “We don’t have enough spaces for them to tell their stories in order for them to also advocate for their own families, especially now, more than ever, with all these attacks to our people.”
One of Garcia’s priorities is to provide space for the students to process their emotions through art and foster a safe space for everyone. The director feels that by hosting the event at Hancock this year, she’s creating a bridge for their academic paths. Garcia said it’s a “huge step” for the program.
“We wanted to make sure that we can support our students to feel valued, included, and safe on a higher education campus,” Garcia explained.
Elena Pérez is a recent Santa Maria High School graduate who’ll attend Hancock in the fall. She participated in Photo Voices, an experience she said was “bastante buena.” It helped her understand that every picture has a backstory, whereas before, looking at photos could be superficial: “Me hizo ver que las fotografías siempre tienen una historia,” Pérez said. “Porque antes de entrar en ese programa, yo simplemente miraba una foto y ya.”
She was inspired to photograph her siblings and parents who work alongside her in the fields. Another image that stood out to her was from a field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
One message Pérez wanted to convey through her art is the balancing act that many students experience. They’re expected to do well in school and participate in extracurricular activities, but many kids like her are busy working when they aren’t in class, she explained.
Plus, the language barrier creates distance. It’s not that they aren’t trying to succeed, but sometimes it’s hard to concentrate in class due to external stressors: “No me puedo concentrar al cien por ciento en mis clases. Entonces, me gustaría que los maestros entendieran que sus estudiantes también tienen una vida difícil,” Pérez said.
The new Hancock student said she’d like to see more spaces that support indigenous farmworking youth and their families.
“I agree with her,” Blanco responded. “There’s lack of support in the community. People really try to ignore it, but it’s like, that’s really all Santa Maria is. Just ag fields.
“So, have more people really look at what’s right in front of you. Look around.”
Reach Staff Writer Madison White at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
