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Greetings from The Paley Center for Media’s Education Department!

Welcome to the latest installment of “What We’re Watching.” Twice a month the education department reaches out to the community with tips and ideas for consuming media with kids by highlighting different themes that connect to two selected programs, one for younger viewers and one for older viewers, each with related activities and resources. 

Watching media alongside your kids is a perfect jumping-off point to making media literacy a part of your everyday lives. Familiarizing yourself with the basics is a great first step. You can view our first newsletter about media literacy best practices archived here. We also recommend the National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Parents Guide—it’s a terrific introduction!

‌What We're Watching: ¡Si Se Puede!

Two of the most basic human needs for human survival are food and clean water. The people who harvest the crops of food we eat each week have for centuries labored under harsh conditions and have been paid very little to compensate for their work, often at risk to their health due to prolonged contact with chemical fertilizers. The most successful campaign in US history to help farm workers was led by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez in 1965 when they organized a five-year grape strike and boycott in Delano, California. Working alongside other movements of the time, they were successful in creating a farm workers union which led to pay increases and better working conditions for migrant laborers. The inspiring stories of Huerta and Chavez can teach us a lot in facing new labor challenges—undocumented worker deportations and climate change stressors on the land. Huerta and Chavez’s goal was to help the people who needed it most and as we learn in Xavier Riddle, we can do a lot when we work together, all we need to do is speak up and say things clearly, calmly and with confidence. ¡Si Se Puede!

This Week's Recommendations for Younger Viewers

Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: “I Am Cesar Chavez”/“I am Dolores Huerta” S6 E1 (2020)

Recommended for Grades K+

Available on PBS Kids

This series follows kid adventurers Xavier Riddle, his little sister Yadina, and his best friend Brad as they tackle everyday problems by doing something extraordinary: traveling back in time to learn from real-life inspirational figures when they were kids. In this episode, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta teach Xavier, Yadina, and Brad that it is important to work together, and speak up when they see someone in need.

Viewing Questions

• What do we learn about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta as children?
  
• What do they have in common?
• What do they both model for the Secret Museum team about organizing people?
• How did they use what they learned about organizing and speaking up for people who need help, to fix the two problems at the Kid’s Zone?
• What was the result?

Extension Activity

Find out more about how to get involved in helping people in your local community.  If you live in New York City, New York Cares has volunteer opportunities for young people. If you live in Chicago, The Honeycomb Project is a great community to join.

Additional Resources

Watch

• Flow (2024)
• Wild Robot (2024)
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum (2020- present)

This Week's Recommendations for Older Viewers

Dolores (2017)
Recommended for Grades 7+
Available to rent

One of the most important, yet least known activists of our time, Dolores Huerta was an equal partner in founding the first farm workers union with César Chávez. Peter Bratt’s film chronicles Huerta’s life from her childhood in Stockton, California to her early years with the United Farm Workers, from her work with the headline-making grape boycott launched in 1965 to her role in the feminist movement of the 1970s, to her continued work as a fearless activist. Tirelessly leading the fight for racial and labor justice, Huerta, now ninety-four years old, is one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century.

Viewing Questions

• What do we learn about Dolores’s early life?
• What drew her to the life of an organizer?
• What sacrifices did Dolores make to become an advocate/activist/community organizer? How did it affect her family? How do they reflect on it looking back?
• How did Huerta and Chavez organize? What was their plan?  
• Were men held to the same standards as women in positions of power during this movement?
• What connections can you make to other social movements of the time?
• What ideologies influenced her and Chavez?
• How did intersectionality influence the work of Huerta?
• What is intersectionality and how did it influence the work of Huerta?
• What do we learn about the role of sacrifice and social change from this movie?

Additional Resources

Read

• Atmos: Dolores Huerta: The Labor Movement Must Take Climate Action
• Historias de Resistencia #1

Listen

• American Archive of Public Broadcasting: Cesar Chavez speaks on the Delano Grape Strike

Watch

• Asian American Education Project ‘Filipino American Farm Workers’ 
• Cesar Chavez (2014)
• East of Salinas (2015)
• McFarland USA (2015)

As always, if you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at eduny@paleycenter.org.

Happy viewing,

Rebekah Fisk
Director of Education

Carlos Pareja
Manager of Education

Photos—Xavier Riddle: PBS Kids, 9 Story Media Group, Brown bag Films; Dolores: PBS/5 Stick Films

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