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One man show

A one-man, one-man act show portraying the life of Cesar Chavez was performed for students at Palm Avenue Elementary school in Wasco Feb. 9.

 “Stories of Cesar Chavez,” produced and acted by Fred Blanco of Sylmar, Calif., captivated the young audience with a show he has been performing for the past year.

“I don’t think that there’s a lot of shows on Cesar Chavez, at least not for the schools,” said Blanco, who primarily does educational theater. “I just sort of started reading about it and became impassioned about the topic, and about Cesar as a person.”

The story unfolds as Chavez prays to the Virgen de Guadalupe during his 25-day fast in 1968, and recalls past moments in his life that have led him to his leadership role in the United Farm Workers union and personal struggle for civil rights. He is looking to regain strength and hope, Blanco says.

Blanco was invited to perform his show by Palm Avenue Principal Kelly Richers, who wanted to give his students a good example demonstrating the power of a persuasive speaker.

“One of the things we need are experiences outside our own school,” Richers says.

“Since many of them (the students) have at least faint working knowledge of Cesar Chavez, it seemed highly appropriate that that would be a very good subject for them to advance their knowledge in this area.”

Richers also wanted to relate to the real-life experiences of his students with parents who are, at some level, involved with farmworking.

“Well over half of our population is considered to be a migrant population, and they need to have some identification. They need to have some reason to try to improve where they are, some reason to bring school into their family, and we’re trying to accomplish that,” Richards said.