This week, my son and I are studying Cesar Chavez and learning about the critical changes to wages and working conditions for Mexican-American migrant farm workers he made in partnership with Dolores Huerta and their United Farmworkers Movement in the 1960s. We learned that Chavez attended thirty-seven schools between kindergarten and eighth grade and was never allowed to speak Spanish at school despite the fact that he solely spoke Spanish at home with family, friends and neighbors. Though he did not attend high school, he read hundreds of books studying in detail the lives of nonviolent leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy in order to use their methods of creating change like strikes (including numerous hunger strikes he engaged in), protests and marches. In addition to transforming the wages and working conditions for migrant farm workers, he also forever changed education by bringing Spanish into the classroom. He successfully advocated for policies and programs in English as a Second Language (ESL) to ensure that other immigrant students would not have to experience the pain he endured.

This Fall, I had the privilege of working with a group of Spanish-speaking parents and caregivers in the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District in southern California. Through the hard work and expertise of Maggie Velasco, Bilingual Parent Engagement Specialist with the district, she translated written materials and also, our dialogue together and my presentation. I am grateful to her for allowing me to share some of the tools here and as a permanent resource on my site for Spanish speaking caregivers.

If you want to learn more about the powerful, tireless and inspired work of Cesar Chavez, check out the Cesar Chavez Foundation. And below are the Confident Parents, Confident Kids’ tools translated into Spanish. If you are an educator who works with Spanish-speaking families, I hope you’ll consider sharing these resources.

When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belongs to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of people we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced that the truest act of courage is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice.

—César Chávez (1927–1993)

CPCK Tools and Resources in Spanish:

1. Mi Plan de Seguridad Emocional – Se que mis hijos aprenden a manejar las emociones de mi modelo cuando estoy enojado y ansioso. Yo se que mi hijo actuara de la misma manera que yo lo hago cuando estoy estresado. Tener un plan listo y ensayado me ayudara a modelar como quiero enseñarles a manejar sus emociones. In English: The Family Emotional Safety Plan – This is a short planning worksheet that asks simple questions to plan for those moments when emotions feel overwhelming.
2. La Promesa Global de Lealtad – Global Pledge of Allegiance
3. Esperanzas para Nuestros Hijos, Esperanzas para la Crianza – Hopes and Dreams of Parents and for Children relative to social and emotional skills
4. Promesa Familiar de Pelear Justamente – Fighting Fairly Family Pledge
5. Conociendote – Family “Get to Know You” Form to complete and send to teachers
6. Serie de Discusion de SEL para Padras e Cuidadores – CASEL Caregivers Discussion Series, an eight-session dialogue series for parents on learning about social and emotional learning in family life.