This novel in verse by Aida Salazar opens with one of my favorite quotes - "They tried to bury us but they didn't know we were seeds." A Mexican Proverb
It is 1965 and Lula and her family are in Delano, CA, picking grapes. The work is exhausting and the pay is pitiful. Lula's mother has not been able to pick recently because of ill health. She can't even take care of the two youngest children so Lula and her older sister have had to stay home from school to care for them or to work picking to make up for their mother's lost wages.
Unrest plagues the camps because Filipino workers are striking. Leading the strike are activists Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez. At first Lula's father forbids them to get involved. Instead, they cross the picket lines to keep working, but soon that changes. Lula's father learns that the more workers who strike, the more chance for higher wages and better conditions.
The activists are helping the strikers to find housing, food, and medical care. The medical care comes at just the right time for Lula's mother. It is discovered that her condition is due to the pesticide sprayed on the crops. Hopefully, the treatment prescribed will help her.
Author Aida Salazar uses verse to reveal the plight of many farmworkers in the 1960s. Readers will learn about how growers took advantage of these hard workers and still do to some extent today.
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