Pine River Library's Latino Americans: 500 Years of History discussed Cesar Chavez on Wednesday, and tonight features another episode of the PBS documentary Latino Americans.
This installment of the series is entitled "Peril & Promise" and will be shown at 7 p.m.
On Wednesday, Mary Curtis, who works at the library, discussed living in Southern California in the 1970s and joining Chavez' protests of treatment of migrant workers.
She was arrested and jailed for four days alongside other activists.
At the time, no bathrooms were available in fields and migrant workers were paid for each pound of produce. After several strikes, workers started getting paid by the hour and that improved working conditions somewhat, but they still weren't good, Curtis said. She was joined in the discussion by Jim Fitzgerald, a sociology professor at Fort Lewis College.
While a few dozen adults discussed the legacy of Chavez and watched the documentary, children planted zucchini seeds. If their plant grows through the summer, they're welcome to bring squash back in the fall for the library's zucchini festival.
As one of 203 grant recipients selected from across the country, Pine River Library received a grant of $3,000 to hold public programming about Latino history and culture. Ignacio Community Library also is offering programming through the grant.
"Latino Americans are the country's largest minority group, with more than 50 million people, and still many people are unaware of their rich and varied history and culture," said Brooke Smith, grant coordinator. "I'm thrilled that Pine River Library has this opportunity to explore this topic in our community."
As part of the series, the library also is offering salsa dance classes in March. For a schedule of events, visit www.prlibrary.org or contact Smith at 884-2222, ext. 510.
