These photos were made at a festival for children of farm workers and their families, whom I lived among in Santa Maria for a year, 2011-12.

I worked at the library for a while, straightening the rows of books in Spanish that were never checked out, though 85% of the 125,000 population of Santa Maria speaks Spanish at home and at work.

Schools there are bilingual but children are not asked to read the Spanish classics, like Don Quixote, nor do they understand the value of their Spanish and native heritage and grow to feel their cultural heritage has negative value to their potential for success.