In the classroom this week we read Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez. We learned that he wasn’t just one of the most effective and powerful advocates for farmworkers’ rights in history, but also a champion of women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and animal rights. We also learned that historical figures are often complicated. In Chavez’s case, he was vehemently opposed to undocumented immigrants, a view that would certainly not be shared by most of his activist peers today.
In honor of Chavez’s Mexican heritage and his veganism and vegetarianism, we cooked a vegan tortilla soup featuring vaquero beans, which are named for their similarity in appearance to the spotted coat of the appaloosa horse. There was so much activity in this lesson, we didn’t get many photos. But we played several lively games of telephone while we waited for the soup ingredients to simmer and deepen in flavor. Some chefs loved the soup, while others found the inclusion of chipotle peppers a bit too spicy for their tastebuds.
