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Show n Page ID Lakeside Review Wednesday, July 10, 1985 Well-Kno- among Migrant Workers wn Davis County Migrant Recruiter Loves His People CHERYL ARCHIBALD Review Staff FRUIT HEIGHTS Eulogio Saldivar, 78, does not have to pick cherries, something he has done for the last 25 years. Despite the fact that he works for the Davis County School District as a recruiter in the migrant education program, hes still one of the fastest cherry pickers at the Pine Ridge Nursery in Fruit Heights. I love it here, he explains from about five rungs up on an aluminum ladder propped securely amid leaves and limbs and cherries. can think clear. The air is clean and fresh, he says, as he strips a handful of cherries from their stems and tosses them into his bucket. I And the nurserys owner. Forest Barker, is a good friend, he adds. Barker is also the principal of Adams Elementary, the school to which Saldivar directs the chil dren of migrant farm workers he finds as the districts recruiter. Barkers son, Andrew, 21, now manages the nursery. Mr. Saldivar inspires our other workers, the younger Barker says as he walks in the shaded cherry tree corridors. When the others see a working, they get busy, Barker explains. The nursery has no migrants working now. The Barkers have hired some young local students this sum mer. Saldivar picks cherries from 6 a.m. to p.m. filling six or seven boxes at 5 pounds a box. Pay is 10 cents a pound. Saldivar makes about $25 a day. 1 30-3- As a recruiter, he visits schools in the morning and visits the families of migrant school children at night. He advises and counsels them when there are any problems at school. In the winter I have to inter- - ' wi I 'N- - - ic ytu - T 1&f- 'f ip 1 ; - view families to make sure the children get an education. They call me sometimes. I always encourage them to keep in school. I make the parent aware that an education is important. Ive accomplished much by telling them fathers should sit and talk to their children. them what their relationship is to their Father in Heaven. I tell them it is the fathers responsibility to children to have the same kind of relationship, Saldivar says. I ask Counsel, dont use the whip on them. Love them and theyll understand, I tell them." Saldivar gives his first wife, Josephine, who died in 1979, credit for conveying a positive attitude about raising children. The two raised eight children together. 1 She was very sensible. She did everything with love and with a smile. Once I told her I was very lucky that I had never had a bad headache. She told me that was because there was nothing inside my head. But she said it with a smile, Saldivar says of his wifes T good-natur- ed teasing. Saldivar is now remarried. His present wife, Alice, was away on a vacation to Spain visiting her daughter, Saldivar says. He was bom in Durango, Mexico. 'fJ- feil'T - tzti " ' r He came to California, where his first wife lived. His brother married her sister, and he married Josephine. When the depression struck in the late 1920s, they went back to Mexico. In 1947 they returned to California and Saldivar obtained a job as an farm irrigator and then went into the bar business. That was a short-live- d occupation, he says. He lost $2,500 because of the dishonesty, of some business asso- ciates. ",t HANDS MOVING in a blur of motion, Eulogio Saldivar picks cherries while discussing migrant workers and children. Saldivar got a job thinning . m beets and then came to Utah. I was out of money and someone told me Leon Jenson in Far mington, had the only home, but it was for a share cropper. He told me I could stay in the home with my family. But he said Id have to leave in the winhe needed a share cropter per. I said, Thats why I'm here. The Saldivars stayed in the house as share croppers for six years. He was also a share cropper for Dean Egbert in Farmington. Then he was employed at Hill Air Force Base, and after that worked for the Davis School Dis- trict. He was in custodial work for 10 years and in food delivery 12. He retired in 1973. But not content to do nothing, he became manager of the Joshua Apartments. I was asked if I wanted to manage some new apartments. Saldivar later managed the Crestwood Apartments for the elderly and helped in a meal program for the elderly. He still visits the residents there, he says. In 1955, Saldivar joined the LDS Church and was a stake missionary for five years. After his wife died, when he was 74 years of age, he went on an LDS mission to the Dominican Republic. A year ago, when he returned from his mission, he explains, Mr. Barker said, We can't have you sitting in a rocking chair. Weve got to put you to work. So Saldivar became a recruiter for the school district, working with migrant workers and their children. I love my own people, he says. I understand them. When he asked one of the migrant workers why he and his wife and children traveled around so much, the worker told him, If I can get along without an education, so can they. I told him, You have to have an education in todays technolo- gy- - He always encourages them to settle down and find a permanent job; to educate themselves or at least their children, he says. Number of Reasons Given Fewer Migrant Children Attending Summer Program LAYTON This summer there are 19 migrant children attending the migrant program at Adams Elementary in Layton. They are given swimming lessons and attend school classes from June 3 to Aug. 2, says the schools principal. Forest Barker. Migrant children also receive three meals a day during the summer under the federally funded summer Title I program. Mary Mata teaches the children ages kindergarten through third grade. John Casey teaches the older students. Many are behind their peers academically because of moving around, and need the summer supplement to their educations, the teachers agreed. In the fall they will go into regular school classes. States have always been required to educate migrant children. The summer program was started 15 to 20 years ago, Barker says. Programs also exist in Ogden and Brigham City. Of the three, ours used to be one of the largest. Now it is the smallest, Bark- er explains. Twenty years ago there were 150 migrant children in the pro- gram. Most of the migrants are settling out and will no longer be defined as migrant in a few years. They are taking up residence here and working permanent jobs. If they remain in the fields, picking cherries or onions, doing any kind of seasonal farm work, they can maintain their migrant status for five years. Their children will be eligible for federal government supported meals and schooling until then. But in five years, they will be settled out, losing their migrant worker status, becoming regular residents of Davis County. There is only one family in Davis now in full migrant status, having just moved here. Another reason given for the declining number of migrants in the county is the receding amount of cropland in which to work. Farms are being replaced rap- idly by housing developments. Children coming to Utah are recruited for the program by Eulogio P. Saldivar, recruiter for the Davis County School District. Also, children are found by means of the Migrant Student Record Transfer System, a computer system hooked up to a Lit- tle Rock, Arkansas central system. The system keeps track of childrens ages, grades, medical histories, test scores and migrant status. When migrant children come to Utah, the MSRTS will give all the information on the children, says Shirley Cannon, of the State Department of Education. There are three categories of migrant workers, Barker says. The interstate farmers move within the state, living where they find temporary work and then moving on. Intrastate workers move from state to state. Many come to Utah from Texas. Only one migrant family has come to Utah recently from another state. The third category is families who were on the migrant trail who decided to stay in Utah, with their children enrolled in the five-yeeducation program. Most of ours are in the program, Barker says. ar five-ye- ar LENDING A helping hand to migrant student Reuben Gutierrez is Adams Elementary School student teacher Kathy Evans. . j |
