by Vanessa Romo
When relaying why she chose the farm fields for her college graduation photo shoot, Jennifer Rocha explained it’s because that’s where her parents “sacrificed their backs, their sweat, their early mornings, late afternoons, working cold winters, hot summers just to give me and my sisters an education.”
When relaying why she chose the farm fields for her college graduation photo shoot, Jennifer Rocha explained it’s because that’s where her parents “sacrificed their backs, their sweat, their early mornings, late afternoons, working cold winters, hot summers just to give me and my sisters an education.”
Jennifer Rocha wanted to hear the rustle of her black graduation gown against the bell pepper bushes in the California farm fields. She wanted to see the hem float above the dirt paths that she and her parents have spent years walking as a family while plucking heavy gallons of perfectly ripe fruits and vegetables that end up in America’s grocery stores.
That’s why she decided to take her college graduation photos in the same hot vegetable fields in Coachella, Calif., where she has worked with her parents since she was in high school.
“I’m proud that that’s where I come from,” says Rocha, who graduated from the University of California, San Diego on Saturday. “It’s a huge part of who I am.”
“The whole reason I wanted to go back to the fields with my parents is because I wouldn’t have the degree and the diploma if it wasn’t for them. They sacrificed their backs, their sweat, their early mornings, late afternoons, working cold winters, hot summers just to give me and my sisters an education.”
Originally published on Valley Public Radio | NPR for Central California site. Read full article.