Everardo Mora (2009)
Quality Fruit, Quality People, Quality Tamales: The Story of Del Monte Cannery's Farandula and Voices from the Shop Floor
Everardo Mora will create a new narrative of cannery culture infused with the voices, stories, and experiences of Latino cannery workers on Del Monte Plant 3s shop floor. In 1999, Plant 3 closed it San Joss doors. It was the last full-scale cannery to operate in the Silicon Valley. Focusing on the social, cultural, and economic significance of Plant 3s cannery community, Everardos study will raise public awareness about the social and cultural contributions of Latino cannery workers to the Silicon Valleys rich agricultural history. His study will consider the farandula, which is a term used to describe the melody of Latino and mainstream American culture that sustained a sense of family for Plant 3s cannery community. Everardos narrative will also include a digital media component. At 12, equipped with an 8mm camcorder, a blue hard hat, white hair-net and orange ear plugs, Everardo walked under conveyor belts dripping with fruit cocktail syrup, dashed from workstation to workstation, and hid behind crates of fresh peaches in order to capture the sights and sounds of Plant 3s shop floor. This rare footage along with scenes from oral interviews and images from Plant 3 will feature in the media component of his project, which will be used as a teaching tool.
Letters Home
Biography
Everardo Mora became a meat cutter after high school to help with family finances. After 7 years of cutting pork loin chops and T-bone steaks, Everardo returned to college with the hope of becoming the first in his family to earn a college degree. Two years after transferring from Evergreen Valley College to UC Berkeley, his dream became a reality. Earning highest honors, Everardo received a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies in May 2009. His studies concentrated on planning, policy and minority communities. He also joined Phi Beta Kappa. His senior honors thesis is the foundation for his Stronach project. In addition to his academic commitment, Everardo is active in the community. He worked for two years as a transfer coordinator for the Experience Berkeley program at Stiles Hall, a community service agency. He provided leadership and strategic planning for the development of the program as well as individual transfer application mentoring for underrepresented community college students applying to the University of California. He is currently a board member at Stiles Hall. Everardo also worked with the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) Diversity Pipeline Program. He authored the "Community College: Transferring Out" section of the BASF "Destination Law School" Pre-Law Tool Kit and conceptualized the "3 Step Transfer Process," which provides information for transfer bound community college students. Everardo is still involved with BASF. In the future, he plans to study law, business, and real estate development.
