Students, parents attend post-election art session at Cesar Chavez Language Academy

The morning after Election Day was an emotional one on the dual-immersion Cesar Chavez Language Academy campus.

Principal Rebekah Rocha called an emergency 8 a.m. staff meeting - something she says she “never does” - during which she spoke about how to talk to their students in the wake of an election that shocked the nation.

About a week later, the artists at the Charles M. Schulz Studio reached out to Rocha, wanting to find a way to help Hispanic children express their fears and concerns through art. The result Thursday - with about 60 students and 15 parents attending - was a program billed as a post-election art therapy session at CCLA called “Art as an Outlet.”

“People were really excited about there being a new president, but then after the election some kids felt a little different,” Rocha said Thursday to the crowd in Spanish, recalling how students were crying after Donald Trump's election and wondering if they and their parents would be deported.

“Some felt a little sad, some said they were worried, and so our friends - artists at the Schulz Studio - said they wanted to do something with the kids, they wanted to help them with expressing when they were worried or when they felt scared.”

Rocha said the day following the election the school “had an unprecedented number of students in the office not feeling well, stomach aches and missing their parents.”

Since then, President-elect Trump has walked back his comments on undocumented immigrants, instead vowing to focus on deporting those with criminal records. But students are still anxious, among them 8-year-old Vanessa Carapia, a third-grader who showed up to the after-school art class with her mother, Julieta Olvera.

Carapia didn't exactly draw out her feelings - she made a comic book about her pet, Chihuaha Coco - but after the class, her mother explained that because Carapia had been so concerned about the election, and because she likes art so much, coming to the class seemed like a good fit.

“It was really interesting to me, the medium in which they were teaching the students,” Olvera, 33, said in Spanish. “(Carapia) was sad about the election, and she cried about everything she was hearing, that we would have to leave. But I told her that she shouldn't worry, that nothing would happen and that we would stay together here or there.

“It's important and it's good because sometimes she doesn't like to talk, and so through art she can express how she's feeling.”

Carapia and her sister were born in Santa Rosa, but her parents and brother were born in Mexico, and are undocumented, Olvera said.

“I was scared because if (Trump) said that, then my dad, mom and brother would have to go back to Mexico,” Carapia said.

The students each got to make a comic book and all collaborated to create a banner that will hang at the school.

As for there being more drawings of Christmas trees and puppies than sad faces, Rocha said that was just fine by her.

“Honestly,” she said. “It's probably a good thing.”

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.