BY TERE FIGUERAS

 Beset by two devastating floods last fall, then a freeze and rampant citrus canker, the migrant farmworkers of south Miami-Dade have weathered one of their leanest, meanest seasons.

 But their children have also made it one of their best by presenting them with a scholastic bumper crop -- a record number of high school graduates.

 So Thursday night, a beleaguered community of Mexicans, Salvadorans, Haitians and Guatemalans proudly celebrated as 149 sons and daughters marched through a candlelit Kendall ballroom in cap and gown at their Senior Recognition Banquet. Most were from Homestead and South Dade high schools.

 "This is my dream that they will graduate,'' said Maria Rodríguez, helping her son, José, 18, into his white robe. ``I tell them, `Be proud, be an example to your children.' That is the only way.''

 Said José, the eldest of his parents' four children, who graduates from Homestead High: ``I'm proud because I'm the first one ever graduating, even going way back to my mother's mother.''

 Miami-Dade school officials attribute the steady climb in graduates -- up from 134 last year and a mere 29 at the first recognition banquet in 1985 -- to a shift in attitudes among migrant families.

 Among 10,000 south Miami-Dade farmworkers who average just $13,800 in annual wages, ``they see this is the way out of poverty,'' said Beatriz Vidales, a career
 specialist for the Migrant Education Program. ``They see their kids are seeds that need to be cultivated and fed. And they know education is the answer, even if it means some sacrifices.''

 Cipriano Garza, the program's executive director, said weather disasters during the past year have only reinforced the conviction that ``without an education there is
 nothing.''

 But in recent years, the students also have been given better educational tools -- including high-tech ones that enable them to stay in touch with their Miami-Dade
 teachers even as their families follow the crop seasons from Florida to the Carolinas, Ohio and Texas.

 They do that with Web TV units provided by Project MECHA -- the Migrant Education Consortium for Higher Achievement jointly run by Barry University and Miami-Dade Public Schools. The units enable 500 students to convert a TV set and telephone line into an means to research projects on the Internet and send e-mail to teachers.

 While they are in Miami-Dade, children enrolled in the Migrant Education Program also attend after-school sessions, soaking up everything from computers skills and nutritional guidelines to career counseling and financial-aid tips.

 Still, the temptations to drop out of school and pitch in to help struggling families can be overwhelming, said Maria C. Garza, president of the Mexican-American Council and Cipriano Garza's wife. About 15 percent of the 2,000 migrant children in the Miami-Dade school system don't graduate. Even kids who stay in school often spend afternoons and weekends working alongside their parents.

 ``You're young, you're stronger and faster in the fields than your mother and father, and you know you can help,'' said Garza, daughter of migrant parents and raised on the road. ``But at the end of the day, you're losing more. It's a vicious cycle of poverty.''

 To help them break the cycle, the Mexican-American Council provides mentors and guest speakers -- as well as some simple pleasures such as money for field trips, scout uniforms and sports equipment.

 ``I remember growing up and knowing I couldn't have those things,'' Garza said. ``I didn't even want to invite kids home. What could you do in a migrant camp? This way, they feel they can participate.''

                                    © 2001