FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF MARCH 24, 2001
COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
REMEMBERING CHAVEZ MEANS HONORING FARM WORKERS
Though he passed on to the spirit world in 1993, the heart of farm-labor
organizer Cesar Chavez still beats gently across the continent's rich and
verdant valleys. Countless streets, schools and community centers nationwide
now bear his name. He, along with his wife, Helen, and Dolores Huerta,
founded the United Farm Worker's union in 1962 and later joined Filipino farm
workers in their historic grape strike in 1965.
Third-grade student Lucy Garcia, of Cesar Chavez Science Magnet school in
Bakersfield -- where California is now observing his birthday as a legal
holiday -- knows of him in this way: "He wanted to make a law that said that
when you do something for people, you should get paid." Yes. That's what he
fought for.
Chavez has often been compared to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Perhaps he should also be compared with the late Emma Tenayuca, a labor giant
from San Antonio.
One way of honoring Chavez's memory is by remembering the man, not the myth.
He was a peaceful warrior, but a human being, not a saint. What he should be
remembered most for is reconnecting consumers worldwide to the earth and to
the workers who put food on our table, and for his philosophy of selflessness
and peace. Chavez said: "I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the
strongest act of humanity is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally
nonviolent struggle for justice. ... To be human means to suffer for others.
God help us to be human." It wasn't just the union's leadership that was
selfless but all those involved with "La Causa."
Teachers should explain to students that being human means having faults like
everyone else. Because of the UFW's work ("organizing the unorganizable"),
the union was always under siege. But not all of the union's conflicts were
external. At one point, some of the actions of the UFW caused a division
within the Chicano political movement, regarding the business practice of
using undocumented workers as strike breakers. The UFW denounced this
practice. Leaders of the Chicano movement interpreted this as inadvertently
aiding the anti-immigrant movement.
Those were difficult times, but peace came as the result of mediation efforts
by another recently deceased human-rights leader, Bert Corona. The union was
resilient as Chavez and Huerta emerged and proved to be the most enduring
human-rights champions of the post-1960s era. Today, the UFW (now joined by
virtually all U.S. unions) continues to organize migrant and immigrant
workers alike, regardless of race, nationality or citizenship.
Picketing and "The Boycott" are synonymous with Chavez, Huerta and the union.
Every picket was an honoring. It taught many of us to see dignity in all work
and all workers. Yet the UFW wasn't concerned only with labor; it was talking
about environmental racism long before the term was coined. The struggle
against pesticide poisoning, or "poisoned grapes" as young Lucy describes
them, was No. 1 on the UFW agenda.
Chavez was an astute intellectual with the mind of a general. He died
prematurely. Yet if he could, he would have traded in all of his posthumous
honors if the American public would today honor farm workers as full human
beings -- by paying them livable wages and guaranteeing them the security,
full benefits and protections afforded all other workers.
One way to honor his memory is to read one of the many books that have since
been published: "Remembering Cesar: The Legacy of Cesar Chavez," Ann
McCreggor (Quill Driver Books 1-800-497-4909), "Fields of Courage," Susan
Drake (Many Names Press), and "Elegy on the Death of Cesar Chavez," Rudy
Anaya (Cinco Puntos Press). Another way is to learn about the continued UFW
organizing struggles in the Southwest and of the other great farm-labor
organizing struggles for dignity taking place in the Northwest, Midwest and
Southeast, on the East Coast and in Canada.
One enigma that hasn't been given much attention: his last words. Before
retiring for the night, he had read a book on Native Americans. He said
something to the effect that "we have to start working with our relatives,
the American Indians." Perhaps unknown to most people, the campesinos (most
with roots in Mexico and Central America) are indigenous. They, like Chavez,
are the color of the earth. No doubt, one day, he will also be honored as a
great indigenous leader throughout the continent.
* To learn more about the UFW, visit: http://www.ufw.org
* To learn more about the PCUN -- the farmworkers union of the Northwest,
visit: http://www.pcun.org
COPYRIGHT 2001 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
* Gonzales is the author of the forthcoming "The Mud People: Anonymous Heroes
of Mexico" and co-author of "Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored" (ISBN:
0-918520-22-3 -- Ethnic Studies Library Publications Unit, UC Berkeley.
Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth- ISBN
0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 -- Bilingual Review Press). We can be
reached at PO BOX 100726, San Antonio, TX 78201-8726, or by phone at
210-734-3050 or XColumn@aol.com Our "Column of the Americas" is archived
under "Opinion" at www.uexpress.com
* Also, the Aztlanahuac project's new e-address is: Aztlanahuac@aol.com...
The other contact info for Aztlanahuac is the same as above.