It’s always a good time to remember the work and person and legacy of Cesar Chavez, but in this time of inhumane, Trumpeting anti-immigration hatred and hysteria in some parts of American society it’s particularly useful to remember this good man. Like the rest of us, Chavez was neither saint nor made of plaster. He was flesh and blood and humanly flawed, but he contributed enormously to the well being of humanity by both the results and the personal example of his activism. He is one of the great if marginally recognized American heroes. In my view, every community in America is well served by remembering Cesar Chavez, all the more meaningful in a country in which almost 60 million people, approximately 18% of total population, and more than 22% of America’s students are Latino.
His personal example was in the non-violent tradition of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and St. Francis of Assisi, each of whom left the world better than they found it, as did Chavez. Born in 1927 in Arizona, one of six children of Mexican-American parents who spoke only Spanish at home, Chavez quit school before he was 15 to become a migrant farm worker so his mother wouldn’t have to work in the fields. His two years in the U.S. Navy during WWII he described as “the two worst years of my life.” After his military service Chavez married his high school sweetheart with whom he had eight children, moved to San Jose, California and supported his growing family as a migrant farm worker. In 1952 he left the fields and became an organizer for the Latino civil rights group Community Service Organization where, among other things, he was instrumental in getting Mexican-American citizens to register and vote. In 1962 he founded what eventually became the United Farm Workers (UFW) which through strikes, boycotts and gaining public support through education increased farm workers’ wages, as well as improved living and working conditions.
A vegan who believed in animal rights, Chavez undertook several fasts, one of them for 36 days, in the spirit of Catholic penance and Gandhi’s fasts to emphasize nonviolence. Among the many simple, obvious truisms that inspired Chavez and directed his actions was his awareness that violence does not enhance the well being of humanity. For that alone he is worth remembering and honoring as a person and example, not as plastic saint.
One of my prized possessions is a letter dated July 26, 1974 from Chavez. It reads, “Dear Brother Dorworth” and was dictated to someone with the initials ns and signed by Cesar Chavez. He thanks me for an embarrassingly paltry sum I had donated to the UFW to help “the striking workers, who are always in need of food and clothing.”
Few reading this, including me, know what it is to live with the daily fear and indignity of being in need of food and clothing.
Chavez and his family and friends knew about such things and he did something positive to change it. Remembering Cesar Chavez is a reminder that we each can do something positive to change that which needs changing. Silencing the Trumpet of hatred is a good place to start.
Si, se puede.