SAN JOSE, Calif. — With the rise of hate crimes against minority groups nationwide, a polarizing White House administration and a housing crisis that’s deepened the divide between rich and poor — Cesar Chavez Day, to be celebrated on Friday, resonates even more, activists say.
Many of these Chavez-era activists remain determined to carry on the labor leader’s mission by doing what they say he would’ve done to confront social injustice in these modern times: mobilize tirelessly and give a voice to those marginalized.
“His humanity and his work to advance justice and equality for all would have required him to speak out,” said former Santa Clara County Supervisor Blanca Alvarado. “He’d be ready to organize throughout California and throughout the country.”
The civil rights icon would’ve turned 90 on Friday — his birthday is officially recognized nationwide on March 31.
Alvarado, now 85, organized alongside Chavez during the height of the farmworker movement, visiting local supermarkets during the infamous Delano grape strike to call on customers to boycott grapes.
“He would have called on labor unions (to organize), he would’ve called on the church community, he would’ve called on grass-roots communities. He would’ve counted on all of us,” she added.
The Rev. Jon Pedigo, director for projects for peace and justice for the Diocese of San Jose, said Chavez would’ve been troubled by the many issues affecting immigrant communities, in particular, the separation of families as a result of deportation.
“Without a doubt, Cesar would’ve addressed that issue,” he said. “He was a deeply spiritual man. But he wouldn’t see it as a separate issue from the attack against Muslims, the denigration of LGBTQIA folks … all these things go together.”
“His reaction would be to mobilize people together, for unity,” Pedigo added.
Born in Yuma, Ariz., in 1927, Chavez spent his childhood as a migrant farmworker, traveling often with his family to pick a variety of crops throughout California.
Chavez spent the early years of his activism in San Jose, in a neighborhood dubbed, “Sal Si Puedes” or “get out if you can.” A modest wooden meeting house on San Antonio Street — known today as McDonnell Hall — was where Chavez first learned to organize with members of the Latino civil rights group, Community Service Organization in the 1950s and 1960s. Chavez became a prominent figure in San Jose’s Mexican-American community, ramping up voter registration drives and fighting for economic and racial equality.
In January, the National Park Service named McDonnell Hall a federal landmark.
Chavez, hailed as a creative genius whose movement challenged the social and political structure of its time, went on to create the first farmworker labor union in the country, known today as the United Farm Workers. The man who famously coined the term, “Si Se Puede,” remains an important part of Latino-American history today, with many farmworkers and immigration activists rallying in his name, often using the same catch phrase.
Miriam Pawel, author of the 2014 Chavez biography, “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez,” said there are many lessons to take away from his unique legacy.
“Fundamentally, his greatest accomplishment was empowering people who thought they had no power,” she said. “To me, that’s very much his legacy, this idea that people can organize.”
Chavez’s activism also demonstrated the importance of small victories, according to Pawel.
“I think you see that today whenever someone surrounds a car and stops ICE from taking someone away,” she said. “It’s basic, fundamental organizing — people join together and organize for a common purpose that they can in fact change and control what happens.”