The UFW & Chavez family pay tribute to veterans everywhere
Among countless Latinos who defended their country in the Armed Services were two of Cesar Chavez’s cousins, Rudolph G. Rico and Lawrence Horta, with whom Cesar grew up in the North Gila River Valley outside Yuma Arizona. They died fighting with the U.S. Army against the Nazi tyranny in Europe during World War II. Cesar’s brother-in-law, Guillermo Fabela, helped launch the Normandy Invasion by parachuting behind German lines with the famed 101st Airborne Division on D-Day and fought through the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Cesar served for two years with the U.S. Navy, including in the western Pacific, just after the end of the war.
When Guillermo Fabela returned to Delano, Calif. after the war he and other Latino veterans organized the petition campaign that resulted in ending segregation at the Delano Theater where Cesar, while on leave from the U.S. Navy, had been arrested earlier for sitting in the whites-only section.
The Navy named its latest 689-foot long Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Cesar Chavez. She was launched on May 5, 2012, and is deployed to strategic locations worldwide. USNS Cesar Chavez recently joined an international task force led by the Australian Defense Force searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 off the west coast of Australia.