Grandson urges Sausalito students to carry on Cesar Chávez’s legacy
Anthony Chávez was just 7 years old when his grandfather, civil rights activist and farm worker organizer César Chávez, died.
"Thirty thousand people showed up to march in his honor, and I thought — for my grandpa? That fun-loving guy, who loved jokes, loved his dogs, who would stand on his head when he had the hiccups. That guy?" Chávez said.
Today, the 26-year-old Anthony Chávez travels constantly, bringing his grandfather’s message to schools, prisons and community groups. On Friday, the day before his grandfather’s 85th birthday, Chávez shared the story of his life — and continuing mission — with students and faculty at The Marin School in Sausalito.
Chávez’s address began the Sausalito private school’s first-ever day of service in celebration of César Chávez Day.
"Everyone is spending the whole day in service," said Head of School Barbara Brown. "One group is working with the Marin Humane Society. Another will be working in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and another will be at the Sausalito Library."
The day of service was the first innovation Brown made to the Sausalito school when she assumed leadership of the school in July. She met Anthony Chávez shortly afterward, and asked if he would be willing to participate in the event.
"He said, ‘This was meant to be,’" Brown recalled.
Chávez illustrated his presentation Friday with black-and-white family photographs of his famous grandfather as a child, as a young man, as a migrant worker throughout California and as an organizer for the Community Service Organization. He pointed out that his grandfather’s decision to leave a comfortable job in order to begin organizing California’s agricultural workers had serious repercussions for both Chávez and his family.
"My grandfather no longer had to work his butt off in the field. His wife and mother did not have to work. They could take the family on vacation; they had benefits," Chávez said. "When my grandfather made his decision, his family had to go back to the fields. So it was a tough decision. But he felt, if he didn’t do something, who would?"
Although his grandfather had only an eighth-grade education — Anthony Chávez himself is the first member of his family to have earned a college degree — his deep love of learning and insatiable appetite for books led to his admiration for nonviolent leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, and his decision to adopt their methods to achieve recognition of the condition under which California’s farm laborers worked.
"Three walls of my grandfather’s office were filled with books — about U.S. and California history, about organic gardening and how to do it on a large scale," Chávez said. "He never missed an opportunity to learn."
While César Chávez has been lauded for his work in founding the United Farm Workers and achieving many of their goals, Anthony Chávez pointed out that many of the workers still laboring in California’s fields continue to suffer in ways that César Chávez would find familiar.
"These are black and white photos (of the past), but I could show you ones in color," Chávez said, pointing to a photograph of children laboring in a cotton field. "There are still half a million children in the U.S. working in the fields. California has some of the best farm labor laws in the country, but those laws are on the books in Sacramento — they’re not always the law in the fields. We still have workers who have no shade on hot days, who have no place to use the restroom while they’re working."
Using the example of the recent "Arab Spring," Anthony Chávez urged his young audience to use online social media and their own passion to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps — by helping to create the kind of world in which they would like to live.
"Find the thing that you are most interested in, that you can be most passionate about, that you can put all of your energy into," Chávez said. "And go forward with that."
The address made an impression on 15-year-old student Odysseas Fourakis, who planned to spend the day volunteering at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands.
"It made me want to work harder," said Fourakis, a Corte Madera resident.
Chávez also asked his listeners to take a closer look at the community in which they live — including those parts they might have avoided in the past.
"You know that just across the Richmond bridge, there are children living in conditions very different than those you or I enjoy. And yet we are all Bay Area residents," Chávez said. "So what can we do to build real bridges, that will spread wellness throughout our community?"
Contact Rob Rogers via e-mail at rrogers@marinij.com