National campaign launched for Cesar Chavez holiday
LOS ANGELES — People in the entertainment and political area launched a nationwide effort last week to make the birthday of labor leader Cesar Chavez, March 31, a national holiday.
Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers union and was its president. He died in 1993 at the age of 66. His birthday was declared a statewide day of service and learning in California eight years ago.
“Cesar Chavez reminds us ‘Si se puede’ means that you can create a miracle,” said guitarist Carlos Santana, a co-chair of the Cesar E. Chavez National Holiday Campaign.
Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon supports the campaign.
“The history and accomplishments of Cesar Chavez alone are deserving of national recognition however, it is the energy and enthusiasm which Cesar so naturally inspired that continues to fuel our faith, our passion and our sense of empowerment that together, we really can accomplish change for any cause we feel is right,” Alarcon said.
Organizers planned events in 65 cities across the nation to call on Congress to establish a national holiday on Chavez’s birthday.
In the Southland, student activists at UCLA cut classes Monday — Cesar Chavez Day — to protest the failure of schools to close down on the state holiday marking the birthday of the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America.
The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary — which calls itself BAMN — held a rally and march here and in Oakland and Sacramento, organizers said.
“On Chavez Holiday, we [are] marching for dignity, equal treatment and respect,” Los Angeles BAMN organizer Hoku Jeffrey said.
He called for schools to hold educational assemblies about Chavez and to close on his birthday.
Schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District were open Monday, although some colleges and universities closed for the holiday.
Former Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation in 2000 to create the state holiday, and some schools use the day to teach students about the union organizer, who would have been 81 years old. He died in 1993.
Chavez was a farm worker of Mexican descent who became a labor leader and civil rights activist and who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.