The coordinator for the Cesar Chavez Day Celebration planned Sunday in Olivehurst says Chavez offered a timeless message.

"Cesar Chavez stood for respect and unity," Veronica Ramos said. "That’s something we need in all communities."

The march and parade is expected to last about 45 minutes.

Ramos recalled the first event last year in Olivehurst that attracted about 500 people.

"You could see the passion they had," she said.

Olivehurst Elementary School taught about Chavez for a week last year and Lindhurst High School students assisted with the parade, Ramos said.

The flier for the Chavez celebration in Olivehurst quotes his saying: "We must understand that the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline."

‘The Greatness of America’

Then-Gov. Gray Davis said in 2000 when signing the bill that made California the first state to honor Cesar Chavez with an official holiday that Chavez "brought hope and inspiration to tens of thousands of farm workers — some of the hardest-working people on the planet Earth."

"His dream for farm workers spoke to the heart and conscience of America," Davis said.

Commenting while campaigning in 2000, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush said of Chavez that "he broke new ground when it came to fighting for individual rights. He fought for what was right, and that’s the greatness of America."

Chavez, born in 1927 near Yuma, Ariz., began his fight for farmworkers in the 1960s. In 1975, he undertook a 58-day 1,000-mile walk from San Ysidro to Salinas to guarantee fair union elections in agriculture.

He died April 23, 1993, in San Luis, Ariz.

A firecracker at the moon

Ramos said Chavez marched in Sacramento, but she did not know if he was ever in Yuba or Sutter counties.

Author Esperanza Fierro Lopez, in his book "The Chavista Daze: Volunteers, Rebel Rousers, Bleeding Hearts," writes of a Yuba City resident named Pancho who heard Chavez speak — at a location the book doesn’t identify — about organizing farm workers.

"When I learned about the movement, my thinking was that it was comparable to throwing a firecracker, without direction, at the moon," Pancho states of Chavez early in his fight for farm workers.

CONTACT Ryan McCarthy at rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4780. Find him on Facebook at /ADrmccarthy or on Twitter at @ADrmccarthy.