Arizona Daily Star: Neto’s Tucson by Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Chávez a universal hero

Ravyn Brooks marched Saturday celebrating civil- and labor-rights champion César E. Chávez.

           

So did Mariah Harvey, a fellow schoolmate from Tucson Magnet High School, and Trevin Nesbitt, who attends Pueblo Magnet High School.

      

Along with hundreds of other students, their parents and other adults, the three juniors marched in support of Chávez’s accomplishments and legacy.

                

But in addition to celebrating Chávez, the trio said it also helped stomp away a couple of myths: that Chávez appealed only to Latinos and that he is irrelevant today.

               

Nesbitt, Harvey and Brooks are black. Tucson High junior Chelsea McPheeters, who planned to march but didn’t get there because of a last-minute school function, is white.

          

All four students, who are enrolled in Chicano studies classes, said Chávez transcends race and ethnicity because he espoused universal, color-blind values.

            

"César Chávez and people like him wanted to better themselves and others," said Nesbitt, 17.

       

Chávez sought justice and fairness not just for Latino farmworkers but for everyone denied access to justice, said the students.

             

Chávez, along with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the United Farm Workers, an agricultural workers’ union that remains in existence. Saturday was the culmination of activities in Tucson honoring Chávez, who was born March 31, 1927.

                     

Although Chávez represented a different era, some students remain acutely aware of his work today.

"He was trying to be heard, and he was trying to make sure other voices were heard," said McPheeters, 17.

                  

Today’s high school students were infants when the Arizona-born Chávez passed away April 23, 1993, not far from his birthplace near Yuma.

                    

Yet these four students, reflecting scores of other students, have learned about Chávez from their parents, teachers and community activists dedicated to keeping his memory alive.

                

For 40 years, Chávez, the child of migrant farmworkers and a Navy veteran, organized and inspired thousands of people to register to vote, to unionize for better wages and working conditions, and to become U.S. citizens.

                

As president of the United Farm Workers, Chávez advocated for protection for farm workers from environmental hazards and for civil rights for low-income urban communities.

           

But when the students talked about Chávez earlier in the week, they invariably and directly linked him to his contemporary, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated 40 years ago Friday.

"César Chávez’s ideals were the same as MLK’s," said Brooks, 17.

             

Although the four students have found common ground with Latino students regarding Chávez, they are sometimes misunderstood or teased by their close friends for studying American history from a Chicano perspective.

                   

"Some of my friends tell me, ‘Don’t forget who you are,’ " said Harvey, 16. Then she’ll point out her universality to her friends: Her mother is white and her father is black.

               

Likewise, Brooks tells her black friends she comes from a multiracial family and she has grown up with Mexican-American friends and neighbors.

                   

But beyond skin color, the four students said they are interested in Chávez and Chicano history because it’s relevant and personal.

                       

"A lot of their history is our history," Brooks said.

              

They noted that living in the Southwest, with its deep Mexican-American roots, requires a deeper and wider understanding of American history and current events.

                

McPheeters said understanding Chávez, and the political and social movement he helped organize, "makes me think in ways I hadn’t thought of before."

               

Chávez and King, and the communities from which they sprang, share a link that stretches back several millennia, the students said.

                

Harvey pointed to an ancient indigenous Mayan principle taped to her Tucson High classroom wall. It’s about seeking the truth.

                  

That’s what King and Chávez talked about, Harvey said. They shared the same goal, she said.

                  

"The truth shall set you free," Harvey said.