| Thursday, Jun 10 2010 05:22 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jun 10 2010 05:22 PM
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Lawrence Bendoski stands next to the bronze sculpture of Cesar Chavez that he presented to McFarland High School on Thursday. The artist said he wanted to put the bust, which had been at his home for more than a decade, "where it’ll be appreciated."
McFARLAND — Lawrence Bendoski no longer lives with Cesar Chavez — his sculpture, anyway.
That’s because the 83-year-old artist donated the bronze bust he created of the labor leader to McFarland High School in a presentation to students and administrators Thursday.
"This was in my studio for years," said Bendoski, pointing to the 50-pound face. "I thought, ‘I’m not gonna be on the planet for very long, so let’s put it somewhere where it’ll be appreciated.’"
The sculpture will be placed in the high school’s library because the nearby hallway gets lots of foot traffic, said David Yanney, who served as interim principal this past year.
Not that students there really need a work of art to recall the significance of Chavez, who championed civil rights for farm workers across the Central Valley.
"Cesar Chavez was a very important person in our community," McFarland High counselor Mayela Bujanda-Medina said. "The actions that he took to help farm laborers … made a huge impact."
He also had an impact on Bendoski, who picked fruit and vegetables on McFarland farms as a teenager during World War II. It didn’t take long for him to grasp the difficulties of agricultural labor.
"It’s hellish work, and I don’t hold up under the heat very well," Bendoski said. "I can stay leaned over for about 10 minutes."
His appreciation only grew for Chavez during his 30-year tenure as a teacher.
Bendoski, who studied English, history and art at Fresno State, earned $3,200 a year while teaching six classes a day and two others at night. He would wake up at 5 a.m. to take students to school and didn’t return home until he dropped them off at the end of the day. The conditions were far from ideal, he said.
"I’m a very strong backer of unions — I think it’s one of the greatest things that ever happened to the teaching profession," Bendoski said. "There was no way of complaining because, if you complained, you just didn’t get hired the next year."
His empathy for Chavez was thus established. Then, during the 1990s, Bendoski was commissioned to make a clay sculpture of the influential activist for Cesar Chavez Middle School in Union City, Calif.
After acquiring a series of photographs from a newspaper in Hayward, Calif., he spent about two and a half weeks on the original rendition and decided to make a second cast to keep for himself.
That’s the one Bendoski delivered to McFarland Middle School, which hosted the unveiling ceremony because of major electrical repairs being done at the high school a few blocks away.
Bendoski, who lives in Castro Valley, Calif., wants the bust to serve as a conversation piece for students when school resumes in August.
"I hope they bring something of their own with it," he said. "They should know something about Cesar Chavez."