HILDA SOLIS: Still harvesting the fruits of Chavez’s labor
Learning history takes on many forms. Indeed, the story of America is told not only in textbooks, but through monuments, too. Storytelling — a great tradition in the Latino community — is one way to learn history, one way to connect with it and with each other. History helps us see our commonality — our common struggles, goals and victories. In a unique way, history brings us all closer.
That is happening today in Delano, at the birthplace of the farmworker movement. A beautiful and important story will be told. My friend and colleague, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, will honor Cesar E. Chavez by dedicating the Forty Acres National Historic Landmark.
The journey leading up to today’s destination has a rich history. It’s one marked by the hopes and dreams of countless Latinos to preserve the work of this great leader for future generations to see. It’s one that then Secretary Salazar and I helped write during our time in Congress. Together, we directed a nationwide study of sites significant to Cesar Chavez. And I am proud — as I’m sure he is, too — to see this landmark come to life.
Cesar Chavez’s story means a lot to me; it’s what led me to public service. Chavez was raised by a family of migrant farmworkers and spent his youth moving across the American Southwest, working in fields and vineyards. He experienced firsthand the hardships he would later crusade to abolish. At the time, farmworkers were impoverished and frequently exploited, exposed to hazardous working conditions — including deadly pesticides — and often denied clean drinking water, toilets and other basic necessities.
Chavez saw the need for change. And like all great visionaries, he had a choice to make about how to create it. He chose patience and a path of nonviolence. He became the quintessential community organizer and began his lifelong advocacy to protect and empower people. With quiet leadership and a powerful voice, he built one of our nation’s most inspiring movements, the United Farm Workers.
For many people, particularly Latinos, he made environmental health "culturally relevant." He "went green" long before the term became popular. He was an environmentalist who took irresponsible and dangerous farming practices seriously. He recognized their effects not only on workers, but on the earth and on the economic security of our country.
Chavez’s legacy lives on in the hands and hearts of America’s working people today. He continues to inspire us. His work has lifted the voices of countless laborers and provides lessons from which all Americans can learn. I have his picture on my desk to remind me of them.
Our country is a better place because of Chavez. This memorial, like the photo of him on my desk, will remind us of that. It will inspire us with his example, his spirit and his sacrificial story. The landmark in Delano will continue to tell it.
Hilda Solis is the United States’ 25th secretary of labor.