New Movie to Chronicle the Life of Cesar Chavez

Filmmakers collaborate with labor leader’s family on upcoming film.

By Iván Mejía, EFE News Services

Plans to bring the life of the founder of the United Farm Workers to the big screen are in the final stages, according to members of Cesar Chavez’s family, and the foundation that bears his name.

According to “The Hollywood Report,” the film about the famed Mexican American civil rights leader and labor activist will be made by Mexico-based Canana Films, owned by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna.

The screenwriters for the film are already in place, according to Manuel Bernal, vice president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation told EFE.

We have been negotiating with the group through Paul Chavez (Cesar’s son) over legal details about exclusive rights so we can devote all our time working on the story, he added.

Larry Meli and screenwriter Keir Pearson, who received a 2005 Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay for  “Hotel Rwanda,” optioned for the rights to make a biopic about the labor leader. They will also produce the film.

Chavez was born March 31, 1927 on a family farm near Yuma, Arizona. From 1950 until his death on April 23, 1993, Chavez dedicated himself to organizing farmer workers in the U.S. to demand better working conditions and better pay.

After losing the family farm in Arizona, Chavez moved to the predominantly Mexican neighborhood of “Sal si puedes,” (Get out if you can) in San Jose, California. There, the future UFW leader would work with his family picking fruits and vegetables.

In 1962, Chávez, along with other labor organizers, founded the National Farm Workers Association that would later become the powerful United Farm Workers (UFW).

The UFW, through labor strikes, boycotts and hunger strikes, forced California growers to allow workers to unionize and to sign contracts guaranteeing better wages and working conditions for farmer workers.

“Cesar Chavez deprived himself economically of so many things because he was always organizing farmer workers and was threatened with death several times,” said Bernal, speaking of Chavez’s sacrifice and dedication to the harvesters of America’s agriculture.

Thanks to his work, today in the U.S. the law requires that workers in the fields have fresh water to drink and to wash their hands with before they eat. There are now laws that regulate other working conditions, such as protection from the sun, access to restrooms, and protection against pesticides.

“To honor the contributions of the agricultural labor leader, California became the first state (in 2000) to make Chavez’s birthday, March 31,” a state holiday.  Now every year, “the birthday of Cesar Chavez will be a day of celebration,” said Bernal.

Twelve other states have since approved state laws to institute Cesar Chavez Day, they are: Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

A possible release date has not yet been set.

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