Cesar Chavez Day marchers from Boulder to Lafayette call for reform
Three hours and eight miles later, their voices still rang strong as they marched down Baseline Road in Lafayette and into an auditorium of cheering students at Pioneer Elementary School.
"S se puede, s se puede" — Yes, we can! — they chanted, invoking the phrase that became the slogan of the United Farm Workers, the agricultural workers union founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in the 1960s.
Chavez’s birthday, March 31, now is recognized as Cesar Chavez Day. Roughly 115 college and high school students, along with a few older and younger marchers, had walked from Platt Middle School in Boulder to Lafayette on Friday afternoon to honor Chavez and call attention to immigrant rights.
While Lafayette has hosted a Cesar Chavez Day celebration for years, this was the first time participants marched more than a short route on South Public Road.
"I felt energized, even though it was a long way," said Stacy Salas, a University of Colorado senior studying ethnic studies and political science. "It was important to me to represent my identities and how Latino and LGBT rights overlap. Cesar Chavez was about human rights for everyone."
She said she heard one marcher wonder if their efforts will change anything. The mostly positive response from passers-by made Salas feel it will.
"Visibility does make a difference," she said.
Luis Antunez, 12, a student at Angevine Middle School, held up one half of a banner that read "A.M.S. Latino Boys."
"I wanted to participate and help make a louder voice for everyone," he said.
He called Chavez a hero.
"Without him, my parents would be making maybe 50 cents a day and I wouldn’t be able to go to school," said Luis, who added that the march was not as hard as he worried it would be. "Everybody lifted everybody else up."
At Pioneer Elementary School, students worked on crafts and activities related to Cesar Chavez, the farm workers’ movement and Latino culture at an after-school event organized by the Lafayette Youth Advisory Council. They snacked on grapes in remembrance of the grape boycott led by Chavez in the 1980s to protest the use of toxic pesticides.
"We want the kids to come away with knowledge about Cesar Chavez, who he was and what he did, how it affected the future," said Omar Lozano, a senior at Centaurus High School and member of LYAC.
When the marchers arrived, students called for Congress to pass the Dream Act, which would allow students who were brought to the United States illegally as children to get conditional permanent residency for six years if they complete high school or earn a GED and demonstrate "good moral character." If they complete at least two years of college or serve at least two years in the military with an honorable discharge, they would be eligible to become legal permanent residents.
"We all have friends, family, someone we know, who needs this," said Daniel Castillejos, a junior at Centaurus High School. "We just need the Dream Act."
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Boulder Democrat, addressed the crowd in English and Spanish, calling the marchers "some of our greatest Americans, documented and undocumented" and pledged to be their voice in Washington, before the crowd continued to Lafayette’s Festival Plaza.
Contact reporter Erica Meltzer at 303-473-1355 or meltzere@dailycamera.com.