Edward (“Eddie”) Cuellar, who played a significant role organizing with the United Farm Workers during the 1970s and served for years with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and the California Secretary of State’s office, died Tuesday in Sacramento after suffering a heart attack. Eddie was with the UFW through some of its most turbulent years, organizing strikes and boycotts from the Central Valley to Detroit and New York City. He was 63.
He first met Cesar Chavez during the 1950s through his father, Epigmenio Cuellar, who was an organizer with a farm workers’ union in the 1930s and an activist in the Community Service Organization, the Latino civil rights group Chavez led before founding the UFW in 1962. The younger Cuellar was born in Brawley, Calif. in 1944, and grew up in the Tulare County community of Visalia. Eddie spent his teen years participating in farm worker marches, rallies and organizing campaigns. He continued working in the fields while attending California State University, Fresno, where he earned a B.A. degree in political science in 1968, and a master’s degree in history in 1990.
When grape workers walked out on strike in 1973 after growers refused to renew their UFW contracts, Eddie, who was married with three young children, became a picket captain. Along with his wife, Christina, he joined hundreds of farm workers arrested for violating anti-picketing injunctions, spending a week in the Tulare County Jail.
During the next few years he organized support and picketlines outside supermarkets for the UFW’s second grape boycott, working closely with Richard Chavez, Cesar’s brother, and Arturo Rodriguez, who would become UFW president upon Chavez’s death in 1993. Eddie was later transferred to boycott duties in New York City under union co-founder Dolores Huerta. When the boycott convinced growers to support enactment of California’s pioneering farm labor law in 1975, Eddie was assigned to help farm workers organize union elections, directing UFW operations in Tulare County. He took part in the valley’s first election under the new law, at the L. Caratan table grape ranch in Delano. In 1977, Eddie became the union’s regional director in Delano. He was a UFW delegate to the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York where Cesar Chavez nominated then-Gov. Jerry Brown for president.
In 1978, Eddie began a career in state service, working with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. He was a regional director for the California Conservation Corps. Until retirement in 2006, he was worked with the voter registration and outreach program of the California Secretary of State’s office. He also taught history classes at College of the Sequoias in Visalia.
Eddie’s first wife, Christina, succumbed to cancer in 1997. He married Becky Chavez, Cesar Chavez’s niece and the daughter of Richard Chavez, in 2005, and settled in Sacramento. Eddie is also survived by brothers Ray Cardenas of Newark and John Cardenas of Visalia, sister Julie Cuellar-Vallejo of Visalia, a son, Eduardo R. Cuellar Jr. of Sacramento, two daughters, Caroline R. Cuellar-Montoya and Monica R. Cuellar-Valencia, both from Visalia, three stepdaughters—Angelica Gonzales of Mission Viejo, and Raquel Castro and Andrea Stoll, both of Sacramento—as well as 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His older brother, Lazaro Cardenas of Farmersville, preceded him in death
A memorial service for Eddie in Sacramento will be held on Saturday, Feb. 23, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Harry A. Nauman & Sons Funeral Home, 4041 Freeport Blvd. A reception follows, from 6 to 10:30 p.m. at the Cabrillo Civic Club, 4605 Karbet Way, also in Sacramento.
Funeral services in Visalia include a Rosary set for 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 25, at Miller’s Memorial Chapel, 1120 West Goshen Ave., and a Mass of Christian Burial at 12 noon on Tuesday, Feb. 26, at Holy Family Catholic Church, 1908 No. Court St. A reception immediately follows at 2 p.m.