Chavez event brings people together
PACOIMA – History was, of course, the central theme of the 17th annual Cesar E. Chavez walk in the northeast Valley Sunday.
But the parade and events at either end of its two-mile route from Brand Park in Mission Hills to Pacoima’s Richie Valens Park also were focused very much on the future.
"Cesar Chavez represents one of the most prominent Latino leaders in the country and we are honoring his legacy," said Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon after pushing his two-year-old daughter in a stroller alongside an estimated 3,000 activists, folkloric dancers, horseback riders, school bands and cheer squads.
"But he was more than just a Latino leader," Alarcon continued. "He was a nonviolent man who promoted nonviolence, and that’s why it’s so critical for our kids to embrace that message."
Beside informing youth about the United Farm Workers co-founder, who died in 1993, Sunday’s events also were big on promoting participation in the current U.S. Census. Indeed, marchers carried more signs devoted to the once-in-a-decade national head count than they did pictures of the legendary labor organizer and civil rights advocate and the occasional, more pointed message, "No Human Is Illegal."
"We partnered with the Cesar E. Chavez Commemorative Committee to help get the word out," said Miguel Perla, a Census Bureau specialist who works in Van Nuys. "It’s almost a civic duty to participate in this, and this helps people understand the
importance of the Census."
An accurate count would mean more federal funding for the area in the near future. But as people listened to speeches and music on a dusty ballfield at Valens Park, the general feeling was that of a warm spring afternoon fiesta and a family-oriented celebration of Latino culture and solidarity.
"I think this is absolutely successful," observed Diana Tellefson, executive director of the United Farm Workers Foundation, the event’s other host organization. "It’s great diversity. There are lots of people here from all over the county. And I’m impressed by the age ranges, too, of how many different folks we have coming in."
And they weren’t just Chavez’s fellow Chicanos.
"Cesar Chavez is very well-respected among the community because he helped migrant workers and was against the injustice that was done to the immigrant people here," Waldemar Quijano, a 59-year-old Pacoima resident from El Salvador, said in Spanish as his son, Waldemar Jr., translated.
"He’s a man who’s made history for all of the immigrants here."
Weaving it all together was Yolanda Santoyo, one of 80 members of the Los Angeles ancestral dance group Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc that performed Sunday. Along with her high-feathered Aztec headdress and ankle rattles, she carried a sign that read "Juarez Women Justice," a reference to the plague of gender-based murders in the Mexican border city.
"We are here to honor the legacy of Cesar Chavez," Santoyo, 40, said. "For the most part, this is a way of educating the children to become more involved in their culture and more involved in their community."