David Mossbarger bore the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe during Saturday’s Cesar Chavez Day March in the spirit of how the image was used when Chavez had marched originally in 1966 from Delano, Calif. to Sacramento, Calif.

Mossbarger, a priest at St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church, said that by participating in Saturday’s march down Clements Street from Ector Junior High School to the Silva Law Firm, he hoped to “see people lifted up in the way Cesar Chavez lifted the people up, and not just those who are in poverty, but those who are in poverty of spirit.”

Una Voz Unida organized the event, which gathered around 90 participants and featured members of the Odessa High School drum line, Ector Junior High School’s Mariachi Aquila, the Trans-Pecos American Indian Association and UTPB’s Ballet Folklorico.

Una Voz Unida President Art Leal said he hoped the event would educate participants and observers about what Chavez accomplished.

“Just like Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez contributed a lot to the advancement of civil rights, and not just for farm workers, but for people in general,” Leal said.

During the march, participants chanted “Si se puede,” and “Viva Cesar Chavez,” but the event also served as a platform to address other social issues.

“Viva Trayvon Martin,” chanted Gene Collins, president of the Odessa chapter of the NAACP.

In addition to Collins, the march drew other local public figures like Ector County Precinct 4 Commissioner Armando Rodriquez and Ector County Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Duncan.

Dr. Joanna Hadjicostandi, a professor of sociology at UTPB, marched Saturday and said she participated in a Cesar Chavez March in San Antonio in 2003 where she met Dolores Huerta, who helped Chavez organize the National Farm Workers Association.

“I cannot even describe what it was like,” Hadjicostandi said, pondering how to explain it. “It was a place where the causes of the people were brought together by organizing like we are today.”