Singer to add touch to Chavez marker
STOCKTON – It was known as "El Cortito," or "the short one."
Using the 2-foot-long, short-handled hoe to weed for hours on end could turn grueling work into something permanent: back damage for a farm laborer.
But it was even more than that, said Arturo Ocampo, assistant provost for diversity at University of the Pacific.
Cesar Chavez Day
Here are the downtown Stockton events planned to recognize the birthday of Cesar Chavez on Saturday.
• Prayer breakfast: The Mexican Heritage Center and Gallery’s second annual breakfast will be from 9 to 11 a.m. at 111 S. Sutter St. Tickets are $20. Information: (209) 952-0256.
• Installation ceremony: The Heritage Center and University of the Pacific are sponsoring the ceremonial installation of a plaque at Stockton’s bracero monument at noon at McLeod Park, the corner of Fremont and Center streets. The event is free.
"It became a symbol of the oppressive nature of field work," he said. And when the California Supreme Court banned its required use, Ocampo said, it showed the people fighting for farm worker rights that victory was more than just a pipe dream.
March 31 marks the birthday of Cesar Chavez, a leader in the fight for those rights.
Stockton, in the heart of the rich San Joaquin Valley farmland, played a central role in those struggles.
The United Farm Workers was cofounded by Chavez and Stockton-raised Dolores Huerta.
Commemoration of Cesar Chavez Day this year will start with a prayer in downtown Stockton and continue with a march to a ceremony adding the finishing touch to a statue honoring farm workers.
The statue shows a bracero (Spanish for "strong arm") hunched over and gripping a short-handled hoe. The Bracero Program brought tens of thousands of workers from Mexico to California in the mid-20th century. The program started during World War II when a few hundred farm workers came to harvest sugar beets in the Stockton area.
When it proved to be a success, the Bracero Program expanded statewide. Ocampo said it also became known for taking advantage of its workers.
What Stockton’s statue does not have is a plaque.
Singer Linda Ronstadt is donating a plaque that will be installed during a midday ceremony on Chavez Day.
Ronstadt is not expected to attend, but there are other well-known Californians who are expected.
Maurice Jourdane is the California Rural Legal Assistance attorney who led the fight against the short-handled hoe.
Cruz Reynoso, a justice on the state Supreme Court, was director of the CRLA in the 1980s. Reynoso has spoken at Pacific in the past, and organizers expect him to attend.
Also expected is U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who investigated voting-rights abuses in the South in the 1960s.
More recently, Henderson is the federal judge who ruled that conditions at state prisons were unconstitutional. He appointed a receiver to reform the prison health care system, a decision that eventually led to plans for two new large prison health care facilities on the outskirts of Stockton.
Those facilities are expected to provide medical and mentalhealth care for thousands of inmates and create thousands of construction and medical-care jobs.
Both Jourdane and Reynoso are expected to speak at a prayer breakfast at The Mexican Heritage Center, which will start the day’s activities.
Organizers plan a public display that includes a short-handled hoe, said Gracie Madrid, treasurer for the Heritage Center.
"That’s what Chavez was fighting for … rights," she said. "And that was one of those rights: Not having to stoop down all day."
Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com.