Remarks by Paul F. Chavez, President
Cesar Chavez Foundation
CHCI screening of ‘Cesar Chavez’
Washington, D.C.—February 4, 1014
Nearly 21 years since my father’s passing interest in his legacy continues to grow.
—Thousands saw the launching into San Diego Bay in 2012 of USNS Cesar Chavez, the Navy’s latest Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship, the first U.S. Navy ship named for a Latino.
–Also that year, President Obama traveled to our headquarters in the Tehachapi Mountains at La Paz in Keene, California, and before 7,000 people dedicated a small portion of the grounds as the Cesar Chavez National Monument, the 398th unit of the National Park Service—and the first honoring a modern-day Latino.
—We’ve stopped trying to count the recognitions and observances honoring my father in communities across the country.
Why do these honors keep coming—and growing?
He rarely accepted personal awards or let people name things for him. He was always uncomfortable being singled out for praise.
He knew there were countless men and women who made great sacrifices and achieved tremendous things, but whose names are mostly unknown.
He used to say his job as an organizer was helping ordinary people do extraordinary things. He made everyone believe they were important. It didn’t matter if you were a lawyer in court or a cook in the strike kitchen.
He gave farm workers faith that they could win against great odds, even if they were poor and uneducated. By helping people believe in themselves, my father succeeded where so many others failed for 100 years to organize farm workers.
We appreciate the many honors bestowed upon him, but the greatest monument to Cesar Chavez isn’t on a street sign or in an official holiday. It is seen in the courage to work for change he inspired in the farm workers and in millions of Americans from all walks of life who never worked on a farm.
Maybe that’s why he endures.
* * *
His movement is carried on today by the United Farm Workers, which tackles what one national labor leader called “the toughest organizing job in America.”
Yet when my dad, Dolores Huerta and others began their work in 1962, they had a different vision of what a union could be.
They knew workers weren’t just workers—that they return home to abuses and injustices outside the workplace and in their communities: miserable housing, lack of educational opportunity and discrimination.
My father knew it would take more than a union to overcome the poverty and discrimination farm workers faced; it would take a movement.
So early on my dad organized people by providing them with services such as the credit union and co-op gas station depicted in the film.
* * *
Today, the Cesar Chavez Foundation continues aiding farm workers and many Latino and other poor working families outside the work place and in the community.
—We have built or renovated and manage more than 30 affordable housing communities with nearly 5,000 units of high-quality units for low- and very low-income families and seniors in four states. Many move in from very substandard conditions. Most projects have extensive social services.
—The Chavez foundation runs Radio Campesina, our nine-station Spanish-language educational radio network reaching 500,000 daily listeners in four states. Radio Campesina attracts a loyal mostly immigrant listenership through popular regional Mexican music and state-of-the-art interactive educational programming.
Radio Campesina also gets people actively participating in civic and political affairs, and working for change in their communities.
—Thousands of disadvantaged kids receive after-school academic tutoring and educational services through the Chavez foundation.
—And, we work through the National Chavez Center to share the story of my father and the movement through vehicles such as this film and by partnering with the National Park Service to administer the Chavez National Monument.
* * *
In the movie, Michael Pena, who plays Cesar Chavez, recites words my father said 30 years ago:
“Once social change begins it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducated the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.”
My father’s legacy is reflected today in the hope and confidence he inspired among our people in every part of this nation—people who never had them before.
We worked closely over four years on this picture with Diego Luna and his team. By genuinely portraying my father as an American hero, this film also tells a story about our country that every American needs to see.
Please help spread the word to everyone you know to see it.
Thank you.
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