Chávez march celebrates labor leader’s legacy, renamed street
By Abe Levy
Palo Alto College student Esmeralda Parra chants in support of the Dream Act during the Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice in San Antonio on Saturday, March 31, 2012.
Photo: Lisa Krantz, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Thousands marched along barricaded streets from the West Side to Alamo Plaza on Saturday to pay tribute to the late César Chávez who championed the rights of migrant farm workers.
They wore T-shirts and waived signs with Chávez’ portrait, praising his humility in the face of antagonism and lacing speeches and chants with his iconic mantra, " Si, se puede!"
Emotions reached a climax when marchers reached César E. Chávez Boulevard. Organizers rerouted the event — now in its 16th year — to include this street for the first time, underscoring a hard-fought victory last year to rename Durango Boulevard after Chávez.
The City Council approved it but faced a suit by the San Antonio Conservation Society, which claimed it disrupted the city’s obligations to protect its historic character. In July, a state district judge denied the society’s request for a temporary injunction, paving the way for a settlement and the eventual name change.
“I was told it could never be done; pick another street,” said Phillip Cortez, the ex-city councilman who formally proposed the name change, evoking cheers at a post-march program. “But (Chávez) fought so that people like me would have a seat at the table, and that all Americans could have equality.”
The group departed historic Plaza Guadalupe under a foggy morning sky and overtook Alamo Plaza by noon under a hot sun. They came from as far as Mexico and Michigan to file down the 3.5-mile route.
"That’s why this march starts in the barrio," said Jaime Martinez, event organizer and CEO/founder of the César E. Chávez Legacy and Educational Foundation. "To give conscience to our city that we’re not finished. We’re going to keep fighting."
Before their arrival, marchers paused at City Hall to hear remarks from Mayor Julián Castro and see him receive an award named for Chávez.
"It’s meaningful for our city because César Chávez helped ensure that so many of the hard working families here and throughout the United States could reach the American dream," Castro said, his toddler daughter by his side.
Organizers estimated 10,000 people participated Saturday though no official estimate was taken. The procession stretched for at least seven blocks at its start — from the top of Guadalupe Street Bridge to Plaza Guadalupe.
Chávez’s son, Paul Chávez, led them, as grand marshal.
The show of support would have made his father proud, he said.
César E. Chávez died in 1993 and would have been 85 on Saturday. He cofounded what became the United Farm Workers of America in 1962. A Navy veteran, that military branch is set to name a noncombatant cargo ship after him on May 5 in San Diego.
For those who met the revered labor leader, including Ysau Flores, it will be a timely honor.
Flores’ mother was a migrant farm worker from Texas who toiled in the fields of Idaho and Michigan during the 1930s and ’40s, he said. She died from lung disease likely sparked by exposure to the kind of harmful pesticides from which Chávez sought to protect the labor class, said Flores, a retired educator who is the first in his family to graduate from college.
"Chávez was a poor man and humble, and saw how people’s lives had been taken advantage of," said Flores, 60. "He was able to do something about that and stand up for their rights."