NAMING NAVY CARGO SHIP FOR CHAVEZ HONORS HIS SERVICE, ACHIEVEMENTS
The U.S. Naval Ship Cesar Chavez will be launched today, May 5, christened in honor of the man who became an internationally known labor and civil rights leader and who has inspired generations of youth with his nonviolent philosophy of self sacrifice for others.
In 1946, Cesar Estrada Chavez enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Along with hundreds of thousands of other Mexican-American youths, he answered the call of duty. Born in Yuma, Ariz., Cesar grew up as a migrant agricultural worker in the San Joaquin Valley. He went to the San Diego Naval Training Station for boot camp, was sent to the South Pacific, and served in Saipan and Guam.
In 1948, Cesar Chavez was discharged from the service and he returned to his work as a migrant laborer. He got involved in community organizing during the 1950s with the Community Service Organization (CSO). In 1962 he resigned his position as the CSO’s executive director and decided to devote himself full time to organizing farm workers.
The United Farm Workers were born in 1965 when Mexican-American farm workers joined Filipino workers in a strike against the grape growers in the Delano region just north of Bakersfield. The growers were paying wages below those that they paid the Bracero contract workers from Mexico. Chavez along with Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong and many others led a nonviolent movement to force the growers to sign a contract and recognize their union. They wanted a fair wage, water and bathrooms available in the fields, a hiring hall, and a limit to pesticide use.
To emphasize his commitment to nonviolence, Chavez fasted and attended mass every day. The first fast lasted 25 days and ended with a mass celebrated with Sen. Robert Kennedy and his family. To bring pressure on the growers, Chavez organized a nationwide grape boycott which drew on thousands of student and community volunteers. In 1970, 29 grape growers signed union contracts and recognized the UFW as the farm workers’ union. For the rest of his life, Chavez struggled to bring dignity and civil rights to the poorest and most oppressed laborers, the farm workers. Upon his death in 1993, he was recognized by presidents and religious leaders around the world as one of our country’s most important moral leaders.
The naming of the Navy cargo ship is an honor for a dedicated American hero and his service to our country. When the USNS Cesar Chavez joins the fleet, its primary mission will be to deliver more than 10,000 tons of food, fuel and other provisions to ships at sea and it will also travel the globe as part of worldwide civic and humanitarian missions. It will be the last ship built in the T-AKE class.
This will be the first U.S. Navy ship named for a Latino. The contractor, General Dynamics NASSCO, employs a diverse workforce and is a strong economic driver for our region. It employs hundreds of Latinos and is located in Barrio Logan, a community that Cesar visited many times, recruiting some of his closest supporters for the farmworker struggle. The launching of this ship honors a people who have given so much to our country. Latinos have served in the military with distinction earning the highest number of Medals of Honor for valor of any ethnic group, relative to their percentage of the population.
Cinco de Mayo is a good date for the dedication, an unofficial holiday here in the Southwest. For more than 100 years, it has been an occasion to celebrate community pride in service and sacrifice. The commissioning of USNS Cesar Chavez is an honor and a tribute to the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez and will continue to serve and inspire generations to come. As this ship navigates the oceans of the world and visits foreign ports, Cesar Chavez’s name will continue to teach us that every one of us can do uncommon things. So for many good reasons, the christening of the USNS Cesar Chavez is a time to celebrate the values that have made our country great.
Griswold del Castillo is a professor emeritus of Chicana and Chicano Studies at San Diego State University and Sanchez is a professor emeritus of Chicana/o Studies at San Diego Mesa College.