Parade celebrates Chavez’s achievements
Dancers, marchers entertain crowds
Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 12:05 a.m.
SAN DIEGO— People lined streets in Logan Heights yesterday for the 15th annual parade honoring the late farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, cheering on 70 marching groups that represented local schools, labor organizations and churches.
Socorro Gonzales, 51, of the neighboring Mountain View area said she attends the parade every year “to stand up for our people and for equal rights.”
Gonzales waved a large Mexican flag from the sidewalk near the end of the mile-long parade route where a three-block stretch of Logan Avenue was blocked off for an afternoon festival.
Both events were organized by the San Diego Cesar Chavez Commemoration Committee. Nearly 2,000 people watched the parade, police and committee officials said.
Alyssa Rodriquez, 10, of Logan Heights participated in the parade with the dance troupe Ballet Folklorico Tapatio de San Diego. Alyssa wore a white lacy blouse and a long red skirt with colored trim that matched ribbons in her hair.
The parade and other events leading up to the state holiday honoring Chavez on March 31 are important because of his work fighting against exploitation of farmworkers, said Alyssa, a fourth-grader.
“He gave all Mexicans the right to not work for people who didn’t give them money,” she said.
The commemoration committee will host a memorial breakfast at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow at the San Diego Convention Center. More than 1,200 people are expected to attend the public event, which will celebrate art in the local Latino community.