Cleanup teaches youth the impact of Cesar Chavez
By GEOFFREY A. PAULSEN
"What he was talking about, I was living it," Alejandrez said. "So it really came home to me. I didn’t know how to approach it. I was angry. But when he said we must do this nonviolently, it caught my attention. Although I was still caught up in the madness, it stayed with me."
Years passed and Alejandrez was able to escape "the madness" — what he calls the pattern of drugs, alcohol and violence that plagues youth in the Latino community. He subsequently founded Barrios Unidos, a national coalition for nonviolence, and credits Chávez — a man he later met and marched with — with saving his life.
In celebration of César Chávez Day today, Barrios Unidos organized a community cleanup in the Beach Flats neighborhood Tuesday to educate youth about the efforts of César Chávez, and to offer youth the same life-changing influence that Chavez had on Alejandrez had as a teenager.
And while it may not make an immediate impact on the youth, Alejandrez hopes the community service will help and that someday the teachings will click: "I think that’s the kind of human beings we want to be — those who lend a helping hand. And if you give, you will receive twice as much as you give. We need to teach our young people that we need to give."
Vivian Longoria, programs administrator for Barrios Unidos, emphasized the importance of César Chávez Day as a day of serving the community.
"This allows them to do community service and teach them that we are supposed to be helping each other as a community," Longoria said. "We are supposed to work together to accomplish anything, and it’s better to work together as a team than as individuals."
The cleanup was organized with the Kids Club and youth groups associated with Barrios Unidos and included 15 children ranging in age from 5 to 18. Before the youth took to the streets with their gloves and trash bags, they were taught a little about who Chávez was and why he is celebrated.
"I didn’t get to meet him, but maybe my parents or aunts and uncles or grandparents did," said 16-year-old Maria Montoya, an assistant with the Kids Club. "Him helping them was in a way helping me. … It kind of feels like I did get to meet him in a way."
Aside from removing garbage from the streets and sidewalks, the cleanup reflects a larger movement that Alejandrez said is a focus for Barrios Unidos: to carry on the efforts of Chávez to bring about change in a peaceful way.
"We might not agree on everything, and we may not have the same philosophy, but we want the same outcome at the end," Alejandrez said. "We want a better place. Santa Cruz is a beautiful place, why do we want to shoot it up? Why are we going to sell drugs? Why are we going to destroy Mother Earth here when it is so beautiful? So we have to protect that, we have to speak up."