Campaign for Cesar Chavez holiday picks up support

Campaign for Cesar Chavez holiday picks up support

The movement to make Cesar Chavez’s March 31 birthday a paid holiday in California drew support last week from celebrities, elected officials, labor and community leaders at events in major cities across the state.

Grammy-nominated musician Carlos Santana and actors Martin Sheen, Danny Glover, Edward James Olmos and Mike Farrell (star of the television show "Providence") joined the drive by sending personal letters urging support for the Chavez holiday bill to Gov. Gray Davis, state Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton). SB 984, by state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), will soon be debated before Johnston’s panel.

"Cesar Chavez is a hero in our state and country who deserves this recognition," Santana wrote. "His accomplishments in fighting for the rights of farm workers, civil rights, environmental justice and non-violence stand next to two of the 20th Century’sgreatest leaders–Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

In Orange County, hundreds of supporters and prominent leaders gathered at the Santa Ana Civic Center Plaza of the Flags on Jan. 15 to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and rally for the Chavez holiday.

"Cesar is teaching the world about the dignity of working people," said U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), who spoke at the Orange County event. "That makes him a hero. He understood that all work is important –and all workers deserve a life with a future."

The congresswoman, considered a heroine herself for defeating ultra-right wing Republican Rep. Bob Dornan, recalled trips to the grocery store as a young child with her father telling her they could not buy grapes "because Cesar said ‘no.’"

Sanchez pointed to last year’s demonstrations in Seattle against the World Trade Organization as proof that working people will always fight against injustice and for a better life. "Cesar Chavez understood this; that’s his legacy," she told the cheering crowd.

Other speakers at the rally included Sen. Polanco, who paid tribute to King and Chavez as two of our country’s greatest leaders. State Sen. Joe Dunne (D-Garden Grove) spoke of the holiday as a way for the late farm labor leader to "speak to all with his message of respect for racial minorities and workers once a year for all time."

San Diego labor and community leaders, and students spoke out in support of the holiday at the San Diego Central Labor Council. There, Jose Veceril, a citrus worker from Blythe, said in Spanish that Chavez’s "fight for farm workers was a fight for our rights. We should forever remember him."

When asked what life in the fields was like before Chavez, Veceril replied without hesitation, "It was hell. My life since Chavez has changed 100 percent."

Bay area labor leaders and elected officials called for passage of SB 984 during a news conference at Oakland City Hall on Jan. 14. Among them were Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, Oakland School Board President Noelle Gallo, San Francisco Central Labor Council ExecutiveSecretary-Treasurer Walter Johnson and Judy Goff, head of the Alameda County Central Labor Council.

Resolutions in support of the holiday were unanimously passed by the San Francisco and San Bernardino school boards, and the San Bernardino City Council. Similar resolutions have been approved by cities, counties and school boards all over the state.

Evelina Alarcon, state coordinator of the Cesar Chavez holiday campaign, told reporters that such statewide events–backed by labor and civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens–are aimed at sending a message to the lawmakers who will consider SB 984 when it faces its first hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Alarcon said the campaign has also "collected more than 30,000 signatures on petitions and organized more than 20,000 letters, postcards and emails to the state Legislature." Last November a Los Angeles rally for
the holiday drew more than 2,000 people.

Spanish-language radio station KDIF in Riverside is airing announcements calling on Riverside and San Bernardino residents contact legislators on behalf of SB 984.

Among those sending letters of support for the legislation are state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, Los Angeles County Supervisors Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina as well as dozens of California mayors and other political leaders.