Perspectives on Cesar Chavez : The Good Fight--No More, No Less : Latino politicians today speak of ‘empowerment’ and ‘representation.’ Chavez spoke of a higher value--justice.

Language is identity, and for me the language Cesar Chavez used and that first propelled the development of my political consciousness was framed as the struggle for justice. I gravitated to the language of the movement, for after all, I am the daughter of a man (not a legend to anyone other than me, and certainly no one will ever read about him in history books after he one day dies), who first instilled in me that the good fight is the fight for justice; nothing more, nothing less. When I was a young girl, Chavez represented the concept of justice my working-class father had taken pains to ensure I understood: that there are only two kinds of people in the world, the rich and the poor, and we are not the rich. And at that intersection begins the quest for justice; there takes place the daily injustice.

In the loneliness of the ivory tower, with a Ph.D. behind my name and recollections of how many elected Latinos now represent me, I long to hear justice spoken. But Latino politicians today don’t talk about justice. They talk about empowerment, getting our fair share, social mobility. Latino-oriented magazines tout the profitability of the free market.

The sound of justice is rarely heard. I have often commented that unlike the African-American community, we have no Latino leaders who clearly and unequivocally speak the language of justice. Our politicians who aspire to higher officer in the name of “empowerment” and “representation” seem to have forsaken the good fight. Somehow, those words spewing out of the mouths of politicians and small-business owners burned out of their buildings by even poorer brown-skinned people never really reflected the reality of most Latinos, campesino or urban dweller. Justice, for which Chavez fought, is a separate reality, a different language.

The language, like the movement, has qualitatively changed, even as the realities remain largely the same. What will our children learn and speak? Even as I saw Chavez approach the lectern just weeks ago to eulogize Father Luis Olivares--a fighter for justice alongside Chavez--I felt a quickening of my heartbeat at the sight of the man who had provided language for my fight: that si se puede!

With Chavez’s death, we have begun to entomb not only those who indefatigably fought the good fight, but the language and identity of the quest for justice as well. The language has been replaced, much as our identity has been replaced, like being Latino instead of Chicano. Tears fell for the loss of Chavez. Tears fell for the passage of a season when the fight for justice--nothing more, nothing less--was the goal.