RSVP : Celebrating the Legacy, Vision of a Hero

To Ethel Kennedy, he was “a saint.” To Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, “a man of indomitable faith.” To Cheech Marin, he was “the biggest Chicano hero there ever was.” Martin Sheen said he was “a catalyst who moved people toward living for others.” And besides that, he got the actor to quit smoking.

They were speaking of Cesar E. Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers union. His work was remembered Friday at the Biltmore during the first fund-raising dinner for the foundation that bears his name.

“We want to take Cesar’s vision, his work and his life and inspire future generations,” said Magdaleno Rose-Avila, the foundation’s executive director. “It’s needed especially now when so many young people are involved in violence. They need an example of a nonviolent figure.”

Plans are to fulfill this goal through the construction of the Cesar E. Chavez Library Complex, which will include his grave site, as well as a training and education center. It will be built in Keene, about 30 miles east of Bakersfield, where Chavez lived until his death in 1993. Rose-Avila said an amount “in the easy, good tens of thousands” was netted by the dinner, with a hope for a final count near $100,000.

The funds were raised at an event that, appropriately enough, had many elements of a union meeting: VIPs marched into the room en masse behind UFW flags; there were chants of Chavez’s rallying cry, “ Si Se Puede, “ and rhythmic clapping for the speakers who shifted easily between Spanish and English.

The program began with a prayer by Mahony. There were short speeches by co-hosts Julie Carmen and Luis Valdez and by UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, then videos--one with black-and-white photos of Chavez’s life, the other, introduced by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, a message from President Clinton.

In a way, the labor leader spoke for himself when the stage filled with celebrities who passed the microphone and read from Chavez’s own words on the grape boycott, his commitment to nonviolence and “standing together for dignity and the rights of all people.”

Among those reading were Peter Coyote, Alfre Woodard, Edward James Olmos, Paul Rodriguez, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jackie Guerra, Rosana DeSoto, Paul Langdon, Dorian Harewood, David Clennon, Kamala Dawson and Rose Portillo.

Honored during the evening were Sheen; Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina; Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre, who received his award from Assembly Speaker Willie Brown; Chavez’s widow, Helen, and Kennedy, who accepted “on behalf of two heroic hearts, Bobby and Cesar.”

“What this is about,” Mahony said, “is remembering the wider legacy of what Cesar stood for: the nonviolent way and working with the people on the margins of society who feed us.”