Hungry for Justice

Unlike Latino activists of the 1960s, Cristina Soria, 17, never met Cesar Chavez, never marched with him and was never arrested with him.

But she and five other students from San Fernando High School fasted for 24 hours this week to show their support for farm workers, including many of their own relatives, who perform backbreaking work in California’s agricultural fields.

As dusk fell Monday, the students and dozens of others stopped eating to honor Chavez, the late farm labor leader who participated in many hunger strikes in his fight for farm workers’ rights.

The 24-hour fast ended Tuesday night at St. Ferdinand’s Catholic Church with a crowded Mass, a rousing mariachi band, clouds of burning incense and a performance by local traditional Azteca dancers.

“Ever since I was small, I’ve been around people who were struggling to live,” Cristina said. “This year I decided to struggle myself for a couple of days, so they know they are not alone.”

The fasters--wearing red armbands bearing the black eagle insignia of the United Farm Workers of America--broke the fast with a tiny Communion wafer and wine, then headed hungrily for the parish hall to enjoy Mexican sweet bread and coffee.

Nancy Ramirez, 16, said she fasted for two days to remind people that her relatives still endure a hard life in the fields.

“This is a way to call more attention to that,” she said.

Luis Perez, 18, learned about Chavez in a junior high school history class and was struck by the similarities between Chavez’s family and his own.

“He was someone I could relate to,” Perez said. “He came from a family like mine; there are nine of us. My family struggles just the way his did to get a better job, to pay rent.”

Perez said he was so worried he was going to eat at school that he gave away his meal tickets so he wouldn’t be tempted to break the fast.

Julie Padilla, a bilingual coordinator at San Fernando High School who participated in the fast, said Latino teachers have made an effort to teach students in the San Fernando Valley about the labor leader who practiced nonviolent protest.

“There is such a void as far as role models and icons for these kids to emulate,” Padilla said. “We feel it is a tragedy that many of our kids graduate never knowing who he is.”

It’s especially frustrating that many young Latinos think Chavez is a boxer, because there’s a famous boxer named Julio Cesar Chavez.

The son of migrant workers from Mexico, Cesar Chavez grew up working the fields of the American Southwest with his family. He became a charismatic labor leader who battled for farm workers’ rights, including restroom facilities and water.

He fought for an end to the government’s bracero program, which funneled workers from Mexico to California farms at wages far lower than local laborers would accept. He organized marches, undertook hunger strikes and in 1962 became the head of what would become the United Farm Workers union.

Chavez died in 1993 at the age of 66 and was mourned in the Latino community as a Gandhi-like figure.

Organizers with the Cesar Chavez Commemorative Committee of San Fernando said they wanted to inspire young people to struggle for “dignity and justice in a nonviolent manner.”

Mayra Sotelo, 18, who didn’t fast but attended the Mass, said her parents participated in a 1988 hunger strike led by Chavez to protest the use of agricultural pesticides.

Yet, her 13-year-old brother doesn’t know who Chavez is or what he fought for.

“When my little brother saw the [UFW] flag at the march, he thought it was the Nazi flag,” she said incredulously.

During the Mass, Cristina Soria leaned her head against a flagpole, then slumped, exhausted, over the pew in front of her.

“I was just thinking about food the whole time,” she confessed later.

Nancy Ramirez said that when the thin wafer slipped into her mouth at the end of the 90-minute Mass, it was like heaven.

“It felt great,” she said with a broad smile. “To finally have something solid to eat.”