Crowd Rallies in Santa Ana for Chavez Day

Amid the echoing words “Si, se puede,” the rallying cry of the United Farm Workers union, nearly 100 people gathered at Santa Ana’s Plaza of the Flags on Saturday to support a proposed official state holiday honoring the late labor leader Cesar Chavez.

The rally was part of a small but growing movement among states and some federal legislators to establish Chavez’s birthday as an official holiday.

Several speakers compared Chavez to slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday was Saturday. The national holiday honoring King is observed Monday.

Chavez’s granddaughter Christine Chavez Delgado read from a telegram that King sent to Chavez in early 1968 as Chavez staged a hunger strike to refocus the farm-labor movement on nonviolent protests and actions, which included a nationwide boycott of California-produced grapes.

King described Chavez as a “living example of the Gandhian tradition” of nonviolence.

Many of the speakers--mostly regional political figures--spoke in passionate terms about Chavez’s work and offered their own memories of his influence.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) recalled family grocery-store trips as a young child and her father telling her that they could not buy grapes “because Cesar said no.”

“Cesar is teaching the world about the dignity of working people,” Sanchez said. “That’s the legacy. That makes him a hero. He understood that all work is important . . . and all workers deserve a life with a future, with a family, with a little place we can call our own.”

Saturday’s rally drew a small fraction of the 2,000 who appeared at a similar rally in Los Angeles in November, but organizers said they were heartened.

The goal for the day was to draw together leaders of political organizations to enlist their aid in a broader push to gain public support, said Evelina Alarcon, coordinator of the East Los Angeles-based Cesar E. Chavez Holiday Campaign.

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Chavez, who was born on a small Arizona farm, became an international symbol of the plight of Mexican Americans in the U.S. in the 1960s. A Navy veteran, he began organizing farm workers in 1949. He became a national figure after forming the predecessor to the United Farm Workers in 1962 and launching the grape boycott, which led to the first-ever union contract for the predominately Latino field workers.

“He gave Latinos a sense of hope when at times it seemed as though we were being treated as though we were invisible,” Alarcon said. “He was there fighting for civil rights and for the rights of workers. It gave everybody hope that if you work together you can improve conditions.”

Some local governments already back the holiday. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors endorsed the measure by a 4-1 vote in September.

“What’s special for us is that it’s not being pushed by the UFW, though they definitely support it,” Delgado said before the rally. “This whole effort is being done by supporters in East L.A. They collected 20,000 signatures [on a state petition]. Most of those people never met my grandfather, although in one way or another he inspired them to community involvement.”

California and Texas already recognize Chavez’s birthday as an optional holiday, which means state employees can take the day off using personal leave or vacation days. Similar legislation has been introduced in New Mexico and Arizona.

Arizona state Sen. Joe Eddie Lopez (D--Phoenix) said his bill, which faces an uncertain future, would establish a day of recognition for Chavez, an Arizona native, rather than a full holiday.

“I have a fairly good understanding of what his efforts were about,” said Lopez, whose family were migrant farm workers until settling permanently in Phoenix when he was 10. “I happen to agree with [Chavez’s goals]. He sacrificed on behalf of not only the Latino community but for all farm workers in this nation.”

Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego) has introduced several bills in the Republican-controlled House seeking a national Chavez holiday but has met with little success. He said he doubts the federal holiday will be declared under Congress’ current political makeup.

“The Republicans are not interested in recognizing someone who is a labor leader or . . . who’s for Latino rights,” Filner said. “This kind of thing would be difficult in any case because it brings up all kinds of politics.”

Still, he said, growing state campaigns for a holiday parallel “the growth of Latino power everywhere.” And success at the state level--particularly in California--could jump-start the national movement, he said.

The measure still faces a battle in California, though. An earlier measure was passed by the Legislature but vetoed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson in 1993.