Cesar Chavez Legacy Takes Center Stage

Paul Chavez walked inside the San Fernando High School auditorium and couldn’t help but remember the days he stood side by side with his father, legendary farm worker advocate Cesar Chavez.

He saw the Mexican flags and banners with his dad’s words “Si, Se Puede” (Yes, it can be done) and “Viva La Huelga” (Hurray for the strike).

“It’s been seven years since he died,” Paul Chavez said. “But it still feels like it was yesterday.”

About 500 people joined Chavez on Sunday in a ceremony naming the school’s auditorium after his father, founder of the United Farm Workers of America. Chavez said he hoped the event would help keep his father’s legacy alive.

“He knew he was not going to complete his mission in his lifetime, but that never stopped him,” said Chavez, 43. “He lived every day like it was his last.”

The crowd remembered Cesar Chavez as the small and unassuming man who rallied the nation around the rights of farm workers.

He was an intensely spiritual person who went on hunger strikes to spotlight the plight of those who put food on America’s tables, his son said.

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For Latinos, Cesar Chavez always will be the humble man who turned his fame into a weapon against those who exploited poor Mexican immigrants. He died in 1993 at age 66.

“There is still a lot that needs to be done,” Chavez said. “He taught me to get up, dust myself off and do it all over again.”

The school wanted to name the auditorium to honor Cesar Chavez right after he died, but plans were postponed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Principal Jose Rodriguez said.

“We had to repair the auditorium,” he said. “But I am glad we are here now. I’m please to see this finally happened.”

School officials said they will never forget when they welcomed Cesar Chavez to the 4,400-student campus in 1987 and shared his humanitarian efforts with young Latino students.

“We love [Cesar] Chavez here,” said Maria Reza, the Los Angeles Unified School District administrator who oversees 20 schools in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

“San Fernando was the first city in the state to dedicate a city holiday after him,” Reza said. “We hope to name not only an auditorium but a school after him once we get a new one.”

Many local, state and national officials attended the ceremony, including state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills).

The event culminated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony and the unveiling of a mural dedicated to the memory of Cesar Chavez. Otto “Tito” Sturcke of Sun Valley painted a profile of Cesar Chavez in black and white to give it a “timeless effect,” he said.

Some of the school’s students commented that it was a shame they did not get to meet Cesar Chavez in person, but they said they will think of him every time they use the auditorium.

“We have pictures and paintings of him all over our house,” 11th-grader Jenna Hernandez said. “I don’t think we are ever going to see another hero like him, but it would be nice to see other Latino role models.”