Remembering Cesar Chavez

March 31 is the birthday of Cesario Estrada Chavez, the Chicano labor union organizer who gained fame in the 1960's and 70's for his achievements in the farm fields of California and the five-year-long grape boycott. After service in the U.S. Navy, Cesar, with Dolores Huerta and other activists, created the United Farm Workers, the UFW, the first viable agricultural worker union in the country. The UFW is eclipsed now, but it did have a strong impact on worker rights in the U.S. However, in spite of his momentary fame, like so many Mexican American leaders in the U.S., Chavez has been largely forgotten, That needs to change. In this age of anti-diversity policies it is especially incumbent on us to remember Chavez who exemplified a very characteristic American trait, an identification with and desire to help the lowest of underdogs. For Chavez, the people at the bottom of the totem pole were the agricultural workers who plant and harvest our crops. Chavez was the son of impoverished Mexican Americans , but he was completely American in his attitudes and activism. Americans have always fought for the betterment of the downtrodden. It's our natural tendency. As a nation we always root for the underdog. Except when we forget who we are. Forget our roots as immigrants from Europe, men doing back-breaking work in coal mines, in steel mills, laying track for railroads, women toiling as domestics, in sweatshops, etc. In the great American tradition of fighting for the rights of workers, the efforts of Cesar Chavez on behalf of the low-paid workers who toil in the fields to give us the food we eat earned him the esteem of the Mexican American community as well as mainstream America. But that was back in the 60's and 70's, the heyday of diversity, equity and inclusion. That era is long gone. Nevertheless, the Latino community still celebrates his birthday as Cesar Chavez Day with marches and community celebrations. In Colorado it's an optional holiday but in California it is formally observed. There will be events in his honor in Denver. We did that here in Colorado Springs in years past, but with the young activists who organized the events growing up, we have lost that energy. 

Latinos don't have leaders of the stature of Martin Luther King, Jr. and other famous African American leaders. This has always been a deficiency that frustrates Chicanos/Latinos. We don't have nationally prominent leaders who will speak up and defend us. It seems that we are fated to remain on the margins of U.S. society, tarred with the same brush as the "illegal aliens" who are so unfairly treated--feared, vilified, and expelled. But what is the truth? Immigrants, legal or otherwise, commit far fewer crimes than U.S. citizens. Latino immigrants are in a special category because they contribute immensely to our society with their indispensable labor. Americans will not pick crops or work in slaughterhouses, to name two sectors in which Latino labor is absolutely necessary. But we rarely get recognition or gratitude for our contributions.

Chavez is the closest thing we have had to a national leader. That he got to that level is remarkable, given that Chavez was one of the most humble and self-effacing people I have ever known. I met him when I lived in California. He appeared on stage at a conference dressed in his customary blue jeans, plaid shirt and brogans. He didn't look at all like an "important person."  Listening to him speak and talking with him later, I realized why and how he rose to the leadership position he occupied. He had his detractors, of course, people who resented his command of the farmworkers. But he had the personal trait that enabled him to rise to the top in a Mexican/Chicano organization. That trait was his intelligent decision to not play the typical male dominant role which is common among Latinos.This is often overbearing, and time and again has doomed Latino organizations to fragmentation and an early death. I speak from bitter experience, conscious of the many defunct Latino groups in which I was active over the years.

Cesar died in 1993, and from my perspective it seems that his absence has meant the demise of the UFW. That's very unfortunate because in spite of some reforms and improved conditions, farmworkers are still the most marginalized and exploited workers in the American labor force.

Joe Barrera, Ph.D., is the former director of the Ethnic Studies Program at UCCS. He teaches Mexico/U.S. Border Studies and U.S. Military History. He is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War.