Truthdigger of the Week: The Late César E. Chávez
Truthdig tips its hat this week to César E. Chávez, the Mexican-American labor organizer and activist who fought for more than 40 years for the rights of farm workers, Latinos and other disenfranchised groups. Happy César Chávez Day!
Truthdig tips its hat this week to César E. Chávez, the Mexican-American labor organizer and activist who fought for the rights of farm workers, Latinos and other disenfranchised groups from the early 1950s until his death in 1993. He was instrumental in the formation of several farm workers unions, including the National Farm Workers Association and the United Farm Workers, and his method of nonviolent organizing, boycotting and striking led to major changes in workers’ conditions and inspired many other groups to adopt a similar approach.
Chávez’s influence continues to grow, as evidenced by the streets, parks and schools around the country that have been named or renamed after him. However, his significance extends far beyond the level of architectural commemoration. The César E. Chávez Foundation, for example, is partly an educational resource about his life and work, but it also focuses on outreach programs to help people improve their communities using his methods and values.
While Chávez’s birthday is recognized as a holiday in several states for state workers, many Latinos are protesting to make César Chávez Day a day off for schoolchildren and county workers, according to the Los Angeles Times. On Friday, hundreds of students from middle school through college either walked out of class or didn’t show up in order to join a march to City Hall to honor Chávez and to raise awareness about workers’ rights and migration issues — a testimony to his living legacy.
More links:
The César E. Chávez Foundation home
The National Chávez Center
Events calendar at the foundation
United Farm Workers home page
L.A. Times on Friday’s student walkouts (Registration wall)
Your support matters…Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
Book Review
A balanced history of the United Farm Workers and its relationship with the wider Chicano movement of the 1970s.
Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer was the last journalist to interview Robert Kennedy moments before the candidate was fatally wounded on this date 50 years ago.
Latino grass-roots organizers in Los Angeles are resisting the Trump administration's assaults in ways that would make their forebears proud.
The new film tells the story of social justice icon Dolores Huerta. Truthdig sat down for a conversation with her and director Peter Bratt.
In this week's episode of “Scheer Intelligence,” host and Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer interviews the longtime civil rights activist. [Transcript added.]
The healing of America begins with love. Social justice innovators are showing the way.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.