As a veteran civil rights attorney, I have often been struck about how quickly a leaderÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s legacy disappears from one generation to the next. Perhaps this is because, as a society, we do not do a good job of creating a narrative about important leaders, which we pass on to our children and those who come after them.
All that remains, at best, is their name ÐÔÊӽ紫ý” not the history of their struggle or the depth of their impact on society.
One such narrative we should keep alive is the legacy of Cesar Chavez, whose birthday we commemorate March 31. Cesar was born in 1927 and died in 1993. He was one of the nationÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s preeminent farm labor organizers and one of countryÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s outstanding Mexican American leaders.
He dedicated his life to improving the wages and working conditions of one of the countryÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s poorest and most exploited groups of workers, a large share of whom are in Texas.
Cesar led the historic non-violent movement for farm worker rights. He also motivated thousands of people, who never worked in agriculture, to commit themselves to social, economic and environmental justice and civil rights. And he helped grow leadership in the Hispanic community to throw off centuries of discrimination.
CesarÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s impact is reflected in the holiday designated for him in 11 states and in the parks, cultural centers, libraries, schools and streets that carry his name in cities across Texas and the United States. In Texas, his birthday is an optional state holiday.
Cesar knew the hard life of farm laborers firsthand. He had to leave school after eighth grade to work in the fields as a migrant to help support his family. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Cesar coordinated voter registration drives and campaigns against racial and economic discrimination, and, in 1962, he helped found the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers of America.
Cesar led the first successful farm workers union in U.S. history and won the first industry-wide labor contracts in American agriculture. The union helped achieve dignity, respect, fair wages, medical coverage, pension benefits, humane working conditions and other protections for hundreds of thousands of farm laborers.
In Texas, UFW melon workers went on strike in Starr County in 1966-17. Their 500-mile march to Austin in 1966 led to 10,000 people rallying at the Capitol with Cesar on Memorial Day, demanding higher wages.
Cesar inspired farm workers in Texas to organize and bring agricultural laborers under workers compensation, attain unemployment benefits, be protected against pesticides when harvesting crops and require sanitary facilities in the fields.
Cesar believed in the peaceful tactics of Mohandas Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.: fasts, boycotts and strikes. People felt the justice of his cause. When he died, more than 50,000 people of all walks of life marched in his funeral procession under the hot Delano, California, sun.
His influence on Texans extended far beyond the thousands of Texas farm laborers who work here or as migrants in California and around the country. His efforts to open the doors of colleges and universities to the Hispanic community reached deep into Texas, especially at the University of Texas at Austin and at the University of Texas at El Paso and, in turn, opened to doors to economic and political opportunity.
We do not measure CesarÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s life in material terms, but rather as that of a person who stood, and worked, for equality, justice, and dignity for all Americans, and who inspired many others to do the same.
CesarÐÔÊӽ紫ý™s birthday should not be just a day on which we honor his name, but a day on which we tell his narrative and on which we re-commit ourselves to the struggle to make our community and our country a better place for our children and grandchildren.
