{"id":22481,"date":"2015-04-01T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/?p=22481"},"modified":"2015-04-03T18:40:02","modified_gmt":"2015-04-04T01:40:02","slug":"april-cover-story-the-legacy-of-cesar-e-chavez-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/april-cover-story-the-legacy-of-cesar-e-chavez-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"April cover story: The legacy of C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_22483\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Cesar-Chavez-March-2012.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22483\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22483\" title=\"Cesar Chavez March 2012\" src=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Cesar-Chavez-March-2012-e1428110967515.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"262\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-22483\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mural created for the C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez Celebration held at C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez Elementary School in La Colonia in March 2012. Photo by Frank X. Moraga \/ Amigos805 \u00a92015<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><em>Community marches, forums, service-learning projects and film screenings\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>to be presented in the region<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Frank X. Moraga<\/strong> \/ <em>Amigos805<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to imagine that C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez, who was born in the desert lands near Yuma, Arizona, was a big fan of that vast Pacific Ocean as he looked toward it from the beaches of Oxnard. He was often quoted as saying his time in the U.S. Navy at the tail end of World War II was \u201cthe two worst years of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oxnard School District Trustee Denis O\u2019Leary previously wrote in Amigos805 that Ch\u00e1vez first came to Oxnard as a child with his farmworker parents, slept on the local beaches and went to local schools.<\/p>\n<p>But Ch\u00e1vez would return to Oxnard. He and his wife, Helen, arrived in the city in 1958 at the behest of community organizer Fred Ross, who asked Ch\u00e1vez to recruit farmworkers to his Community Service Organization (CSO).<\/p>\n<p>Ross, who also trained a young Dolores Huerta, wrote about this time in Oxnard of the late 1950s in the book \u201cConquering Goliath.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After a couple of years, Ch\u00e1vez would use the skills he learned in La Colonia and elsewhere in Ventura County to launch the United Farm Workers of America union in Delano with Huerta. And he would return to Oxnard again and again.<\/p>\n<p>So as the region honors Ch\u00e1vez with a variety of celebrations, marches, community service projects and other events, it\u2019s important to remember the close connection the local community had to the union leader.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>A growing number of events<\/h3>\n<p>In celebration of C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez Day on March 31, Oxnard College presented a program at its Performing Arts Center, which featured the short documentary \u201cGoing Green: Cesar Chavez.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The celebration of his life has increasingly grown to include much of the month of April. Events this month include:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Distinguished UCSB Professor of History and President of the American Historical Association Vicki L. Ruiz presented the lecture \u201cThe Right to Remember: Latina Labor Leaders in California Agriculture, 1939-1961\u201d on April 1 at CSU Channel Islands.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The university will also present the \u201cFarmworker Immersion Project with VC CLUE\u201d from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, April 10. The program places students in the community to learn about farmworker rights and immigration issues. Students will visit farmworkers, their families, homes and local farms. Students will work in the field and have a group reflection. Must RSVP to pilar.pacheco@csuci.edu<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/April-12.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-21677\" title=\"April 12\" src=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/April-12-e1427995237355.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"349\" height=\"455\" \/><\/a>\u2022 The \u201c20th Annual C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez Memorial Celebration \u2014 March for Justice\u201d will begin with a gathering at 9 a.m. Sunday, April 12 at Oxnard Southwinds Park, 300 W. Clara St., Oxnard. The march is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., arriving at 12:30 p.m. at the Oxnard College Performing Arts Center, 4000 S. Rose Ave., Oxnard. The free event includes a health and legal fair with information on the Dream Act and AB60 Drivers Licenses. It will include immigration attorneys with keynote speakers from the Oxnard College President\u2019s Forum. Contact the C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez Memorial Celebration March Committee at 805-486-9674 or send an email to <a href=\"mailto:horozco@ufw.org\" target=\"_blank\">horozco@ufw.org<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Dolores Huerta will be the keynote speaker at the CAUSE Action Fund annual dinner and silent auction from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, April 19 at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center, 1118 E. Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara. The event is\u00a0 $60 per person after April 1. <a href=\"https:\/\/events.r20.constantcontact.com\/register\/eventReg?oeidk=a07eagsgr97de07848f&amp;oseq=&amp;c=&amp;ch=\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to register or call 805-658-0810, ext. 210 for more information.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The UCSB Multicultural Center will present the film screening of \u201cCesar\u2019s Last Fight\u201d at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 at the MCC Theater. In 1988, C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez embarked on what would be the final act of protest in his remarkable life, event organizers reported in a media release. Driven by penance for feeling he had not done enough, Chavez began his \u201cFast for Life,\u201d a 36-day water-only hunger strike, to draw attention to the horrific effects of unfettered pesticide use on farmworkers, their families and their communities. Using never-before-seen footage of Chavez and testimonies from those closest to him, directors Richard Ray Perez and Lorena Parlee weave together the larger story of Chavez\u2019s life, vision and legacy. 100 min., English, 2014, U.S. Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/mcc.sa.ucsb.edu\/Calendar\/index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/mcc.sa.ucsb.edu\/Calendar\/index.aspx<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Achieving dignity for farm workers<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/12-DE-ABRIL.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22193\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"12 DE ABRIL\" src=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/12-DE-ABRIL-e1427995284259.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"451\" \/><\/a>If there is something that ties all these events together it\u2019s the single-minded goal of lifting up and giving voice to those who had none in the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA central objective of C\u00e9sar, the UFW, and his supporters from all walks of life was the achievement of dignity for the farmworker,\u201d Frank P. Barajas, professor of history at CSU Channel Islands, wrote about the life and legacy of Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDignity was paramount because C\u00e9sar and his supporters witnessed or experienced directly the indignities dispensed by the agricultural industrial complex. This entailed sexual harassment, shanty-like company housing owned and operated by the industry, verbal abuse, the lack of port-a-sans at fields and orchards, and a system of wage-slavery that made it nearly impossible for families to sustain themselves much less provide their children with enrichment opportunities for them to flourish.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo ensure the dignity of the farmworker (that consisted of men, women, and, habitually, adolescents and children) C\u00e9sar\u2019s union battled, non-violently, for contracts,\u201d Barajas said. \u201cMuch of the existing literature on C\u00e9sar\u2019s movement features the struggle for contracts but fails to describe the causation behind it. So here is a brief account of the realities of farmworkers in Ventura County during the early 1970s.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22485\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Cesar-Chavez03.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22485\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22485\" title=\"Cesar Chavez03\" src=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Cesar-Chavez03-e1428111429221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"296\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-22485\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers, UFW members and supports gather at C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez Elementary School in La Colonia to take part in the annual march in 2012. Photo by Frank X. Moraga \/ Amigos805 \u00a92015<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cFirst, the agricultural industry recruited an excessive supply of workers from Texas and Mexico to preserve a depressed wage rate. This systematically pitted local workers against the migrant, many who would also become locals over time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecond, the Max Mont Papers at CSU Northridge and reports within the Ventura County Star-Free Press document how many growers associations utilized bait-and-switch strategies. Migrant workers and their families were recruited with the promise of satisfactory housing and an agreed-upon wage rate only to live in overcrowded substandard dwellings and have their pay decreased after a week or two. If workers protested, employers gave them the choice to quit and have their families face eviction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThird, in 1974 two hundred Santa Paula citrus pickers walked off their jobs because they did not know the wage-rate until after the end of the day. Strawberry workers also went on strike this same year for improved conditions enjoyed by their counterparts in Salinas. The wage rate in Ventura County citrus orchards and strawberry fields was also arbitrarily set from one phase of a harvest to the next. Hence, farmworkers suffered the humiliation of reduced paychecks to cover fixed, if not growing, household cost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo C\u00e9sar\u2019s definition of dignity was both economic and human.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Community marches, forums, service-learning projects and film screenings\u00a0to be presented in the region By Frank X. Moraga \/ Amigos805 It\u2019s hard to imagine that C\u00e9sar E. Ch\u00e1vez, who was born in the desert lands near Yuma, Arizona, was a big&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/april-cover-story-the-legacy-of-cesar-e-chavez-continues\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,7,1711,5,6,360],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural","category-education","category-events","category-local","category-news","category-politics","category-youth-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22481"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22488,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22481\/revisions\/22488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}