¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Cesar Chavez!

March 31, 2009

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Cesar Chavez!

Los Angeles' Ann Street Elementary School pays tribute to Cesar Chavez via photo montage made by students.

The Los Angeles United School District Board of Education passed a resolution allowing today-- Cesar Chavez's birthday and a state holiday--to become an official school holiday. It came about after, two years ago, 500 middle school and high school students skipped classes and marched to demand that Cesar Chavez's birthday become a holiday.

Chavez died in 1993, when he was 66 years old. He would've been 83 today. As a leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers, he catalyzed an enormous grape boycott to bring national attention to wealthy growers' harsh treatment of farmhands.

His early fights were marked by bitter, often brutal, altercations between farmers and workers. But Chavez, an advocate of nonviolent protest, prevailed and won numerous concessions from farmers.

In his later years, he became something of a kindly, Gandhi-type leader to urban Latinos but continued to push hard for the causes he believed in. In 1988, to protest pesticide use, he staged a 36-day, water-only fast that nearly killed him.

Sí, se puede, mis amigos.

Via Racewire.

UPDATE: Look here for events in your area celebrating Chavez. Sign the petition here to make March 31 a national Cesar Chavez holiday. Discover Chavez--and find teaching tools to share his story with others of all ages--here. And support Chavez's living legacy here.

Posted at 01:26 PM in Creative Nonviolence, Ecological, Health, Poverty & Economic Justice | Permalink

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