Yesterday would have been Cesar Estrada Chavez's 81st birthday. This week we commemorate his life and legacy and pay tribute to Chavez, a man who dedicated his life to championing the rights of farm workers and all working families.
I recently returned from India where I visited the Raj Ghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. Like Gandhi, Chavez believed that non-violence is the most powerful tool to achieve change, including social and economic justice. Cesar Chavez believed that "non-violence is not inaction... (it) is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win."
Cesar Chavez changed the course of history for Latinos and farm workers. As a result of his actions, many have been empowered to fight for fair wages, health care coverage, pension benefits, housing improvements, pesticide and health regulations, and countless other protections for their health and well-being. These changes have meant considerable improvements for the life of the farm worker, three-fourths of which are Latino.
Cesar Chavez's work inspired me to find ways to help others and led me to civil service. I believe it's important to preserve his memory for future generations, which I was introduced H.R. 359, the Cesar Estrada Chavez Study Act, which would authorize the Department of Interior to study lands important to the life of Chavez for possible inclusion in the National Park System. The stories of his struggles and triumphs need to be communicated and preserved for all Americans. I hope the Senate will swiftly pass this legislation.
Cesar Chavez's work to protect health, the environment and workers' rights paved the way for people like me to use my voice to fight for greater equality, to be courageous, and to bring justice to those who cannot achieve it themselves. We should be grateful for and never forget Cesar Chavez' efforts to improve civil rights and working conditions for Latinos and all Americans.
75% of framworkers may very well be Hispanic in California, but across the U.S. the percentage is much, much less, under 40 percent. Still sizeable.
Its amazing that those proposing and supporting open borders have infact dimenished Chavez's work so much and its goals.
You dont get wages up when you have an endless supply of cheap labor... just ask the people in India the next time you are there.
Regards.
America has no clue what labor unions have accomplished over the years. Many people gave their lives so that others could work 40 hour work weeks and work under safe conditions. This was not handed to us by the greedy corporations.
Now, largely due to satan ronnie and the rest of the rethugs and the msm, the average useless idiot hates unions and his fellow workers, siding with the corporations and rethugs against his own best interests. How completely spun stupid is that?
The corruption and inflated salaries evident in the major corporations across the United States, can be found in all of the major unions that are sworn to protect the workers. How ironic.
Cesar Chavez had a "flaw" that nowadays very few "liberals" discuss. Or, at least to those "liberals" it's probably a flaw: Chavez opposed illegal immigration. He correctly realized that illegal aliens were a union-busting tactic and realized that illegal aliens were scabs. He even called the INS on them.
The only thing surprising to me is that Rep. Solis didn't try to use this post to push for "reform", aka amnesty for illegal aliens.
Very creative way to waste some more tax payer money. You wonder why the public thinks so little of our elected officials.
I will never ever look at produce and not think of the barbaric treatment of the land and those who work it just so I can have cheap food. It is possible to fight profiteers who are like something from the Grapes of Wrath.