Yesterday, President Obama issued a proclamation stating that henceforth, March 31st will be Cesar Chavez day.
“Our Nation’s story of progress is rich with profound struggle and great sacrifice, marked by the selfless acts and fearless leadership of remarkable Americans. A true champion for justice, Cesar Chavez advocated for and won many of the rights and benefits we now enjoy, and his spirit lives on in the hands and hearts of working women and men today. As we celebrate the anniversary of his birth, we honor Cesar Chavez’s lasting victories for American workers and his noble methods in achieving them.
Raised in the fields of Arizona and California, Cesar Chavez faced hardship and injustice from a young age. At the time, farm workers toiled in the shadows of society, vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Families like Chavez’s were impoverished; exposed to hazardous working conditions and dangerous pesticides; and often denied clean drinking water, toilets, and other basic necessities.
Cesar Chavez saw the need for change and made a courageous choice to work to improve the lives of his fellow farm workers. Through boycotts and fasts, he led others on a path of nonviolence conceived in careful study of the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi and Mahatma Gandhi, and in the powerful example of Martin Luther King, Jr. He became a community organizer and began his lifelong advocacy to protect and empower people. With quiet leadership and a powerful voice, Cesar founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) with Dolores Huerta, launching one of our Nation’s most inspiring social movements.”
Read more here.
Update: Read the 2012 Presidential Proclamation here.
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Que Viva Cesar Chavez!
Que Viva Cesar Chavez! Great piece.
Que Viva Cesar Chavez! Great piece!
For real!? I was just whining about that earlier this week! Yea! Prayer answered! =)
What an amazing man. Happy Birthday Mr. Cesar Chavez!!
THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.
Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.
Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.
Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.
All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.
Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – the very survival – of the human tapestry.
Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
Excerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.
It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives.
Go with God, until we see you again, Cesar Estrada Chavez, thank you.
the youtube video… LAME and STUPID!
Sweet
What a great man
Wow
Feliz Cumpleanos Cesar Chavez!
Happy Birthday Chavez!
FELIZ CUMPLE ANOS CESAR CHAVEZ……
Chavez did a lot to improve the working conditions for farm workers, but not all farm workers supported him. During UFW strikes in the central valley of California, many farm workers were beat up and not allowed to enter the fields. They were being given no financial support by the UFW and were not allowed to enter the fields to work. Just like today….the UFW didn’t and doesn’t support our undocumented hermanos who come here to work hard and who account for about 80% of the Ag labor force. So I would say the UFW is not so united….