Growing up Latino: How Cesar Chavez Inspired A Generation
By Yolanda
Miranda
Cesar Chavez birthday on March
31, a state holiday, was preceded by the largest mainly-Latino march in the
history of Los Angeles on Saturday, March 25.
As many as one or two million Latinos
marched against Congress’ attempt to make felons out of undocumented
workers living in this country and setting up a wall separating Mexico from the
USA.
Latino students, as in the 60s,
started by holding walk outs from their schools. The finale was the march that
took place on Saturday with Latinos from all parts of the state participating.
Not even during the Vietnam war, when we were marching against the war, were we
ever able to organize these many people at one time. Latinos have been known as
the “sleeping giant.” Not only did they wake up but they roared in
disenchantment over the proposed policies of this government against them and
their families.
¡Ya Basta! Enough
is Enough! Although they cross the border to come work in this country illegally
the majority of these workers contribute to the economy, not take from it. They
pay taxes, work the jobs that most Americans will not work, and which pay only
the minimum wage or even less.
At one
time the majority of farmworkers were U.S. born, but as they left the fields to
work in factories and other trades, they were replaced by undocumented workers.
In the cities, many of the undocumented workers are “day workers,”
doing construction work or any type of work while being paid low wages and many
are robbed of their wages since there aren’t any laws to protect them.
Many who are vilified as
“illegal” are parents whose children are fighting and being wounded
or dying in Iraq. More than 37,000 non-citizens serve in the military, mostly in
Iraq.
Racism and injustice has not
been eradicated in this country but the civil rights movement has been given a
breath of life and spirit this past Saturday. If undocumented workers can
organize themselves, we need to support their efforts and learn from them to get
rid of the Patriot Act and get out of Iraq
now!
We can trace the roots of today’s
uprising back 79 years, to March 31, 1927, in the dusty agricultural town of
Yuma, Arizona, where Cesar Chavez was born to Librado and Juana Chavez.
The family’s decision to move to
California was made out of desperation due to a severe draught that drove them
from the ranch they worked on. Thus started the Chavez family saga in becoming
migrant farmworkers, living in government labor camps, following the crops that
consisted of vegetables and fruit. Cesar, like many migrant children of
farmworkers, dropped out of school while in the eighth grade to help his family
work in the vineyards. Eventually, the family settled in San José, where
Cesar joined the Navy and served in World War
II.
After the war, Cesar met Fred Ross,
who worked in the Community Service Organization (CSO) founded by Saul Alinsky.
He registered Latinos to vote, travelling throughout California and becoming the
Director of the CSO. Cesar never forgot his roots as he registered Latinos to
vote. He left the CSO and formed the National Farmworker’s Association
(NFA) in the middle 60s to organize for higher wages. Dolores Huerta, a former
school teacher, joined the NFA also because she believed in his cause, fighting
for farmworker’s rights. Dolores will be 76 years old on April 10th,
working equally as hard to build the
NFA.
I was raised in a migrant
farmworker family of 14, married in the middle 60s, with two children and two
more yet to be born. I always keep the memory of the elation I felt when I heard
of Cesar and the work he was doing for the farmworkers in the San Joaquin
Valley. The grape boycott was the beginning of my involvement in my community. I
housed the union’s organizer, planned picketlines, marches, and rallies.
My days revolved around caring for my
four children, working and devoting any time left to organizing the community
for the grape boycott which had targeted Safeway at that time. The union
organizers were only paid $15 per week as the union had no contracts or
members.
My husband at the time yanked
us out from a small town, moving us to Napa County, then to Sonoma County. He
hoped that by taking this drastic action that I would come back to my senses and
leave all this political involvement behind. Little did he know the union was
stronger in Napa and Sonoma because of the organizing of the wine grape pickers
and the wineries.
How could I explain,
describe the burning flame illuminating within me, of pride and hope about the
light Cesar was shining on the plight of the farmworkers both nationally and
world-wide. He was describing our family and others who faced poverty, lack of
education, and worked long hours for little pay.
No matter how long and hard we worked,
the winter months were feared. There was no food stamp program, unemployment
checks and my father would have to go to work in Oregon in the sawmills to feed
the family while my older brother worked in Arizona in the lettuce fields. It
never failed, the electricity was always cut off in winter in our home. My
mother had to choose between light or food. So, kerosene lamps were always
available in our house.
With 14
children to feed and clothe, the only access my dear mother had to birth control
was through breast feeding. My siblings are two to one-and-a-half months apart.
Later, as we grew up, our mother shared with us that when she found out she was
pregnant, she would jump off the kitchen table, over and over again, hope to
bring on a miscarriage. It never worked. She spent most of her growing up years
pregnant as she and my father were married when she was sixteen.
Although we were poor economically, we
were taught to be poor was no sin but to be poor, not work and keep a dirty
house was next to a mortal sin. Her life was not easy. Can you imagine having to
wash clothes for these kids with a washboard and hang them? The guilt she felt
being pregnant meant more hardship for the family.
In 1994, I joined the United
Farmworkers (UFW) as an organizer after the name was changed. Cesar’s low
paid attorney’s finally won the Agriculture Labor Relations Board Act in
California. This Act oversaw the holding of fair union elections without the
intimidation of the ranchers or their supervisors. It gave us the right to file
unfair labor practice charges against ranchers who were violating the rights of
farmworkers. There was no way I could not be part of this historical time, to do
my part in preventing the injustice my family. Farm workers had anguished for
years about the control ranchers had over us and the conditions we were forced
to work under.
Have you ever worked
while the field next to you was being sprayed with pesticides? Crop dusters made
our eyes water, leaving pesticide dust on our clothes, The planes gave us
coughing spells as we inhaled the poisons. Many of us suffered from skin rashes
brought on by the spray they used. Cesar knew all about it, he had experienced
it, along with his family, and he never forgot.
I wasn’t the only member of my
family to answer “La Causa,” the call to help build the union. My
first cousin, Luis Valdez, started El Teatro Campesino in the fields, using the
story lines of the ranchers versus the union and farmworkers. He went on to
become a famous producer and filmmaker. My cousin, Ramon Pasillas, another
organizer, who, like me, was rank-and-file, didn’t hold an official
position but was equally important in the organizing we did. We were trained by
Fred Ross in organizing
techniques.
After I left the UFW, two
years later, I went on to work and gain more experience with other AFL-CIO
unions. Yet, being involved in the Farm Workers Unions was like nothing else in
my life. When Nick Jones, the former National Boycott Director for the UFW
visited me last month, we exchanged war stories as if they had just happened
yesterday.
Granted, the UFW, the
“movimiento,” the beam of the lighthouse, has dimmed since those
years. I, like other organizers and some union officials, have seen the
difference in what the UFW was once and what it is now. But it will never lose
the legacy that Cesar left.
The
farmworkers feed the nation and the world, but are given no respect, or a decent
income, with the union.
The gains we
made “way back when” will be lost unless organizing continues on.
So, organize, organize and
organize.
CESAR, HAPPY, HAPPY
BIRTHDAY!
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOLORES
HUERTA !
It was an honor to work with
you both. To regain my dignity, pride as a farmworker family member.
Because of the union, I was the first in my
family to graduate from high school and go on to college. My younger brothers
and sisters followed in my footsteps. My older siblings sacrificed their
education to fulfill our parent’s dream.
Posted: Sat
- April 1, 2006 at 05:13 PM