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| ¡Que Viva César Estrada Chávez! |
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The César Chávez Peace and Justice Committee of Denver (CCPJCD) in conjunction with Southwest Denver neighborhoods will celebrate the Annual César Chávez Celebration during the latter part of March 2011. This is a landmark year as the committee celebrates 10 years of organizing and coordinating this event. It is a special occasion as the fruit of our labor is symbolically being realized in community. Denver Councilman Paul López in collaboration with community residents has put the political wheels in motion to change Morrison Road to César Chávez Boulevard.
I researched the many articles I had written for the last several years about César Chávez and decided to write a collage of past memories. A decade is not a long time especially in comparison to the time César Chávez devoted to the plight of farm workers.
That kind of dedication requires extraordinaire leadership and
dedication. Chávez ranks with the best of Américaʼs 20th century leaders. The iconography created and displayed nationally and locally is a reminder that until all human beings are offered opportunities to make an honest living, la causa will never end.
César Estrada Chávez was born on March 31, 1927 as the country was headed towards the Great Depression. During the Depression in 1929, the Chávez family lost its farm and was relegated to poverty status; forcing the family to move to California.
The family trekked down the same path of many other migrant families suffering from the Harvest of Shame. Chávez learned first hand of the perils associated with farm labor. Following a 2 year stint in the Navy 1944-46, César Chávez returned to the fields where he spent the remainder of his life struggling for rights of farm workers.
Farm workers had been abandoned by law. Chávez took on the inauspicious mission of building a union, a task many believed could never happen. Following the righteous path of non-violence promulgated by Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Chávez employed a variety of spiritual and civil disobedience strategies combined with old fashioned community organizing to create a consciousness about the farmworker plight. He fasted as a spiritual cleansing process; at times confusing his sympathizers and followers; but ultimately in preparation for future battles.
Itʼs time to strike. The time has arrived to reclaim space and place in Southwest Denver. Hang la bandera roja with la huelga fluttering amidst the beauty of the skyline on your front porch; step back into nostalgia and reflect back on relentless moments and inexorable memories taking you back to Coloradoʼs fields as agribusiness and farmworkers tangled in political warfare.
Civil rights and social movements are built by core values of respect for human rights and a willingness to engage in constructive struggle towards social justice.
Chávez believed that by virtue of being human, each person possessed inherent rights that should be César Chávez as a Symbol of Struggle Through Nonviolence César Chávez Mural on Morrison Rd. and S. Lowell Blvd. respected. His belief in the intrinsic dignity of all persons and its subsequent preservation should be extended even to those who are seemingly perceived as our “enemies.” He believed social transformation could not occur without sacrifice and reminded us that it is not a commodity to be purchased on the common market; it has to be earned through struggle and pain.
La lucha was about creating opportunities so farmworkers could realize their full human potential. Conversely, his movement offered enlightenment for the oppressors to develop clarity and complicity about injustice.
At the cornerstone of La lucha was economic justice. Economic justice implies that “persons have an obligation to be active and productive participants in the life of a society and that society has a duty to enable them to participate in this way.” Economic justice is inextricably connected to social justice. One cannot exist without the other.
The farmworker guru knew that money drives systems. Chavezʼ spirituality provided him with virtuosity and strength during turbulent times. He saw fear as a great precursor for human behavior. When it needlessly festered in the soul it prevented human beings from taking action. Faith and a willingness to use it as a guiding light in social struggle were critical elements in his philosophy of social change.
His tactics in community organizing were meant to force agribusiness giants to the bargaining table so that they could begin to realize that those who suffer are just as human as those who cause suffering. Chávez transformed his ideas and thoughts into action. He confronted and conquered his trepidations. He was cognizant that few leaders had confronted big institutions and destroyed the myth that big institutions could not be defeated. As a Catholic, whose name has become synonymous with Catholic Social Thought, Chávez held his religious icons with pride and dignity. He invited many other religious denominations to join him in struggle.
He believed that the greatest gift that one person could bestow upon another is sacrifice; that is, giving up of oneʼs self-interest for the betterment of others.
Chávez did this selflessly. Solidarity was one of the goals of the farmworker movement. This concept is defined in the encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (The Social Concerns of the Church) as “a pursuit of the welfare of all… firm and persevering determination to commit to the common good, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are really responsible for all.” Chávez knew that the building communion with the oppressed was a key to building a better humanity. He had walked down the path of poverty and knew the long-term ramifications of poverty on the human spirit.
Chávez was cognizant of false prophets, who unexpectedly appear ready to assist, but whose motivations are egocentric. He taught us to engage in struggle for the right reasons, to free the oppressor as well as the oppressed.
Anything less than true generosity would result in personal and collective defeat. In the final analysis, César Estrada Chávez was a Chicano leader, not just a leader of Chicanos. We should be thankful that he spent time with us on this earth and celebrate the many gifts he bestowed upon us.
Celebrating César Chávez is only symbolic. His legacy and ideals for the creation of a just nation reminds us that many groups remain shackled in forms of poverty and exploitation. Chávez never reduced human beings to objects; he believed in respecting the inherent dignity of each person as they struggled for the creation of a true humanity. He believed in a multiethnic and multiracial society.
As a civil rights activist; I am sure he turns over in his sepulture wondering when activists will arise out of the tomb of apathy, ready to take action against a democracy that has a strangle hold on the silent majority.
¡Que Viva César Chávez!
Dr. Ramón Del Castillo, Chair César Chávez Peace and Justice Committee of Denver.
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