RSS Feed (xml)Cesar Chavez was a true revolutionary for the poor, the laborers, the hidden backbone of our country. He fought for the families who pick our grapes, our berries. The invisibles who provide bounty for our produce sections, our silent green thumbs. He brought folks together and lifted them up, and he did it with passion, intensity, and respect.
I've had the honor of knowing many migrant farmworker families over the years. I can honestly say I've never met more hardworking people. Families that rise before the sun and return after dark, hands calloused and dirty, nails never quite clean. I've eaten some of the best tamales in my life with these families, they never fail to share their food, no matter how little they have. These men and women who love their children fiercely, who want nothing more than a better life for them than they have lived.
Happy Birthday, Senor Chavez. We remember you and your powerful words:
The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.
"We are confident. We have ourselves. We know how to sacrifice. We know how to work. We know how to combat the forces that oppose us. But even more than that, we are true believers in the whole idea of justice. Justice is so much on our side, that that is going to see us through."
When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.
In this world it is possible to achieve great material wealth, to live an opulent life. But a life built upon those things alone leaves a shallow legacy. In the end, we will be judged by other standards.
A teacher, a mobilizer, an organizer, a leader. Your spirit lives on.
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