Cesar Chavez Day
Cesar Chavez Day is a U.S. federal commemorative holiday, proclaimed by President Barack Obama in 2014.[1] The holiday celebrates the birth and legacy of the civil rights and labor movement activist Cesar Chavez on March 31 every year. The City of Phoenix celebrates the contributions and legacy of Cesar Chavez. After years of civil rights work in California, this American labor rights activist made his way back to Arizona where he fought for the improvement of working conditions for farm workers. This included a 24-day hunger strike bringing national attention to the inhumane conditions farm workers endured. As a reminder, City of Phoenix offices are closed on March 31st, each year in observance of Cesar Chavez Day.
Rising from the status of a migrant worker toiling in the agricultural fields of Yuma, Arizona, to the leader of America's first successful farm workers' union, Cesar Chavez was described by Robert F. Kennedy as “one of the heroic figures of our time.” Although by nature a meek and humble man known more for his hands-on leadership abilities than his public-speaking talents, Chavez appealed to the conscience of America in the 1970s by convincing seventeen million people to boycott the sale of table grapes for five consecutive years. Chavez's United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) spearheaded the drive for economic and social justice for Mexican and Mexican American farm workers. A cross section of Americans supported the cause, including college students, politicians, priests, nuns, rabbis, protestant ministers, unionists, and writers. By forming one of the first unions to fight for the rights of Mexican Americans, Chavez became an important symbol of the Chicano movement. - Russell, Dennis. "Chavez, Cesar (1927–1993)." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, edited by Thomas Riggs, 2nd ed., vol. 1, St. James Press, 2013, pp. 567-569. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2735800514/GVRL?u=mcc_main&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=b5f09eb6. Accessed 16 May 2024.
A Song for Cesar
In the 1960s and '70s, Cesar Chavez and farmworker activists formed an alliance with musicians and artists to help build a movement called "La Causa". A SONG FOR CESAR tells the story of that alliance using first person accounts of artists, musicians, members of Chavez's family, and other key figures of the movement. Inspired by the spirit of the thousands of farmworkers who struggled for justice alongside labor leaders Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong, musicians Abel Sanchez and Jorge Santana's encapsulating tribute song bookends the film, highlighting the ways in which music and the arts were essential in building the farmworkers' movement. 2021
Biographies
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Workers in America: : A Historical Encyclopedia - Cesar Estrada Chavez
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781598847192Publication Date: 2013-01-08César Estrada Chávez (March 31, 1927–April 23, 1993) was the cofounder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA) and one of the most influential Hispanic leaders of the 20th century. He receives credit for bringing to public attention the plight of West Coast agricultural workers, for forcing Americans to reconsider how the food they eat is produced, and for making them confront nativism, racism, and other forms of discrimination against ethnic groups. -
The Making of Modern Immigration: An Encyclopedia of People and Ideas - Chavez, Cesar (1927–1993): Migrant Farmworkers
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780313392030Publication Date: 2012-02-13Cesario Estrada Chavez lived a life crosscut by different identities. He was himself a U.S. citizen by birth. He identified himself with migrants, specifically with migrant laborers. Others identified him with immigrants, especially with Spanish-speaking immigrants. Chavez himself took some time to come to terms with others' characterizations of him. When he brought together his own identity as a migrant laborer and his identity as an ethnic American, he made new contributions to the immigration debate. He found a new solution to the question of labor competition, highlighted the issues of illegal immigration, and himself served as a constant reminder that U.S. citizenship extends to people of many colors and language groups. -
The Words of César Chávez
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781585441693Publication Date: 2002-05-09Cesar Chavez's relentless campaign for social justice for farm workers and laborers in the United States marked a milestone in U.S. history. Through his powerful rhetoric and impassioned calls to action, Chavez transformed as well as persuaded and inspired his audiences. In this first published anthology, Richard J. Jensen and John C. Hammerback present Chavez in his own terms. Through this collection of words and analysis of his major speeches and writings, Jensen and Hammerback reveal the rhetorical qualities and underlying rhetorical dynamics of a master communicator. They also offer a rich source of the history of the farm workers' movement that Chavez led from the early 1960s to his death in 1993. The Words of Cesar Chavez offers an important new resource for scholars of public discourse, Chicano studies, and Chavez himself. It complements the authors' earlier study, The Rhetorical Career of Cesar Chavez, by providing the primary materials for that rhetorical profile of Chavez. Through his own words, Jensen and Hammerback present Chavez doing what he did best: teaching and influencing audiences who would enact his agenda to create a new and better world. -
Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can): Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution
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Call Number: eBoookISBN: 9780520282506Publication Date: 2014-03-31In the summer of 1968 Peter Matthiessen met Cesar Chavez for the first time. They were the same age: forty-one. Matthiessen lived in New York City, while Chavez lived in the Central Valley farm town of Delano, where the grape strike was unfolding. This book is Matthiessen’s panoramic yet finely detailed account of the three years he spent working and traveling with Chavez, including to Sal Si Puedes, the San Jose barrio where Chavez began his organizing. Matthiessen provides a candid look into the many sides of this enigmatic and charismatic leader who lived by the laws of nonviolence. Sal Si Puedes is less reportage than living history. In its pages a whole era comes alive: the Chicano, Black Power, and antiwar movements; the browning of the labor movement; Chavez’s fasts; the nationwide boycott of California grapes. When Chavez died in 1993, tens of thousands gathered at his funeral. It was a clear sign of how beloved he was and how important his life had been. A new foreword by Marc Grossman considers the significance of Chavez’s legacy for our time. As well as serving as an indispensable guide to the 1960s, this book rejuvenates the extraordinary vitality of Chavez’s life and spirit, giving his message a renewed and much-needed urgency.
