Assembly passes Cesar Chavez Day bill

Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, sponsored the legislation, which would recognize the legendary California civil rights activist who dedicated his life to improving conditions for migrant farm workers.

The bill would not give anybody a holiday from work.

When I first wrote about the bill on this blog a few weeks ago, a colleague at the Review-Journal, Dan Romo, wrote to me about his personal experiences with Chavez. Here’s an excerpt from Dan’s e-mail:

“I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Chavez on a few occasions in the ’70s during the grape and lettuce boycotts. My father knew Mr. Chavez and many of the United Farm Workers organizers and leaders personally. As treasurer of the United Rubber Workers Union at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Plant in Los Angeles, he often met with and helped many labor leaders. The difference was, when it involved Mr. Chavez, he made sure our family got involved, too. Like when I had just bought a new short-bed Chevy van in the summer of ’72 and couldn’t wait to load up my dirt bike and take off. He said, “Let’s break it in by loading up some big copper pots my buddy at Firestone has and head over to Delano or La Paz and cook up some carnitas for the big farm-worker rally this weekend." Couldn’t say no.

“That year or the following year, we headed over for a big Christmas party with Mr. Chavez and his family of supporters. What was so impressive about this was that many unions contributed to the cause. It was not uncommon to see Teamsters who provided big trucks, auto workers who paid for toys, rubber workers who donated money and clothing.

“The bad news during this period was that we couldn’t eat grapes or lettuce in our household due to the boycott. My grandmother, who worked non-union jobs in the garment district of L.A. for over four decades, was not always sympathetic to the farm-worker cause. As a result, she would sometimes come to visit and hand my mother a big bag full of grapes for my little sister Diana, who was about 6 years old at the time. My dad would protest in Spanish to his mom, "Mom, se va enojar el Senor Chavez!" (Mom, Mr. Chavez will get mad!) At which time she would announce in Spanish, "No son para el Senor Chavez, ni para ti, son solamente para Diana." (These are not for Mr. Chavez or for you, they’re for Diana.). She knew Diana loved grapes and no boycott was going to prevent this grandmother from delivering them. My older brother Jim and I got pretty good at bribing Diana (behind the scenes, of course) to let us have some.

“My dad made a special trip to Mr. Chavez’s funeral, and to this day I’m sorry I passed on joining him for the trip. I should have gone and stood next to my dad at the service and paid a final tribute to this very courageous gentleman.”