Bill Text: CA ACR114 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: César Chávez.

Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 52-11)

Status: (Passed) 2014-05-21 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 35, Statutes of 2014. [ACR114 Detail]

Download: California-2013-ACR114-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: ACR 114	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Campos and Alejo

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2014

   Relative to C�sar Ch�vez.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 114, as introduced, Campos. C�sar Ch�vez.
   This measure would call upon all Californians to observe C�sar
Ch�vez's birthday, March 31, as a day of public service, to recognize
the hard work and self-sacrifice that farmworkers go through to feed
all the families in our state, and to learn from C�sar Ch�vez's life
and his mission of nonviolence, social justice, and selfless service
to others.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, C�sar Estrada Ch�vez is one of the most significant civil
rights leaders in the history of our nation. C�sar Ch�vez recognized
that the dignity of a society can be measured by the dignity by
which the people who help feed our nation are treated; and
   WHEREAS, C�sar Ch�vez experienced the hardships and injustices of
farmworker life firsthand. He was born on March 31, 1927, in the
North Gila River Valley in Arizona, on the small family farm his
grandfather homesteaded. C�sar Ch�vez's father lost the farm during
the Great Depression, forcing the family to join some 30,000
farmworkers who followed the crops throughout California and lived in
tents and makeshift housing that often lacked a bathroom,
electricity, or running water; and
   WHEREAS, C�sar Ch�vez understood the value of education as a path
to a better life because he left school after completing the 8th
grade to work full time, helping to support his family in the fields.
Later in life, C�sar Ch�vez became self-educated through his passion
for reading; and
   WHEREAS, Although later a pacifist, in 1946, C�sar Ch�vez enrolled
and served his country in the United States Navy. He was honorably
discharged whereupon he married Helen Fabela and eventually settled
in the East San Jose barrio nicknamed "Sal Si Puedes" ("Get Out if
You Can") to raise a family that eventually numbered eight children;
and
   WHEREAS, In San Jose, C�sar Ch�vez was introduced to the social
teachings of the Catholic Church and trained in peaceful community
organizing strategies at McDonnell Hall, historically known as
Guadalupe Mission Chapel. C�sar Ch�vez and Fred Ross, an organizer
for the Community Service Organization (CSO), established CSO
chapters across California and Arizona during the 1950s, helping
Latinos register to vote, pushing for basic public services and
infrastructure in the barrios, peacefully battling police brutality
and racial discrimination, and creating the most effective Latino
civil rights group of its era; and
   WHEREAS, In 1962, after failing to convince the CSO to let him
organize farmworkers, C�sar Ch�vez resigned from the only decent
paying job he ever held and moved his wife and eight children to
Delano, California. There, with $1,200 in life savings that was soon
gone, C�sar Ch�vez, his family, and close friends began building the
National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm
Workers of America (UFW); and
   WHEREAS, In 1965, in a partnership with a union of Filipino
American farmworkers, C�sar Ch�vez organized a major strike against
grape growers in California. The following year, in 1966, C�sar
Ch�vez led an unprecedented 340-mile march, from Delano to
Sacramento, that placed the farmworkers' plight before the conscience
of the American people. Supporters carried slogans with the words
"HUELGA" (strike) and "VIVA LA CAUSA" (long live our cause),
advocating for improved compensation and labor conditions. Later
efforts, including a 25-day fast by C�sar Ch�vez, resulted in the
enactment of California's historic Agricultural Labor Relations Act
of 1975, the first and still the only law in the nation to "encourage
and protect" the right of farmworkers to organize and bargain with
their employers; and
   WHEREAS, Through countless strikes, boycotts, marches, and fasts
that produced many victories and some defeats, C�sar Ch�vez, who even
considered vegetarianism an integral part of living nonviolently,
never stopped his peaceful battles on behalf of the farmworkers with
whom he shared his life. His dedication to his work earned him the
respect of some of our greatest political and civil rights leaders,
including Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jesse Jackson.
C�sar Ch�vez's motto in life, "S� Se Puede!" or "Yes We Can!" has
served as an inspiration not only for Latinos, but for working
Americans of all walks for life; and
   WHEREAS, In 1993, C�sar Ch�vez died peacefully in his sleep in San
Luis, Arizona. During funeral services in Delano, 40,000 people
marched in procession behind his plain pine casket. They came to
affirm C�sar Ch�vez's words from his landmark 1984 address to the
Commonwealth Club in San Francisco: "Once social change begins, it
cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned
to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot
oppress the people who are not afraid anymore"; and
   WHEREAS, Although C�sar Ch�vez was uncomfortable with personal
recognition in life, since his passing Ch�vez has been honored in
hundreds of communities. C�sar Ch�vez was awarded "El Aguila Azteca"
(the Aztec Eagle), Mexico's highest award presented to people of
Mexican heritage. In 1994, President Bill Clinton posthumously
presented C�sar Ch�vez with America's highest civilian honor, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2006, California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger inducted C�sar Ch�vez into the first class of the
California Hall of Fame. In 2011, the United States Navy announced
naming the latest Lewis and Clark-class cargo ship being built in San
Diego the USNS C�sar Ch�vez; and
   WHEREAS, In 2012, in recognition of the impact of C�sar Ch�vez to
our nation's and state's history, President Barack Obama established
the C�sar E. Ch�vez National Monument at Nuestra Senora Reina de la
Paz in Keene, California and concurrently designated La Paz as a
National Historical Landmark. In 2013, La Paz, which is C�sar Ch�vez'
s final resting ground, McDonnell Hall, located in San Jose,
California, the former site of the UFW headquarters, known as the
Forty Acres, the Filipino Community Hall in Delano, California, and
the 1966 march route from Delano to Sacramento were four of five
sites, out of 100, found to be nationally significant for a National
Historic Park honoring C�sar Ch�vez. In 2013, McDonnell Hall
(formerly Guadalupe Mission Chapel) was designated a State Historical
Landmark for its close association with the life and work of C�sar
Ch�vez; and
   WHEREAS, Since C�sar Ch�vez's passing, the UFW has continued his
work through organizing farmworkers and campaigns to enact laws and
regulations to bring dignity and protections to farmworkers.
Meanwhile, the C�sar Ch�vez Foundation continues improving the lives
of hundreds of thousands of farmworkers and other low-wage working
families through 30 high-quality affordable housing communities it
has built or renovated and manages in four states, a network of nine
popular educational Spanish-language radio stations in three states,
after-school tutoring for disadvantaged students in two states, and
the National Ch�vez Center, including a visitor center, memorial
gardens, and educational center on 187 acres in the Tehachapi
Mountains where C�sar Ch�vez lived and worked, and is buried; and
   WHEREAS, C�sar Ch�vez successfully increased public awareness of
farmworker working conditions. To many Californians the farmworkers'
struggles are an issue from the past, a belief reflected by the fact
that farmworker suffering typically takes place in remote areas far
from cities, thereby rendering farmworkers invisible to our society.
The fruits and vegetables that we enjoy in our daily lives are
produced by farmworkers who often endure long hours of backbreaking
work and still face challenges such as inadequate enforcement of
pesticide, safety, and labor protection laws in the fields; and
   WHEREAS, Farmworkers still dream of providing a better life for
their children, but the reality of having to move from crop to crop
makes this dream hard to achieve. Economic forces and the rising cost
of living have pushed farmworkers further into poverty; and
   WHEREAS, In 2000, the Legislature passed and Governor Gray Davis
signed into law Senate Bill 984 (Chapter 213 of the Statutes of
2000), to create the first annual state holiday in the country on
C�sar Ch�vez's birthday, March 31, in recognition of C�sar Ch�vez as
the most important Latino leader in the United States during the 20th
century. Under that law, the State Board of Education also created a
statewide curriculum on C�sar Ch�vez and encourages schools across
the state to engage teachers and students in service learning
projects as a way of honoring the legendary farm labor and civil
rights leader; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature calls upon all Californians
to observe C�sar Ch�vez's birthday, March 31, as a day of public
service; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Legislature calls upon all Californians to
recognize the hard work and self-sacrifice that farmworkers go
through to feed all the families in our state; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Legislature calls upon all Californians to
learn from C�sar Ch�vez's life and his mission of nonviolence, social
justice, and selfless service to others; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the Ch�vez family, particularly C�sar Ch�vez's
widow, Helen Ch�vez, the United Farm Workers of America, the C�sar
Ch�vez Foundation, and the author for appropriate distribution.