March 31, Cesar Chavez’s birthday, is a state holiday, because Chavez is an
American hero.

The son of migrant farm workers and a farm worker himself, Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers with Dolores Huerta, and led its long, ultimately successful struggle for fair wages and better working conditions.

He dropped out of school after eighth grade to help support his family, and later spent two years in the Navy, after which he joined the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group where he developed the organizational skills — coordinating voter registration drives, anti-discrimination campaigns and non-violent protests — that he and Huerta used to found and build the National Farm Workers Association (now United Farm Workers), It won bargaining rights in 1975 with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act. Chavez was active in the organization until he died in 1993.

In 1994, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Pico Youth and Family Center will end a four-day celebration of the life and work of Cesar Chavez tonight from 4 to 7 p.m.. A documentary film will be shown. The Ballet Folklorico Grupo La Rosa will appear, PYFC musicians will perform, and some special guests will attend. Everyone is invited to attend the celebration.

Monday, March 28, was Movie Night. A film about Cesar and the long struggle was shown, after which there was a discussion.

Tuesday, March 29, was Beautification Day, as Pico Youth and Family Center
members cleaned up alleys and pathways and built a garden box outside the Center.

Wednesday, March 30, UCLA students held a Xinochtli Workshop.

“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. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.” – César E. Chávez