[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 48 (Thursday, March 25, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1782-H1783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NATIONAL HOLIDAY TO HONOR A NONVIOLENT FIGHT FOR JUSTICE; THE LIFE OF 
                              CESAR CHAVEZ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, a number of us are rising this evening to 
commemorate the birthday next week of Cesar Chavez, a great national 
hero whose March 31 birthday we believe should be recognized as a 
national holiday.
  This Nation and the world lost a great civil rights leader nearly 6 
years ago when Chavez died after a tireless struggle for social change. 
March 31 is a State holiday in my State of California; and countless 
schools, roads, libraries, and other public institutions have been 
named after Cesar Chavez. It is now time that the entire Nation honor 
his enduring legacy with a Federal holiday.
  From humble beginnings in 1927 on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona, 
Cesar Chavez rose to be a major force in American history, leading 
millions of people to better lives, inspired by his message of a 
nonviolent fight for peace and justice.
  As the son of migrant farm workers, he knew well the oppression these 
hard-working laborers faced. Influenced by the writings of Ghandi and 
other proponents of nonviolence, he began to register his fellow farm 
workers to vote and then to educate them about their rights to a safe 
workplace and a just wage.
  In 1962, Cesar Chavez and his family founded the National Farm 
Workers Association, which organized thousands of farm workers to 
confront one of the most powerful industries in our Nation. He inspired 
them to join together and nonviolently demand safe and fair working 
conditions.

                              {time}  1945

  Through the use of a grape boycott, he was able to secure the first 
union contracts for farm workers in the United States. These contracts 
provided farm workers with the basic services that most workers take 
for granted, services such as clean drinking water and sanitary 
facilities. Because of Cesar Chavez' fight to enforce child labor laws, 
farm workers could also be certain that their children would not be 
working side by side with them and would instead attend the migrant 
schools that he helped to establish. In addition, Cesar Chavez made the 
world aware of the exposure to dangerous chemicals that farm workers, 
in fact all consumers, face every day.
  But his influence extended beyond agriculture. He worked in urban 
areas, organized voter registration drives, brought complaints against 
mistreatment by governmental agencies. He taught community members how 
to deal with governmental, school and financial institutions and 
empowered

[[Page H1783]]

many to seek further advancement in education and politics. There are 
countless stories of judges, engineers, lawyers, teachers, religious 
leaders, I might add Congressmen and other hardworking professionals 
who credit Cesar Chavez as the inspiring force in their lives.
  During a time of great social upheaval, he was sought out by groups 
from all walks of life and religions to help bring calm with his 
nonviolent practices. Our country's leaders joined with Cesar literally 
and often figuratively in prayer and in acts of solidarity in his many 
fasts for justice. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sent Chavez a message on 
the occasion of his first fast. Dr. King told Chavez, ``Our separate 
struggles are really one, a struggle for freedom, for dignity and for 
humanity.''
  It is that struggle that earned him the admiration and respect of 
millions of Americans, including those of this Congressman and other of 
our colleagues who will join us tonight. We represent a fraction of the 
cosponsors of House Joint Resolution 22, which would commemorate 
Chavez' birthday and his legacy with a Federal holiday.
  I am proud that hundreds of people from the area I represent, San 
Diego, joined the thousands of people, in fact over 50,000, who came in 
caravans from Florida to California to attend the funeral of this 
national giant which was held near the United Farm Workers headquarters 
in Delano, California.
  We in Congress must join them in their reverence and must make 
certain that the movement Cesar Chavez began and the timeless lessons 
of justice and fairness he taught be preserved and honored in our 
national conscience. To make sure these fundamental principles are 
never forgotten, I urge my colleagues to support House Joint Resolution 
22, which would declare March 31 a Federal holiday in honor of Cesar 
Chavez. In his words, in the words of the United Farm Workers, si, se 
puede, yes, we can.
  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of Cesar 
Chavez not only because he was one of the great leaders of our country, 
but also because he was my friend. He was a man of courage, faith and 
love who shared his great strength with thousands and inspired millions 
of Americans.
  To know Cesar was to stand in awe of the enormous task he set for 
himself and the great moral leadership he gave to the campaign to 
challenge injustice and achieve peaceful change.
  His struggle for oppressed farmworkers fired our conscience. He 
insisted that this nation acknowledge that every human being, 
regardless of origin, is of worth and is entitled to reach for a better 
tomorrow.
  What made Cesar Chavez larger than life was that he lived the 
principles of truth and courage he preached. He knew what it was like 
to be treated without respect, to work all day, everyday, with little 
to show for it. A lesser man might have burned up with anger. But what 
burned inside Cesar Chavez was a love of justice.
  Cesar's struggle for justice is far from over and we must continue to 
help others help themselves.
  In Congress, still today, there are bills that would bring foreign 
guestworkers into our fields. The growers still want cheap labor from 
foreign workers without those pesky rights won by the sweat and tears 
of Cesar and Dolores Huerta and Arturo Rodriguez and hundreds of 
others.
  Cesar helped us see through the eyes of farmworkers--and what they 
saw was a dark and hopeless world. But under his leadership, 
farmworkers began to see a new world, one of strength and hope, united 
against poverty and exploitation. Under UFW contracts, they won higher 
pay and for the first time--health coverage and pension benefits.
  This is how the legacy of Cesar Chavez was born--and we will never 
let it die!

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