[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 31, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING THE BIRTHDAY OF CESAR ESTRADA CHAVEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 31, 2004

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in 
honor of Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez was born on this day in 1927.
  Cesar Chavez once said, ``Real education should consist of drawing 
the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books 
can there be than the book of humanity?'' He believed that ``the end of 
all education should surely be service to others.'' It is a belief that 
he practiced until his untimely death.
  In Dallas, Texas where I serve, to honor his love for education, the 
city opened the Cesar Chavez Learning Center. The Center enrolls almost 
900 students and maintains an attendance rate of 96.6 percent.
  Mr. Chavez could have written his own book on humanity and service to 
others. He was willing to sacrifice his own life so that others could 
have a better life. He built a great union through persistence, hard 
work, faith, and non-violence.
  Blending the nonviolent resistance of Gandhi with the organizational 
skills of his mentor, the social activist Saul Alinsky, Mr. Chavez 
captured worldwide attention in the 1960's. Leading an initially lonely 
battle to unionize the fields and the orchards of California, he issued 
a call to boycott grapes. It soon became the cause to celebrate.
  Mr. Chavez, who was described by Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 as ``one 
of the heroic figures of our time,'' was widely acknowledged to have 
done more to improve the lot of the migrant farm worker than anyone 
else.
  Asked what had motivated his stubborn fight, he said, ``For many 
years I was a farm worker, a migratory worker, and, well, personally--
and I'm being very frank--maybe it's just a matter of trying to even 
the score.''
  But he ultimately failed to realize his dream of forging a nationwide 
organization. In most of America, farm workers continue to toil for low 
wages, without job security. They are still vulnerable to exploitation.
  Along with thousands of other families during the depression in the 
Southwest, Cesar Chavez's family fell on hard times. They sought a new 
life in California. They found it picking carrots, cotton and other 
crops in arid valleys, following the sun in search of the next harvest 
and the next migrants' camp.
  Mr. Chavez never graduated from high school, and once counted 65 
elementary schools he had attended ``for a day, a week or a few 
months.''
  Beginning with the Industrial Workers of the World at the turn of the 
century, unions tried for decades to organize immigrant unskilled 
workers, first Chinese, then Japanese and later Filipinos and Mexican-
Americans, on whom California growers depended.
  But the field hands, their organizing drives vulnerable to the 
competition of other poor migrants seeking work, found themselves 
fighting not only powerful growers, but also the police and government 
officials.
  By 1965 Mr. Chavez had organized 1,700 families and persuaded two 
growers to raise wages moderately. His fledging union was too weak for 
a major strike. But 800 workers in a virtually moribund AFL-CIO group, 
the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, struck grape growers in 
Delano. Some of the members of his group demanded to join the strike.
  That was the beginning of 5 years of La Huelga--``the strike''--in 
which the frail labor leader, who was 5 feet 6 inches tall, became 
familiar to people in much of the world as he battled the economic 
power of the farmers and corporations in the San Joaquin Valley.
  A New York Times article stated, ``He was shy and not an outstanding 
public speaker. But he showed humility that, with his shyness and small 
stature, piercing dark eyes and facial features that hinted at Indian 
ancestors, gave him an image as a David taking on the Goliaths of 
agriculture.
  Mr. Chavez's style was monastic, almost religious. He said his life 
was dedicated only to bettering the lives of the exploited farm 
workers. He was a vegetarian, and his weekly salary of $5 was a virtual 
vow of poverty. Articles about him often spoke of his ``saintly'' and 
even ``messianic'' qualities.
  By 1968, Mr. Chavez had urged Americans not to buy table grapes 
produced in the San Joaquin Valley until growers agreed to union 
contracts. The boycott proved a huge success. A public opinion poll 
found that 17 million Americans had stopped buying grapes because of 
the boycott.
  On April 29, 1993, Cesar Chavez was honored in death by those he led 
in life. He left this world better than he found it and for that we 
honor him today.

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