[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 53 (Friday, April 4, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E522]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PAYING TRIBUTE TO CESAR ESTRADA CHAVEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 4, 2008

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, today I join with the hundreds of 
thousands of Mexican residents of my congressional district and across 
our Nation in recognizing the everlasting accomplishments and 
contributions of Cesar E. Chavez, a social crusader who lived a 
lifetime of sacrifice and dedication for the betterment of others.
  Cesar Estrada Chavez, World War II veteran and recipient of the 
Presidential Medal of Freedom, as the late New York Senator Robert F. 
Kennedy once noted, was ``one of the heroic figures of our time.'' A 
true American hero, Cesar was a civil rights, Latino, farmworker, and 
labor leader; a religious and spiritual figure; a community servant and 
social entrepreneur; a crusader for nonviolent social change; an 
environmentalist and consumer advocate.
  A second-generation Mexican-American, Cesar was born on March 31, 
1927, near his family's farm in Yuma, Arizona. At age 10, his family 
became migrant farmworkers after losing their farm in the Great 
Depression. Throughout his youth and into his adulthood, Cesar migrated 
across the Southwest laboring in the fields and vineyards, where he was 
exposed to the hardships and injustices of farmworker life.
  After achieving only an eighth-grade education, Cesar left school to 
work in the fields full time to support his family. Although his formal 
education ended then, he possessed an insatiable intellectual 
curiosity, and was self-taught in many fields and well read throughout 
his life.
  From 1946 to 1948, Cesar served in the U.S. Navy and fought in the 
Western Pacific during the tail end of World War II. Upon his return 
from the war, he embarked on new beginnings that would set the tone of 
his life. He married Ms. Helen Fabela and shortly after in 1952 began 
working as a community organizer with the Community Service 
Organization, CSO, a prominent Latino civil rights group.
  CSO afforded him the opportunity to learn how to organize groups for 
a common cause. Cesar coordinated voter registration drives and 
conducted campaigns against racial and economic discrimination, 
primarily in urban areas. In the late 1950s, he ascended to the 
position of national director.
  Cesar's dream, however, was to create an organization to protect and 
serve farmworkers, whose poverty and disenfranchisement he had shared. 
In 1962, Cesar resigned from the CSO and founded the National Farm 
Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers of 
America.
  For more than three decades, Cesar led the first successful 
farmworkers union in American history, achieving dignity, respect, fair 
wages, medical coverage, pension benefits, and humane living 
conditions, as well as countless other rights and protections for 
hundreds of thousands of farmworkers.
  Against previously insurmountable odds, he led successful strikes and 
boycotts that resulted in the first industry-wide labor contracts in 
the history of American agriculture. His union's efforts brought about 
the passage of the groundbreaking 1975 California Agricultural Labor 
Relations Act to protect farmworkers. Today, it remains the only law in 
the Nation that protects the farmworkers' right to unionize.
  The significance and impact of Cesar's life transcends any one cause 
or struggle. He was a unique and humble leader, in addition to being a 
great humanitarian and communicator who influenced and inspired 
millions of Americans to seek social justice and civil rights for the 
poor and disenfranchised in our society. Cesar forged a diverse and 
extraordinary national coalition of students, middle class consumers, 
trade unionists, religious groups, and minorities.
  Sadly, Cesar Chavez passed away in his sleep on April 23, 1993. He 
was laid to rest in a rose garden at the foot of a hill he often 
climbed to watch the sun rise. More than 50,000 people attended his 
funeral services in the small town of Delano, California.
  Cesar Chavez--a common man with an uncommon vision for humankind--
stood for equality, justice, and dignity for all Americans. His motto, 
``si se puede,'' yes we can, embodies the uncommon and invaluable 
legacy he left for the world's benefit. His ecumenical principles 
remain relevant and inspiring today for all Americans.

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