[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 164 (Thursday, November 5, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H12400-H12401]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CESAR E. CHAVEZ POST OFFICE
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules
and pass the bill (S. 748) to redesignate the facility of the United
States Postal Service located at 2777 Logan Avenue in San Diego,
California, as the ``Cesar E. Chavez Post Office''.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 748
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. CESAR E. CHAVEZ POST OFFICE.
(a) Redesignation.--The facility of the United States
Postal Service located at 2777 Logan Avenue in San Diego,
California, and known as the Southeastern Post Office, shall
be known and designated as the ``Cesar E. Chavez Post
Office''.
(b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation,
document, paper, or other record of the United States to the
facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be
a reference to the ``Cesar E. Chavez Post Office''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
California (Mrs. Davis) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California.
General Leave
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from California?
There was no objection.
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I now yield myself such time
as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to encourage passage of S. 748, a bill to
name a post office in the Logan Heights community of San Diego after
Cesar Chavez.
I originally introduced this bill, and I am very pleased to see
Senator Boxer's companion legislation move forward. Cesar Chavez was
born in Yuma, Arizona, in 1927, and he spent the majority of his life
advocating for safe working conditions and fair wages for migrant
workers.
This work of his was driven by a commitment to the principles of
nonviolence and community building, which has become his legacy. Cesar
Chavez means so much to my constituents in San Diego because he
embodied the spirit of our city, a big Navy town.
In addition to his community activism, Mr. Chavez served in the Navy,
was a World War II veteran, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal
of Freedom. Though most well-known for his work with farm workers, in
San Diego we know him best for his work improving conditions for the
men and women who worked on fishing boats and in the local canneries.
Let me tell you a little bit about Logan Heights. Logan Heights is
actually one of the oldest communities in the City of San Diego, and
it's a neighborhood rich in Hispanic heritage. Cesar Chavez is a hero
to the people of Logan Heights.
Every year the community holds a parade in honor of him on his
birthday, March 31, which is celebrated in California as a State
holiday. In fact, many young people devote themselves to service on
that day.
In 2003, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative
postage stamp to honor Cesar Chavez. A post office named in his honor
in our community would be a lasting tribute to his legacy and symbolic
of how one person can truly make a difference.
Please join me in recognizing an American hero and honoring the
community of Logan Heights.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, I have no speakers at this time, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my friend
and colleague from California (Ms. Zoe Lofgren).
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor to be
able to be here today to urge passage of this bill. Especially for
those of us who personally knew Cesar Chavez, it has a special meaning.
Every year in San Jose, on Cesar's birthday, we walk from Cesar
Chavez School on the east side to Cesar Chavez Plaza, which is right in
the heart of San Jose.
{time} 1500
Many of his relatives continue to live in San Jose, and in fact he
did his first organizing about eight blocks from my home in San Jose.
So it is with a great deal of pride that people in San Jose,
California, endorse and support the idea of this post office, even if
it is in San Diego, not in San Jose.
We would just like to say that it is an honor to be supportive of his
memory. We think of him often. He was a leader who brought people
together, and I will give just one example. We have the Mexican
Heritage Plaza in San Jose that sits on the site of the Safeway that
was the object of the first organizing effort on the grape boycott that
Cesar Chavez led. One of the major contributors to that plaza is
Safeway. So he managed actually to bring people who were in opposition
together and made for a more peaceful and a more just world.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this tribute to him.
Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, I reserve my time.
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3
minutes to my colleague and friend from San Diego, Mr. Filner, who, by
the way, actually represented this district and had carried similar
legislation.
Mr. FILNER. I thank Mrs. Davis. As she said, I represented this area,
Logan Heights, for 10 years in Congress. I want to thank her for
picking up the banner and doing something that the community really
wants and understands as a clear incentive and appropriate honor that
children in the area and other members will look to Cesar Chavez as
their hero.
When I was a graduate student at Cornell University studying history,
I had a colleague in the department of philosophy who was doing a Ph.D.
thesis on the nature of saintliness, what constitutes a saint
throughout history. The only American figure that he could find really
to exemplify his notion of saintliness was Cesar Chavez. And it was not
just because Chavez was an advocate of some of the most oppressed
members of our society, farm workers, seasonal workers, but in the
manner in which the he approached politics.
I marched with Cesar. I knew him. He approached politics with an air
of humility and contemplation, and, of course, nonviolence. The marches
he undertook, the boycotts, the hunger strikes, all were done in a
spirit that he was going to serve the people that he represented. He
was their servant, and he exemplifies the notion of being a servant to
those people in the most
[[Page H12401]]
calm, nonviolent way that you can imagine; and people around him, and
as his movement grew, were inspired by this incredible saintly manner
that he exemplified and practiced.
He was a politician, yes, and he organized the farm workers. He
organized boycotts. He had great victories for organizing and
unionizing farm workers in California and other parts of the Nation.
But it was the manner in which he did this, the calmness, the
nonviolence, the sense that he could take all of these indignities and
all the pressure and oppression, and respond in a positive way.
I think that is what influenced so many people, and why this honor
that Mrs. Davis is sponsoring today is so important, to name a post
office in the Logan Heights Community that really were his
constituents.
Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, just to close, I yield myself such time as
I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, there is a lot about Cesar Chavez that a lot of people
don't remember. The fact is that he was a decorated naval veteran.
Also, they don't remember that Cesar Chavez was probably a good, well,
20 years ahead of his time. In fact, Cesar Chavez in 1969 led the first
march on the Mexican border to protest illegal immigration. He was
accompanied by Walter Mondale and Ralph Abernathy at that time to alert
all to the problems that were equating with illegal immigration at that
time.
In fact, in 1979, Mr. Chavez, testifying before Congress, pointed out
that when farm workers strike and their strike is successful, the
employers go to Mexico and have unlimited, unrestricted use of illegal
immigrants to break our strikes. He also pointed out that the employers
used professional smugglers to recruit and transport human contraband
across the Mexican border specifically to break the union strikes of
the farm workers.
I think as we recognize him, we understand that history does repeat
itself. Years and years later, 20 years later, there were those raising
the issue of the impact on the working class by illegal immigration,
but first and foremost there was Cesar Chavez at the Mexican border
saying illegal immigration is hurting us more than anybody is willing
to admit and that the growers and the wealthy were benefiting from the
exploitation of illegal immigration. History will show that Cesar
Chavez was right and brave to stand up in 1969, and we should be doing
the same today.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, before closing, I include for
the Record this letter from the council president of San Diego, Mr. Ben
Hueso, who also is celebrating and encouraging us to support this post
office for Cesar Chavez in the community and recognizing what a hero he
is to the people.
The City of San Diego,
San Diego, CA, October 6, 2009.
Hon. Susan A. Davis,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Ms. Davis: Cesar Chavez is a hero in my community, so
I heartily endorse the proposal that the United States Postal
Service facility located at 2777 Logan Avenue, San Diego, be
renamed the Cesar E. Chavez Post Office in his honor. Though
he passed away in 1993, this union leader's accomplishments
continue to impact the quality of life for farm workers and
other laborers.
I am happy that you have sponsored H.R. 1820 to effect this
change, and that the bill has 15 House cosponsors. I am not
surprised that support for the redesignation of the post
office is widespread. This proposal was unanimously endorsed
by the Senate in August, cosponsored by Senator Barbara
Boxer.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to
support your effort to honor Cesar Chavez.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Hueso.
Council President.
Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to mention in closing, I mentioned the
fact that we have a holiday in California that young people devote to
service. I think what is so really engaging about that particular
holiday is that we have young people throughout the community that are
so eager to carry on his legacy. They do it throughout the community in
multiple ways, with the environment, educating others, educating their
peers and going into schools and preschool centers to really feel that
they are part of his legacy and to speak to the students.
To see the way that they really tell you so proudly of the
experiences that they have had in his memory is very, very appealing;
and I think it is continuing to make a difference in the lives of young
people in San Diego today.
With that, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting S. 748.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, S. 748.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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