Candlelight vigil held to honor union leader

By MAURICE O. NDOLE

More than 40 people attended a candlelight vigil to honor the legacy of civil rights activist Cesar Chavez at the Free Speech area Friday night.

The audience carrying lit candles, and sitting in a circle, listened as speaker Gloria Hernandez spoke about her experience in the farm workers’ movement, saying they taught her to be a hard worker. She likened the struggles of immigrants today to the struggle of the farm workers in the 1970s.

Hernandez, a patient’s rights advocate and one of the organizers of the event, described Chavez as a great leader who championed the rights of the poor. She said Chavez taught the farm workers to get involved in the community and better themselves through education.

“He got us from the fields to the universities,” Hernandez said.

Chavez, the son of immigrant laborers, was a union organizer and social activist of the 1960s. He founded the National Farm Workers Association and later the United Farm Workers to fight for the rights of farm workers who were oppressed by low wages and bad working conditions.

Fresno State professor Sudarshan Kapoor said Cesar Chavez Day was a day of service and celebrating justice.

“Since his work (with the farmers union), many things have changed, but a lot more still needs to done,” Kapoor said. “That is why we observe these days.”

Kapoor said Chavez, just like Martin Luther King Jr., fought for justice and the rights of the poor successfully in a non-violent way. He urged people to emulate their examples.

Among the highlights of the day was entertainment from Angel Noriega, a student from Bullard High School who sang liberation and farm worker songs while playing the guitar.

The audience stood and joined hands, singing and swaying from side to side while Noriega sung several selections, which included the famous struggle song, “We Shall Overcome.”

Chavez is widely remembered for his five-year nonviolent boycott against California grape growers, protesting poor working conditions and the use of pesticides harmful to farm workers.

In August 1994, President Bill Clinton posthumously honored Chavez with The Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation’s highest civilian awards.

Chavez was born in March 31, 1927. He died April 23, 1993.

He would have turned 78 Thursday.