LULAC Honors Cesar Chavez Day by Urging Passage of Immigration Reform
April 1, 2010
Contact: Lizette Jenness Olmos, ljolmos@lulac.org, (202) 365-4553
President Barack Obama signed a proclamation declaring March 31st Cesar Chavez Day.
Washington, DC - The League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country, wants prompt action in passing Comprehensive Immigration Reform in honor of Civil Rights icon, Cesar Chavez.
“We honor his memory as a great humanitarian and a hero,” said LULAC National President Rosa Rosales. “We will continue to honor his legacy and it lives on not only for Latinos but for all Americans.”
“It was a great birthday gift for social justice from President Barack Obama,” said Dolores Huerta who was with President Barack Obama at the White House at the signing ceremony yesterday.
March 31st what would have been his 83rd birthday, LULAC celebrated Cesar’s legacy and the progress achieved by all those who stood with him.
Raised by a family of migrant farm workers, Cesar Chavez spent his youth moving across the American Southwest, working in fields and vineyards, and experiencing firsthand the hardships he would later crusade to abolish. At the time, farm workers were deeply impoverished and frequently exploited, exposed to very hazardous working conditions, and often denied clean drinking water, toilets, and other basic necessities. The union Cesar later founded with Dolores Huerta, the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), still addresses these issues today.
Cesar was willing to sacrifice his own life so that the union would continue and that violence was not used. Cesar fought for the rights of farm workers and children who worked in harsh conditions. LULAC will continue to fight for the children who work in the fields. We urge Congress to help improve conditions for them and pass the CARE Act.
"The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being, but it is also the most true to our nature," Cesar Chavez once said.
Few Americans have led this charge so tirelessly, and for so many, as Cesar Chavez. To this day, his rallying cry -- "Si se puede," or "Yes, we can" -- inspires hope and a spirit of possibility in people around the world. His movement strengthened our country, and his vision lives on in the organizers and people who defend the cause of justice for all.
LULAC has participated in marches across the country in honor of Cesar Chavez.
The League of United Latin American Citizens advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.