CESAR CHAVEZ WAS A “CHAMPION OF MEN”
Cesar Chavez
San Francisco, CA– As a child growing up in this beautiful thing known as the City, my
UFW Leaflet
mind took me back in time as today’s release of the film on Cesar Chavez churned up memories. I was cutting my teeth with the James Lick Skipper yearbook circa 1971. My late-great stepfather Michael Ramirez, his sister Lorraine Ramirez was heavily involved in the United Farm Workers Union movement and Cesar Chavez.
CHAVEZ MOVIE DEBUTS TONIGHT
For the cause, Cesar had extended fasts that gained national attention. When labor guys in the 70s weren’t getting arrested, you knew your voice wasn’t getting heard. The life of Cesar would be legendary if it were not real. Back in the day, UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta and Lorraine were putting in like 20 hour days at rallies, picketing grocery stores who sold non-union produce, organizing demonstrations and purring out a newspaper titled, El Malcriado: The Voice of the Farm Worker.
ABUSE OF FARM LABORERS CONTINUES TODAY
And before you think that abusing Farm Workers is over, some three years ago a pregnant 30-year old woman was forced to endure seven hours of 90+ degree weather with, hold on, no thermos refill of water and no shade. She collapsed and died on a Northern California farm. Adding insult to death, the guys running the largely immigrant crew of workers, after denying the workers water, wanted them to finish out the shift and ignore the dead body.
MOVIE & MOVEMENT IMPORTANT TO ALL AMERICANS
The aforementioned charges were not disputed in court papers and still the creeps got off with a small fine and no criminal charges. Unlike 1970, the corporate media stayed away from this as it got legs on Public Radio.
UNION DOWNFALL BROUGHT DOWNFALL OF MIDDLE CLASS
It doesn’t take a psychic to realize that when the Unions lost their clout, so did the American middle class worker. A Retail Clerk in the 70s could raise a family of four on her salary alone. Today that same job, which is Union, started off at $8.50 an hour a short time ago. With the fall of the Unions went the American dream for so many and that’s not speculation as it is bore out by cold hard facts.
FOLDED PAPERS LONG BEFORE WRITING
Being both a paperboy and street vender for several years for both the SF Chronicle and SF Examiner, I could fold. Lorraine knew it and used to invite my mother over precisely at the times El Malcriado was hot off the press and needed folding. While they shared wine, I folded for two hours and got like $2.00. Enjoy the movie and the history.
Pedro Fernandez