Hundreds of labor union members marched through downtown San Diego today to celebrate Cesar Chavez Day.
The annual Cesar Chavez Day March has become the largest of the year for the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, according to the umbrella organization that represents the region's unions.
Marchers rallied at Spanish Landing Park, then marched to Lindbergh Field and around county and state buildings before winding up on the Community Concourse next to City Hall.
Chavez, who championed the rights of farm workers in California and other states, would have turned 86 years old Sunday.
"He was an incredibly committed person, but he did it with an aura — like maybe Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela — of a calmness, of sweetness, of love that just brought people together," San Diego Mayor Bob Filner told CBS8.
Chavez died in 1993.
San Diego Unified School District trustee Richard Barrera and Labor Council CEO Lorena Gonzalez, who is running for the open Assembly seat in the southern part of San Diego County, also took part in the march.
