S1: Hey there , San Diego. It's Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hindman. On today's show , Cesar Chavez Day is now Farm Workers Day. The conversation on what the holiday means and how it's changed. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Today's officially Farm workers Day in California. Last week , Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill to rename the holiday from Cesar Chavez Day following allegations of rape and sexual abuse by the late labor leader. Here in San Diego , where Chicanos have long fought for civil rights and representation , many are grappling with the allegations against Chavez , and my colleague Katie Hyson sat down with two Chicano leaders to talk about more about that and how they're feeling. And Katie joins me now. She's KPBS racial justice and social equity. Reporter Katie , welcome.
S2: Hi , Andrew.
S1: Thanks for joining us today. So you spoke with these two leaders to get a sense of , you know , how they're processing these allegations.
S2: And I set out with a really simple goal for the story of just giving them space to talk and to share as much as they wanted and not more.
S1: And you mentioned , you know , kind of leaving the space there because there's it's only these allegations came about just a couple of weeks ago. So it's still fresh in many , many people's minds. You sat down with one of the leaders you sit down with was Maria Figueroa , leader in local Chicano Latino organizations.
S2: It's a lot of emotions all at once. I asked her about the moment she first heard the news , and here's how she described it.
S3: That moment was was difficult , you know. I think it still is confusing , you know , very confusing concerning. It's just , I don't know , I just feel like without words.
S1: So I was still still processing a lot there. Another thing she talked about this idea of holding up heroes as a means for survival. Tell me more about what she was talking about there.
S2: Yeah , so here's how she started speaking about that.
S3: Ultimately , we need to question like why we why we uphold particular heroes and icons. And I think we do so because colonialism and genocide did a number on us. Right ? It attempted to erase us.
S2: Part of the strategy and really the tragedy of colonizing is the stamping out of the culture that a group is trying to conquer , and Figueroa described how elevating icons like Chavez was a way to survive that erasure. Because we live in a society that tells history in that way , in these peak moments and these almost larger than life historical figures. And so for Chicano people to have their stake in the narrative , they put forward their own figures , including Chavez , and they could take up space that way , not just culturally , but physically , through murals and statues and street names. She said it was a way of saying , aqui estamos y no nos vamos. You know we're here and we're not going anywhere. But that that should never happen at the expense of children and women.
S1: Earlier we heard Maria kind of talking about the need for space and , you know , time more to process this. How does she feel about how fast renaming efforts have have been in the last two weeks.
S2: Yeah , she said. People are going to do what they need to do to respond to this situation. So she was not saying that it's wrong how fast this has been happening , but that there is a grief over this loss of representation that Chicano people fought so hard and so long for , and that as fast as the renaming are happening , the community's processing is slow. She talked about Chicano culture being different , and she thinks they need time for pause and reflection , and that that's not to disregard the survivors , but to figure out what it looks like to really honor their stories , and that that's going to take longer than a week to figure out.
S1: You also spoke with Monica Hernandez with the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center. Did she share many of the concerns that Maria shared with you ? Yes.
S2: She was very clear that they stand with the survivors , but she also explained that processing is going to take time. Here's what she said.
S4: Because we take the time to to try and think collectively. That's why , you know , it's a slower process. And particularly in this instance , there are going to be long term wide range implications for our community. And that's why we feel the need for us to move in a very nuanced kind of way. Mhm.
S1: So how does you know pressure brought on by the media , by politicians influence , that ability to kind of slow down and process things. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Modern media is definitely not built for that kind of slow processing. And she said something very powerful about that. And I'd like to just let her words speak for themselves. So here's what she said. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. We're being asked to sit in front of a camera , right , to to think out loud things that we are still trying to process internally. Right. That our conversations that I haven't even had the time to have with myself because particularly with communities that go through so many things that , you know , we've experienced so much trauma where marginalized , underrepresented on a day to day , we are already existing in a level of like survival mode. And then we have these moments of crisis where we're expected to drop everything to address that.
S1: Wow , that's really powerful insight. I mean , obviously , Katie , this is really just kind of starting to process this and talk more about it.
S2:
S1: She covers racial justice and social equity here at KPBS. Katie , thanks so much.
S2: Thank you.
S1: Cesar Chavez also has roots in the Imperial Valley city of Brawley , where he's been celebrated as a hometown hero for decades. KPBS reporter Corey Suzuki went to Brawley to learn more.
S5: As allegations of rape and sexual abuse against American civil rights icon Cesar Chavez emerged two weeks ago. Max Avilés didn't hesitate. Reyes is the son of Mexican-American farmworkers and the organizer of Bromley's annual Cesar Chavez Day march. The very next day , he removed Chavez's name from the event on Facebook , renaming it the El Movimiento March.
S6: Sadness like a betrayal hurt. Those are the feelings I had because we had placed this man and such a pedestal.
S5: The allegations against Chavez , which are continuing to shake California , have been especially painful for Brawley , the farming community where Chavez went to middle school and where his wife was born. A painting of Chavez sits on the east wall of the school. He attended , Miguel Hidalgo Elementary , and the city has a central street named after him. City officials say they're looking at options for renaming it. Reyes says the name has to come down. He says the farmworkers rights movement is not a cult unwilling to see their leaders flaws , protecting them at all costs.
S6: You can't just say he didn't exist. I mean , but we'll tell the truth.
S5: The Brawley City Council could discuss renaming Cesar Chavez Street as early as next week. Corey Suzuki , KPBS news.
S1: These stories are a few examples of how people have been processing the allegations against an icon of civil rights and worker rights , but it's also a reminder that the farm workers movement is bigger than any one person , and the history of that movement does not begin or end with Chavez. Last week , meditation host Jade Hindman sat down with Veronica martinez Matsuda. She's a professor at UC San Diego. They talked about that history and how to teach about it moving forward. Here's part of that conversation.
S7: There are so many questions here. But before we do , I really want you to paint the picture for us of what it was like for farm workers in the 30s and 40s , because I know your research focuses on that time period and decades before the Delano grape strike , too. I mean , your book , Migrant Citizenship , it focuses on the farm labor camp program established by the New Deal.
S8: People had written about it. There was already emerging biographies on many of the leaders of the UFW. And so for me , I sort of thought earlier and was thinking to what our , you know , just really dynamic movements that existed while before the UFW comes into the picture of farmworker movements fighting for what are essentially human rights , because these were sort of basic needs , right ? Access to quality , um , housing and regular food and health care when needed , especially in working in such dangerous conditions. And so , um , by the time I'm kind of writing about workers in the 30s and 40s , um , just to give you an example , we've already had the organizing of unions affiliated , for instance , with the Industrial Workers of the world and the early 1900s , 19 teens , um , the Wobblies , that some of your listeners might know them had formed as an example , the Agricultural Workers Organization by 1915 , and it existed across the Great Plains , but eventually made its way west and had really effective organizing in places like the Yakima Valley and somewhat in California. After that , in the early 1930s , you get a lot of really great unions that are primarily affiliating with the Congress of Industrial Organizations , with the CIO. And one of the more well-known ones , for instance , is the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union , who leads some really militant action across the San Joaquin Valley. I often talk about the 1933 cotton strike , for instance , as an example of that , like community based organizing that existed. So , you know , by the time the UFW comes into the picture , they're building off this tradition and the foundation established by many of these communities in even mutual aid societies that they had formed in terms of how to organize , how to take action , and doing so under what were previously even more violent and intimidating situations.
S7: Yeah , and break that down for me. How did those organizing efforts eventually intersect with what we saw during the 60s , with union mergers and the strikes ? Yeah.
S9: Well , I'll give you one example.
S8: So some people know that Cesar Chavez and Dolores would get some of their organizing training as part of the community service organization that was led by Fred Ross at the time. So part of what Fred Ross was teaching , one of the kind of strategies was these House meetings. And so he talked about meeting people kind of where they're at. Right. And this quite literally took place in people's homes. And so how do you kind of build organization from that family level ? I mean , I think that's really important. Well , that couldn't have been as effective if not for those kind of family based , community based strategies that these workers already participated in. And so I mentioned those mutual aid communities as one example. But their religious communities , you know , this is how those places often operated. I mean , being especially excluded from broader legislation and even unions around labor protections , that's how families knew how to come together , how to affect change , how to build , um , kind of broader. Uh , yeah. Action. And so they were effective because people already recognize that as part of their strategies of that , if that makes sense. They , you know , especially in farm labor. But not only they knew that collective strategy , they understood that collective strategy , even if it wasn't kind of under a formal union. Right.
S7: Right. You know , the five year Delano grape strike was organized primarily by Filipino American leader Larry Italian. Shortly after , Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez joined in a merger that formed the United Farm Workers , or UFW , and I actually had the honor of speaking with Dolores Huerta two years ago. Here's what she said about the strike.
S10: We were able to get 17 million people not to buy grapes , and that brought the growers to the table to negotiate , because the whole idea of organizing poor people , a low income people , is that you have to convince people that they have power. If they come together , they work together , and they use their political will by getting people registered to vote , turning them out to vote , putting pressure on the politicians and introducing legislation that that's the way you win.
S7: So tell me , what did that movement do for farm workers ? Yeah.
S8: So one of the ways I like to teach , uh , the Delano grape strike as kind of this catalyst moment. Right. This turning point is to talk about it less as a labor movement and more as a cause. In fact , I use some of the language that the UFW eventually , um , kind of extends , which is la causa. Right. And , uh , some there's been a lot of discussion , for example , in , uh , historians have written so much about how it starts with the strike and then the movement eventually extends so that , you know , it's bringing in the the college sort of student movement. It's bringing in the religious movement. You know , that's happening at the same time. And and so I tell students , you know , you have to think of this less as a labor action and more of a social justice moment. It's la causa and the effectiveness of drawing this kind of wide solidarity , but also , uh , in establishing a boycott that would draw in the mainstream as consumers , including middle class Consumers , um , makes it so effective , right ? And , um , in fact , in talking about the current allegations and the current news , uh , I was joking among friends who were saying , you know , to this day , I'm not even sure if I can eat grapes. Like , that's something that the collective memory around this one strike is so important , right ? Um , that to this day , people sort of remember and recall that over generations. Um , and I think it's because of that , it's because it became a broader movement that certainly won labor gains , favorable contracts with grape growers , you know , for the first time , recognizing a union , um , bargaining on behalf of workers , pay increases and so forth. But it also paved the way for something much bigger that this kind of mainstream solidarity and consumer activism could , in fact , drive labor change. And , you know , that the most marginalized workers could kind of , uh , win these big gains was notable , and I think it has a lasting legacy that we see in organizations even today , like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
S7:
S8: Um , and and it's been about their fight alongside farm workers who made the union effective. And so I'm happy to see that there's a lot of increased attention to the people that made the UFW write to those families who came together in the House meetings and elsewhere , and about their broader demand for , again , labor and human rights. And I don't see a reason to kind of change that narrative. You know , if you if you continue to really center it around the people and the conditions and the actions , then it's still a positive history that is worthy of discussion.
S1: That was Midday Edition host Jade Heineman speaking with Professor Veronica martinez Matsuda.
S7: That's our show for today.
S11: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
