The County and City of Los Angeles will commemorate Cesar Chavez Day this Monday, a date when the Board of Overseers encourages the public to actively participate “in service to our communities in honor of his memory.”
“I am mindful of the added weight that the word ‘service’ carries today as we proclaim Caesar Chavez Day,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said Tuesday after the board of directors voted 5-0 to approve his motion proclaiming Monday Caesar Chavez Day. .
“César Chávez understood better than anyone what it means to be of service to others. He fought, organized and empowered, all to recognize the dignity that agricultural workers do every day in the fields. It is this spirit that has guided my career in the public service.
Los Angeles County Council Supervisor Hilda Solis filed a petition Tuesday to proclaim March 27, 2023, as Cesar Chavez Day throughout the county. The motion was approved at a meeting on Tuesday.
“I ask Angelenos to continue to serve others and participate in voluntary efforts to commemorate the legacy of César Chávez. May the slogan ‘Sí, se puede’, which means ‘Yes, we can’, continue to inspire us to drive change”.
City and county offices and libraries will be closed on Monday, but schools will be open.
They will be closed on Friday for the official celebration of César Chávez Day, which falls on the anniversary of his birth. The city and county usually observe César Chávez Day on the Friday or Monday before his birthday to create a three-day weekend.
Who was Caesar Chavez?
Chávez co-founded the National Association of Agricultural Workers in 1962 with Dolores Huerta. The union merged in 1965 with the Farm Workers Organizing Committee to form the UFW.
Chávez, an advocate of nonviolence, is best known for spearheading a 1965 grape boycott that spread nationwide in 1968 and lasted until 1978, resulting in salaries higher for agricultural workers and focusing attention on the nation in its predicament.
Chavez and the UFW were instrumental in passing the California Farm Labor Relations Act in 1975, which made California the first state to give farm workers the right to seek union representation. and bargain collectively within an established legal framework.
Born March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona, Chávez dropped out of school after eighth grade to help support his family by joining them in the fields as a migrant farm worker, witnessing the many hardships these workers face. are faced with on a daily basis. .
Chávez died in 1993 at the age of 66.