Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: It’s time to honor Cesar Chavez

Saturday, Sept. 9, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan, executive editor of the Sun, is also publisher of the Henderson Home News, where this column first appeared as One Man's View.

HENDERSON, Nevada's second largest city, continues to expand and grow in numbers. It's a city that has gained national recognition for parks, recreation and a good environment for raising a family. As more streets and avenues are built, allow me to suggest one be named after a great American who did so much for the working families of our country.

Cesar Chavez has been dead for seven years but the work he did to bring attention to the needs of migrant farm workers lives on in the minds of decent Americans. I know my children should be able to recall Chavez because of the years we didn't have grapes on the table as a sign of support for him and his followers.

In the 1960s our family joined thousands of other families that quit buying table grapes in an attempt to get the growers attention and encourage them to sit down with Chavez and the United Farm Workers to improve the horrible field working conditions. Long hours, small pay, pesticides on fruits and vegetables, few toilets, and unhealthy camp living conditions with little medical, educational or social support was the lifestyle of the field workers. Their willingness to tolerate such conditions allowed for bigger grower profits and cheap table food for the rest of us.

Something had to be done if ours was to remain a civilized society. Chavez, born in Yuma, Ariz., who never graduated from high school but attended 65 elementary schools when working in the fields, became the answer.

During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy and upon returning to the fields determined that a strong voice was needed to save the abused migrant workers and the soul of our society. In 1965 he called for a strike and a boycott to protest table-grape growers who refused to sign union contracts. It took five years of strikes and the personal fasting of Chavez, but by 1970 most growers had signed a contract.

Chavez, by his own sacrifices, gave hope to the field workers. In the long run he must be credited with being the father of California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 and the creation of that state's Agricultural Labor Relations Board. These accomplishments didn't keep him from continuing the struggle to improve field-working conditions. In 1988, still fighting the threat of pesticides, he fasted for 36 days and lost 33 pounds from his normal body weight of 165 pounds. This nonviolent leader held up Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi as his heroes. His power came from leading by example and never expecting his followers to do anything he was unwilling to do. Not only did he have a positive effect on field working conditions in California his influence was also felt strongly in his native Arizona, Texas, Washington and Florida.

One of the large numbers of Hispanics who helped build Henderson and Southern Nevada with their sweat and community participation, Benny Medina, was with Chavez a week before he died in San Luis, Ariz. Now retired and living in New Mexico, Medina still speaks with pride of the positive influence Chavez had upon the young Latinos living in Victory Village and Carver Park 35 and 40 years ago.

Yes, Cesar Chavez also had a positive impact on the people of Nevada. An avenue, street or road with his name would sound just right in a city with such a strong Hispanic heritage.