LOS ANGELES – State offices, including the Department of Motor Vehicles and Los Angeles Superior Courts, are closed Friday in observance of Cesar Chavez Day.
Federal offices and services, including the U.S. Postal Service, are open.
Then-Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation in 2000 creating the state holiday honoring the late labor leader who’s credited with improving work and quality-of-life conditions for immigrant farm workers in Central California.
Chavez, an advocate of nonviolence, is remembered for spearheading a grape boycott in 1965 that went nationwide in 1968 and lasted until 1978, resulting in higher wages for farm workers and focusing national attention on their plight.
Born March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona, Chavez dropped out of school after the eighth grade to help support his family by joining them in the fields as a migrant farm worker, witnessing the many adversities migrant workers faced daily.
Chavez joined the Latino civil rights Community Service Organization in 1952, urging Latinos to register to vote.
In 1962, he joined Dolores Huerta in co-founding the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.
Chavez and the UFW played an instrumental role in the passage of the California Agricultural 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.
“Californians of every generation and background continue to be inspired by the leadership of Cesar Chavez,” Gov. Jerry Brown wrote in his proclamation declaring Friday Cesar Chavez Day. “On this anniversary of his birth, I ask all Californians to join me in continuing to build on his dream of a world where all workers are treated with dignity and respect.”
Brown signed the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act into law.
Chavez died in 1993 at age 66.
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callingitasitis says
In honor of an American and a naval veteran (of Mexican descent) born in Yuma Arizona who worked hard for those who worked in extreme conditions in our nation agriculture farms. When labor unions leaders worked through hard times for its people for better work conditions and pay.
Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.
Theodore Roosevelt
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
Bob says
WELCOME TO MEXIFORNIA!
Tim Scott says
You do realize that “California” is ALREADY named in Spanish, right? Your ridiculous narrative doesn’t require some made up non-word.
Karl says
Bob, are you and admin over at the Voice on Facebook? If not, you should be.
Ruby says
When Southern California inevitably cedes the United States, the cinco de Mayo and the 31st of March will be Unidos Mexifornia’s first holidays, of national inebriation, where the entire sanctuary city drink themselves into a stuper, and run each other over, in their jalopies –
William says
Hey, Rudy
Do you ever complain about sending your California federal tax dollars to shore up those backward red states that suck up more money from D.C. than they pay in taxes? Do ya?
California is the 6th largest economy on the planet. I guess it’s just too much for y’all.