Remembering Cesar Chavez and La Paz

Driving into the Tehachapi Mountains, the harsh terrain drew us in as we entered the protected valley. Rugged peaks quickly turned to a beautiful awe as we approached our destination-the National Chavez Center, La Paz.

Already anticipating seeing the home and memorial of the great humanitarian and activist Cesar Chavez, we quickly realized that we were heading in a direction of great vision and insight in the minds of two of the greatest humanitarians in the world today.

Traveling with two other journalists, we headed to La Paz to cover a portion of March Migrante VII, an annual event held by the Border Angels and its founder, Enrique Morones. Morones has devoted his life to humane immigration reform and bringing awareness to the thousands of immigrants that die in their pursuit to find a better life.

This year’s theme was “Walking with Cesar,” with the migrating group of marchers hitting pivotal places that shaped the course of Cesar Chavez’ movement in creating awareness to the struggles of migrant farm workers. La Paz was just one stop in its 10-day journey that took them from the American/Mexican border to the state capitol in Sacramento and back.

On assignment for The Sun newspaper at Southwestern College, Chula Vista, California, we fully expected to get there, get the story and return home as quickly as possible the next day. All that changed as soon as we arrived and saw the beauty of La Paz.

With me on this adventure were Serina Duarte and Omar Villalpando. Serina and I have been “partners in crime” for a couple of years, often working together on projects and assignments. Omar, new to The Sun staff, volunteered to go along. We quickly gained a trio of friendship on our ride up there and what we experienced together created even a stronger bond.

We arrived earlier than the marchers did and as we stepped out of the car and headed into the heart of the Chavez Center. The grounds and surrounding mountains were spectacular as we spread out taking pictures of everything we saw. Some of it was for practice, but we all wanted to capture the spirit of La Paz. It had already hit us heavy and drew inspiration from everything we saw. We were anxious for Morones and his travelers to join us, and after about an hour, they started trickling in. Many came in the caravan from Los Angeles and others joined the group at La Paz.

Although we were not “scheduled” to meet with him until the next morning, we were ecstatic when Paul Chavez, son of Cesar and president of the National Chavez Center joined us. He spent the afternoon with us, rejoined us at breakfast and stayed until we all left mid afternoon the next day. He opened his arms, his heart and his home to all of us there and after meeting with Paul, I only wish I could have met his father.

Every piece of La Paz has a story behind it and a future ahead of it. In spending time with Paul Chavez, he shared the heart and soul of his father’s cause, the history of the National Cesar Chavez Center and his own visionary plans for its future.

Spending the night with Enrique Morones, members of the Border Angels and people from California, Texas, Guatemala and Mexico was a cultural education and everyone treated us from the beginning as part of the family, not as reporters looking from the outside in.

The slideshow is only a glimpse of the beauty that lies within La Paz.

They say a reporter should never be part of the story, but I think that it is safe to say, good or bad, the story becomes a part of the journalist.

La Paz, Marcha Migrante VII

By: Albert Fulcher, Senior Staff Writer

Published: Monday, February 27th, 2012 at 10:56 pm

Nestled in the Tehachapi Mountains, between San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert, rugged, peaks and great oak stand guard, protecting a sacred plot of land. In this safe haven stands a simple wooden cross, with an iron crucifix behind a small granite headstone. Saint Francis of Assisi and La Virgen de Guadalupe stand on each end of a consecrated rose garden in Nuestra Senora Reina de La Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace), the home and burial site of Cesar Chavez, one of America’s great humanitarian activists of the 20th century.

In the midst of a mountain chain that almost divided the state into Northern California and Southern California twice, Cesar Chavez started a revolution that united people to fight for the rights of the migrant farm workers. His bold but nonviolent fight for social change, influenced by his deep faith in God and examples of Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he fought this fight with boycotts, fasts, marches and strikes—and thousands of people joined his crusade. Cries of ¡Si Se Puede! and ¡Huelga! carried loudly across the nation’s streets all the way to Washington. He became the first American to found a successful farm workers union achieving bargaining power with growers in 1962, the National Farm Workers Association (now the United Farm Workers of America.)

His mortal remains lie at rest in La Paz, but his cause lives on in the National Chavez Center. His son, Paul F. Chavez, president, opened its doors and homes to Marcha Migrante VII travelers. This year, taking “A Walk with Cesar,” marchers celebrated the 50th year of service of the United Farm Workers following its footsteps into some of the pivotal and painful events and struggles of the past. Paul Chavez said after his father’s death that La Paz began to deteriorate with many projects started but unfinished. Promising his mother they would remain, he said they had to start thinking about the next 50 years. After several failed attempts, they found someone to work with to create a master plan with a vision of the future with his father’s cause at the forefront.

“The easy part was my father’s gravesite,” he said. “That is one thing that will never change. It is a two-person Catholic graveyard, consecrated by the church.”

Chavez said creating an atmosphere of remembrance of his father’s cause and educating people on the struggles of the migrant worker became the vision for the Chavez Center, targeting much of the education to children.

“Kids, they don’t know where the food comes from, they think it comes from the supermarket,” he said. “They don’t know that there are immigrants working hard every day under terrible conditions and being taken advantage of that labor to bring food to their tables. We use my father’s legacy to tell their stories.”

He said his father really believed migrant farmers could build their own union, be strong, independent and represent themselves fairly and peacefully.

“The poorest of the poor and the least educated of society could take on the biggest and most powerful industry and could beat them,” he said. “He really believed it. He saw migrant farm workers from San Ysidro to the Napa Valley coming here to be educated with the skills to negotiate as a collective bargaining unit and how to do arbitration.”

Set on a sprawling 187 acres, La Paz was a humble home for Cesar Chavez for more than 25 years, a respite from the battles in the fields and cities and a place to gather to unite for the cause. Paul Chavez took the group to the center’s newest facility, Villa La Paz.

Once a sanitarium and tuberculosis facility, the children’s hospital is now home to a state-of-the-art conference and educational center. Paul Chavez said this is just the beginning of a vision to bring in housing, gardens and facilities to accommodate people that travel to La Paz, added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 2010. He said he waits for a call from Washington that declares the site as a national historical landmark and possibly an addition to the National Park System.

Paul Chavez said though the name has changed, he would always remember the place he grew up as “Nuestra Senora Reina de La Paz, Our Lady Queen of Peace Educational Center, that is the name my father gave this place,” he said.

The queen of peace smiles beatifically at the peaceful place of rest for a humble American giant. La Paz is more than the name of a retreat, it was the strategy and guide for a loud but peaceful human rights revolution.

http://www.theswcsun.com/2012/02/27/backpage-la-paz/

Border Angels March Recalls Chavez

ALBERT H. FULCHER/ STAFF A BLESSING — Mark Valdez receives a blessing from Father Dermot Rodgers after his 10-day fast that ended at the beach of Borderfield State Park.

By: Albert H. Fulcher, Senior Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 9:33 pm

Exhausted after fasting and traveling for 10 days, Mark Valdez took the last weary steps towards the beach at Border Field State Park. He was met there by Father Dermot Rodgers, who blessed him for his prayers and dedication. Rodgers broke bread with Valdez, an historic echo of 1968 when presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy met Cesar Chavez to break bread with him after a 25-day fast in protest of the poor treatment of migrant workers.

“My fast is two-fold,” said Valdez, a member of the Border Angels’ board of directors. “First, in memory of Cesar’s cause and sacrifices that brings me closer to God. Secondly, to experience what migrants experience every day trying to get across the border, many of them losing their lives.”

Marcha Migrante VII celebrated the 50th anniversary of the United Farmers Workers, founded by Cesar Chavez in 1962. Each day of travel was a tribute to his 10 core principles reflected in its theme, “Walk with Cesar.” Chavez’s principles were determination, acceptance of people, celebrating community, respect for live and environment, non-violence, helping the most needy, knowledge, sacrifice, service to others and innovation.

“This park is a sacred park,” said Border Angels founder Enrique Morones. “This is home to Friendship Park where we normally end our journey. The idea was to have a friendship between both countries.”

Beginning Feb. 2, at Cesar Chavez Park, marchers enjoyed a sendoff by the Hummingbird Aztec Dancers. Next was the drive to Holtville Cemetery, a somber graveyard of more than 700 unidentified migrants.

“The names on some of the crosses you carry are some of the names of some of the 10,000 people that have died crossing the border since October 1994,” said Morones.

In Yuma they saw where Cesar Chavez was born and the remains of the small adobe home where he grew up. They rumbled to Coachella to hear California Assembly man Manual Perez announce a three-bill package to assist communities that rely on the migrant work force. On the way to Los Angeles, marchers protested in front of an INS detention facility. That evening they rallied in Plaza Mexico, where El Pueblo Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula was founded. Morones said they spent a wonderful evening in Boyle Heights at the theater of iconic Latina playwright Josephina Lopez. After watching her production of “King of the Desert,” Lopez put the group up for the night at Casa 0101 Theatre.

During a day of fasting the group journeyed to the Cesar Chavez Center in La Paz, high in the Tehachapi Mountains (see Back Page.)

“This is a magical place, an historic place and also a sad place,” said Morones. “Sad only because Cesar is buried here. But Cesar is not gone, he’s with us and he will always be with us.”

Warm rooms and beds awaited 25 marchers, but several stayed up late painting crosses for their next day’s journey to 40 Acres, the place Chavez planned his most momentous initiatives, of including the 1970 signing of the historic UFW labor contract. His son, Paul Chavez, president of the Cesar Chavez Center, said the center exists to fight for humane treatment of immigrants.

“(Latinos) have always answered the call to duty,” he said. “We’ve done the (worst) jobs, worked the hardest and we are not recognized for it. So let’s do it. Not so much on behalf of my dad, but we are going to do it on behalf of the larger Latino community.”

Moving on to Modesto, Morones said friends from El Concilio help the needy every day and do amazing work.

“We saw the work firsthand, from educating youth to visiting farm workers,” he said. “The work is exemplary and you can see the joy and the pride of the Concilio workers in the love they demonstrate.”

Many marchers headed to Sacramento and did interviews with local and international media. Morones visited offices of state legislators to seek humane immigration reform.

Marchers met in Escondido to support day laborers mistreated by the city’s law enforcement. Escondido has been dubbed “Little Arizona” by human rights groups.

Back home on the beach in the corner of the U.S., Morones gave thanks for everybody that participated in the march.

“There is so much work to do,” said Morones.

Chavez lessons continue.

http://www.theswcsun.com/2012/02/28/border-angels-march-recalls-chavez/