God Help Us to Be Men

“Wherever the poor sweat in the vineyards, wherever workers struggle in silence and hardship, wherever their families long for decent housing and heath care and education, there Cesar lives,”

Joseph P. Kennedy, II

March 30, 2005

In May of 2001, when I left the San Jose Mercury News in San Jose, California, I decided to travel to southern California via the pacific coast highway. As I passed by the fertile agricultural areas, I was mesmerized by the number of trucks and farm workers that I saw along the way. The fields seemed to be filled with hundreds of workers all wearing their long sleeved shirts and big oversized hats hoping to protect themselves from the hot midday California sun.

Seeing the workers bend down to pick the fruits and vegetables over and over again, brought back memories of my time working in the cotton fields during the summers of the mid to late 1960’s. The pay was lousy ($8 per day if we were lucky), and the work was back breaking. We would leave the house when it was still dark and return at about 6:30 or 7 that evening. About the only upside to the day were the good friendships that were formed and the memories made that we still talk about to this day.

As I drove along towards the LA area, thoughts of Cesar Chavez entered my mind and I began to drift back to the late 60’s and early 70’s when the United Farm Workers union was established. It was also during the time of the Civil Rights movement, the Raza Unida Party, and the Chicano movement. And if we were socially conscious enough to listen and to learn, we witnessed our Mexican American history being played out right before our very eyes.

I recalled the stories that my Tía Lidia had shared with me about her time spent with Cesar, as she liked to call him, when her and her husband Alfonso marched with him in the fields of California and Arizona. I recalled the pictures that she showed me of the farm workers by the side of the roads carrying their signs that loudly proclaimed their cries of “Si se Puede”!

In fact, on of my prized possessions is a letter she gave me written to them and personally signed by Cesar Chavez in which he thanks them for their dedication and hard work ...