CSU Stanislaus Hosts 16th Annual César E. Chávez Celebration

Campus community and the public invited to participate

WHEN: Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Program runs from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. preceded by entertainment at 5 p.m.

WHERE: CSU Stanislaus Event Center and Quad

DETAILS:

• The free event is open to the public
• Entertainment begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Quad and features dancers from Balet Folclórico, Los Falcones, Waterford After-School, and Osborne Elementary
• Public march based on events in César E. Chávez’s life will start at 5:45 p.m. in the Quad and end at the Event Center, just prior to the main program. The march will be led by the student theater club, Teatro Los Hijos del Campo.
• Keynote speaker is Anna Caballero, former Assemblywoman having served the 28th Assembly district with headquarters in Salinas, California. Before politics, as an attorney, Ms. Caballero represented striking farm workers and fought side by side with unions to prevent plant closures.
• The César E. Chávez Poster Contest is a collaborative effort with the Stanislaus County Office of Education.  The winners for the junior high and high school divisions will be recognized and their entries displayed.
• Stanislaus County AmeriCorps Afterschool Program will have games and activities on display based on Cesar Chavez’s core values; Non-violence, Respect for Life, Determination, and Accept all People.

BACKGROUND: César Estrada Chávez, a farm worker himself, organized tens of thousands of workers to the shout of ¡Huelga! in the 1960s and 1970s. Having studied the writings of St. Francis of Assisi and the philosophy of Mahatma Ghandi, Chávez demanded of his members a strict policy of nonviolence—even in the face of death threats, physical violence by growers and harassment by the police. His movement, known as La Causa, gained the support of religious and political leaders around the world. Against overwhelming odds and the opposition of some of the most powerful corporations in the country, the strike and boycott brought farm workers union representation and, ultimately, the revolutionary Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975. Chávez died in 1993 in the midst of a continuing struggle against the use of deadly pesticides in the fields where his beloved farm workers still toil.

California State University, Stanislaus, is a designated Hispanic-serving institution.