School puts finishing touches on his statue
By Leonel Sanchez
San Diego Union-Tribune
March 29, 2003

Although Monday is the official California holiday honoring civil rights and labor leader Cesar Chavez, events celebrating his legacy began yesterday in San Diego.

Artists and students at King-Chavez charter school in Barrio Logan put the finishing touches on a life-size metal statue of Chavez, whose birthday became a state holiday in 2000.

The statue was to be installed near Cesar E. Chavez Parkway, the San Diego street renamed for him last year, in time for today's annual parade in his memory.

The parade, which begins at 1 p.m. at 28th Street and Imperial Avenue, will also be a peace march. Chavez would have approved, organizers said.

"This man was as good as Gandhi, as good as MLK. These guys don't die. They just get bigger and bigger," said Mario Torero, artist in residence at King-Chavez.

Chavez, who died in April 1993, was a strong believer in the principles of nonviolence practiced by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He organized fasts, boycotts, strikes and pilgrimages to bring attention to the plight of poor, mostly Latino, farm workers.

His granddaughter invoked Chavez's faith in nonviolent change during a speech at the San Diego Convention Center yesterday. His message is all the more crucial in a time of war with Iraq, she said.

"We're being surrounded by violence, which is why I think it is of utmost importance that we continue teaching our young people about Cesar's legacy of nonviolence," Julie Chavez Rodriguez told more than 1,500 people at the annual Chavez breakfast.

"He knew nonviolence was more powerful than violence. He knew violence would only perpetuate violence. He knew that we could find better solutions," she said.

Chavez's belief in community service is part of the holiday.

Although state, county and most city government offices in San Diego County will be closed Monday, schools will be in session.

Chavez would have wanted it that way because education was important to him, his followers said.

Hundreds of San Diego city school students belong to Chavez service clubs and many next week will plant trees, clean beaches and provide other assistance. The Chavez club at Sunset View Elementary in San Diego will hold a flag ceremony Monday.

"He's doing more organizing now than when he was here. It's amazing," said Carlos E. LeGerrette, state director of the Cesar E. Chavez Service Clubs. He was a special assistant to Chavez during the farm labor movement.

The "Chavistas," as the club members call themselves, helped achieve another recent tribute to Chavez. They undertook a successful letter-writing campaign urging the Metropolitan Transit Development Board to rename the trolley stop at 25th and Commercial streets after Chavez.

Yesterday they were among the many Chavez admirers celebrating the change at the unveiling of a new sign for the trolley stop in the neighborhood just south of downtown San Diego.

The event marked the start of a monthlong project to beautify Chavez Parkway organized by the Chavez clubs and the Urban Corps of San Diego.

Local tributes to Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union, will continue through April. The University of California at San Diego plans a series of events, including the unveiling of the Chavez U.S. postage stamp April 21 at the Price Center Plaza.

The effort to turn the Chavez birthday observance into a national holiday also continues.