Cesar Chavez's Grandson Tells Students They Can Change the World

Civil rights icon Cesar Chavez was able to improve the conditions for American farmworkers and mobilize 17 million people worldwide in a California grape boycott because he recognized the power individuals could have when they joined together to fight for justice, his grandson, Anthony Chavez, told students at at an assembly Wednesday morning.

"He always used to remind us there's never a time in our life when we don't need the help of another," said Anthony Chavez, 26, who is himself an activist and marched with Cesar Chavez as a young child.

Connecting his grandfather's activism with that of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and contemporary uprisings in the Arab world organized through Facebook and Twitter, Anthony Chavez told students that they have the power to effect change in their communities and beyond.

"The end of all education should be service to others," Anthony Chavez said. "I want to remind you to aim high, dream big, follow your heart." 

School board Trustee Liza Normandy organized Chavez's speech at the school, where many students in the audience had studied Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers movement.

Anthony Chavez mixed personal memories of his grandfather with a discussion of his life and political legacy in an easygoing style that immediately connected with students. 

Cesar Chavez was a playful man who would stand upside down to get rid of hiccups and balance a cup of tea on his head to entertain his grandchildren, Anthony Chavez said. He also gave up a stable job that meant his opportunity to leave the fields in order to help uplift the entire community of farmworkers.

Cesar Chavez's family had been forced to become migrant farmworkers during the Depression, Anthony Chavez said.

"My grandfather knew that when he hit eighth grade, that was it," Anthony Chavez said. "He was a man, and he was going to work in the fields."

Even though he left school at a young age, Chavez was self-educated and got a job with the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights organization. When he decided to leave that job to organize farmworkers, his family thought he was nuts, Anthony Chavez said.

"'Cesar, you're crazy," they told him. "'What do you think you're going to do, just one person?'"

In 1962, Chavez helped found the United Farmworkers Union to advocate for farmworkers who often faced dangerous conditions and poverty-level pay. In 1965, when Filipino farmworkers, who were paid less than Mexican farmworkers, decided to strike, Chavez convinced Mexican-Americans to join them, Anthony Chavez said.

But striking and picketing made farmworkers the target of violence. Chavez later adopted another strategy: influenced by the Montgomery bus boycott, he convinced millions of consumers to join in a boycott of California grapes.

"The toughest enforcer is the consumer," Anthony Chavez said. "When I grew up, whenever we shared food we always made sure to thank a farmworker."

Anthony Chavez said that even though his grandfather was sometimes discouraged in his work, he realize it was making a difference. Anthony Chavez said his grandfather's famous slogan, "Si Se Puede," ("Yes We Can"), crafted with organizer Dolores Huerta, was born out of a time of adversity in the 1970s.

"[Farmworkers] hung their heads and said, "No se puede" ["No we can't]," Anthony Chavez said. "My grandfather knew if we wanted to make changes in our communities, we had to wake up in the morning saying, 'Si se puede, yes we can.'"

Students said they were inspired by Chavez's talk.

"Being Latino, it gives us an example to follow," said senior Denisse Duarte, 17. Duarte said hearing about Cesar Chavez's message of nonviolence could help reduce violence in South San Francisco.

"He gives us a good example, and that sets the tone," Duarte said. "There's this hatred that is in this city. I think this will turn it around. If we see something wrong, we should stand up and say something."

"I thought it was amazing, the whole coming together thing," said senior Adrian Barrera, 17. "It made me proud about being Latino. People joke, "You're Latino, what are you going to be, a gardener?'"

"Someone has to take care of those jobs that no one wants to do," Barrera said, speaking of farmworkers.

"I think [Anthony Chavez] is great role model for young people," said Superintendent Alejandro Hogan. "He's a role model for Latino students because of his background, but he's a role model for all students."

History teacher Ashley Gray, who conducted the assembly, left students with this thought about Anthony and Cesar Chavez:

"They are ordinary. They are ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things. This could be anyone in this room. This could be you."

Got Patch? Sign up for the South San Francisco Patch newsletter by clicking here.