April 23, 2011, was the anniversary of the death of Cesar Chavez in 1993 in Yuma, Arizona, very near his birthplace in Arizona on March 32, 1927. Cesar died after day-long testimony in a court battle with Bruce Church Company, the world’s largest lettuce grower. It was another Cesar vs Goliath epic. Indeed, it was the Bruce Church company which had taken over the ranch of Cesar Chavez’ grandfather in the Depression, where Cesar was born, thereby converting the Chavez family from American farm owners to migrant farm workers. Bruce Church Co. was now all these years later intent on crushing the UFW and Cesar, its nemesis, by litigation. Bruce Church, headquartered in Yuma, and a major employer and power there, sued the UFW in Yuma over a Lettuce Boycott by the UFW — in California. The Yuma jury rendered a $3.5-million judgment against the UFW. Had Bruce Church ultimately prevailed, it would have bankrupted the UFW. Bruce Church didn’t ultimately prevail. Cesar Chavez did, even in death. The Arizona Court of appeal threw out the $3.5-million judgment the Yuma jury gave to Bruce Church on the very obvious ground that the Arizona court had no jurisdiction to try a case in Arizona for a boycott in California. The UFW had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit from the very beginning based on that jurisdictional ground. But the local Yuma court judge denied it.
The Yuma jury heard only half of Cesar’s testimony before awarding judgment against the UFW. Bruce Church’s attorneys had Cesar on the witness stand several days until finally completing their prolonged examination. Cesar left the courtroom that day expecting to be able to tell his side of the boycott story the next day, when UFW lawyers would begin their questioning of him. However, that did not happen. That night, Cesar stayed in the humble home of a farmworker member of the UFW, as was his practice. When he didn’t respond to attempts by UFW staff to awaken him in the morning for court, they entered the room. Cesar had died in his sleep. Cesar appeared to have died a very peaceful death. Those who found him said it appeared he had fallen asleep while reading a book and never awakened. The book he was reading was still lying on his chest, as if undisturbed by any death throes. They said there even appeared to be a small, serene smile on his face, as one might have in sleep during a pleasant dream. An older farm worker told me: “The angels came and took him.”
The UFW legal team moved the judge to declare a mistrial, as Cesar died without testifying for the defense. The Judge refused. He ordered that the UFW would have ten days for a funeral, and trial would resume. More than 50,000 people traveled to rural Delano, CA, where the UFW had begun, to attend the funeral. Cesar was buried in a plain wooden casket carpentered by his grieving brother Richard. Although Cesar never sought personal fame, wealth, or recognition, tributes arrived from around the world on his passing. Among them, Pope John Paul II issued a statement from the Vatican on Cesar’s life, though Cesar was a lay Catholic who never held ecclesiastical office. Then-President Clinton issued a statement, though Cesar never held or sought political office. Cesar was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, posthumously, accepted by his widow, Helen.
On the 18th anniversary of Cesar’s passing, a call for remembrance of him and recommitment to his cause was issued by Arturo Rodriguez, his dedicated, worthy successor as president of the United Farm Workers. Cesar, a third-generation native-born American, a veteran who defended his country in the U.S.Navy in World War II, a Christian who lived his faith, deserves to be remembered, and his continuing cause to be supported. (See, www.UFW.org.)
Cesar was the moral heart of the American labor movement. He gave so much, and asked for nothing for himself, only for his cause. There are many lessons to be learned by remembering his life. He was unfairly vilified in life by lie after lie that he was a “communist,” that he was living in a “mansion” and hiding wealth at the UFW headquarters (in fact an old, abandoned TB sanitarium) in rural Keene in the Tahachapi Mountains, that he was “an illegal Mexican wetback,” and other false calumnies. But he never gave up, persisted, and overcame all that by the example of his life of selfless service for others. He touched American hearts because his was so large.
I am grateful for being mentored by him when I was on strike as a truck driver with the Truckers For Justice, and for all the years thereafter when I was able to serve as one of the attorneys for him and the UFW because his recommendation opened the doors of law school to me. “And what does the Lord require of you,” asked the ancient Jewish prophet Micah, “but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” So walked, so lived the man, the American, the veteran, the humble Catholic Christian, Cesar Chavez. I will always walk in his shadow.
VIVA CESAR CHAVEZ! VIVA LA CAUSA!
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