Northern Nevada
César Chávez Celebration VII

Tuesday/Martes, March/marzo 31, 2009
Circus Circus-Reno

Watch this website for updates.
Call (775) 786-1455 for sponsorship information
or e-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us


César Chávez Celebration VI
Monday/lunes, March/marzo 31, 2008
Circus Circus-Reno
Hundreds celebrate Chávez at overflow event
Reno Gazette-Journal 4-1-2008

Celebran en Reno aniversario de César Chávez
Ahora News
Publicado el 04-07-2008



Major sponsors are donating portions of their ticket blocs so that area students may participate. General admission is $30 per person. Anyone planning to attend, even if your tickets are included in a sponsor or media bloc, should call for reservations which are required because of limited seating. Thanks for your patience.
Week of the Giants Begins
United Auto Workers demonstrate while Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and César Chávez offer advice
Barbwire / Sparks Tribune 3-23-2008

Barbwire: Giants will walk among us again
Daily Sparks Tribune 3-16-2008

César Chávez Celebration VI
Brought to you by

Above: End slate from the award-winning LIUNA Local 169 road construction zone safety campaign, now in its second decade.
La Gloria Mini-Mart
RC Willey
Greater Nevada Credit Union
Dr. Javier Corral

The campaign for a César Chávez national holiday
Sign the petition

23rd Annual Truckee Meadows Community College Multicultural Festival
April 19, 2008

Washoe County School District César Chávez Essay Contest
(Closed March 24, 2008)
Application and rules in English
Formulario y reglas para el concurso de César Chávez



Reno César Chávez Celebration VI
March 31, 2008
DÍA DE CÉSAR CHÁVEZ Lunes 31 de Marzo del 2008


     Again sponsored by Culinary Union Local 226 , Laborers' Union Local 169 and Circus Circus Reno, this year's event will take place at Circus Circus beginning at 6:00 p.m.
     The public is welcome at the event which will again feature food, scholarship winners and entertainment.
     Doors open at 5:30 p.m. on March 31, with the program beginning at 6:00 p.m. Nevadans who knew or worked with Chávez will speak on their experiences. Members of his immediate family, imcluding his brother, Librado, are again expected to attend.
      In conjunction with the Washoe County School District, students in three grade levels are again participating in an essay contest. The competition is open to all students from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Winners will read their variations on this year's theme, "Should Congress declare a national holiday to honor César Chávez?"
      In late March, KNVV TV-41 (Charter cable 22) will air special vignettes honoring César Chávez. KNVV will also air a half-hour César Chávez documentary as part of the celebration.
      César Chávez was born on March 31, 1927, on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona. At 10 years of age, Chávez began life as a migrant farm worker. This ultimately led to his cause or "La Causa," advocating for better wages and working conditions for the nation's farm workers. In 1952, he began the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to strive for equal rights for agricultural workers.
       César Chávez learned from and practiced the non-violent principles of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mohandas K. Gandhi. Chávez died on April 23, 1993, at the age of 66. He was posthumously awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. The United States Postal Service issued a commemorative first class stamp bearing his image in 2003.

      

COUNTDOWN TO CHÁVEZ DAY

On March 10, 1968, Sen. Robert Kennedy, D-NY, and César Chávez met in Delano, California, for the breaking of Chavez's anti-violence fast. Chávez's physicians had contacted Kennedy to ask for his help in convincing Chávez to end his fast before it did more damage to his health.

On March 17, 1966, farm workers led by César Chávez began a march from Delano to Sacramento.

On March 31, 1927, César Chávez was born near Yuma, Ariz.

New York Times obituary, April 24, 1993: "Mr. Chávez, who was described by Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 as 'one of the heroic figures of our time,'was widely acknowledged to have done more to improve the lot of the migrant farm worker than anyone else. Fighting growers and shippers who for generations had defeated efforts to unionize field workers, and later fighting rival unionists, Mr. Chávez for the first time brought a degree of stability and security to the lives of some migrant workers. Largely because of him, the California Legislature in 1975 passed the nation's first collective bargaining act outside Hawaii for farm workers, who are largely excluded from Federal labor law coverage. 'For the first time,' Mr. Chávez said when asked to describe the union's achievement, 'the farm worker got some power.' Asked what had motivated his stubborn fight, he said, 'For many years I was a farm worker, a migratory worker, and, well, personally — and I'm being very frank — maybe it's just a matter of trying to even the score.'"

[Courtesy of longtime Nevada reporter Dennis Myers' Poor Denny's Almanac]


César Chávez Celebration IV
March 31, 2005

VETERANS — Left to right, Maria Zamora, Librado "Lee" Chávez and Tony Mayorga. Lee Chávez holds up a United Farm Workers of America flag signed by his late brother. The flag is part of Ms. Zamora's collection of Chávez/UFWA memorabilia which she displayed at the 2004 Chávez Celebration and will do so again this year. Ms. Zamora marched with César Chávez in the 1960's and cooked for the multitudes as they trekked across California. Tony Mayorga is President of Laborers' Union Local 169, a founding sponsor of the celebration. [UPDATE: Librado Chávez and a dozen family members will attend the 2008 event.]


When César Chávez came to Reno


    How often do we get to meet the great men of our age? Of the great apostles of nonviolence who have lived in our time and generations, I got to meet only one, but that was a meaningful one. César Chávez's (1986) visit to Reno gave me the opportunity to meet him, to shake his hand, to stand in his presence. It was an honor, one of the privileged moments of my life.

     On March 10, 1968, Robert Kennedy went to Delano to be with César when he broke his fast for nonviolence. Senator Kennedy said to César's supporters in the farm workers, "And when your children and grandchildren take their place in America, going to high school and college and taking good jobs at good pay — when you look at them, you will say, 'I did this. I was there, at the point of difficulty and danger'. And though you may be old and bent from many years of labor, no man will stand taller than you when you say, 'I marched with César'."

     We have not been very good custodians of that hope. Good jobs at good pay seem further away than ever. We have to do better. César's example calls.

— Courtesy of longtime Nevada reporter Dennis Myers' Poor Denny's Almanac
Used by permission.



      UFW FLAG ART presented by César Chávez to Reno Musicians Union Local 368 Secretary-Treasurer Beth Shay at Reno César Chávez Day I on July 15, 1986. Each color is symbolic — black for the dark situation of the farmworkers of the time; red for toil and sacrifice and the white circle for hope. Chávez himself designed it.

¿Quién fue César Chávez?

"Una de las figuras heróicas de nuestros tiempos"
—Senador Robert F. Kennedy, D-NY

 

2005 CÉSAR CHÁVEZ DAY PROCLAMATIONS




SPONSORS

Unions and union-signatory entities

Culinary Workers Union Local 226
Laborers Union Local 169
Washoe County School District
Circus Circus Reno



Blasts from the past

Reno César Chávez Day V
March 31, 2006

Reno César Chávez Day IV
March 31, 2005

Reno César Chávez Day III
March 31, 2004

Reno César Chávez Day II
March 31, 2003

Reno César Chávez Day I
July 15, 1986