"It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives, do we find life" Cesar Chavez


On our way to Sequoia National Park, we took the opportunity to visit the Cesar Chavez memorial in Keene, California.  The building they chose to house the story of Cesar's life is the same building he worked in all the years he tried to make the lives of thousands of migrant workers easier. 
If you don't know who Cesar Chavez was, here is your social justice/history lesson for today:

March 31st is a national holiday, Cesar Chavez Day.
Cesar Chavez  was a Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, who, with Delores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association which later became the United Farm Workers union, UFW. 

Cesar's family became migrant workers after losing their farm in Arizona during the depression.  They moved from farm to farm in California looking for work. All the family members had to work, even Cesar. They had to work long hours with no breaks, there weren't any bathrooms for them, and they didn't have clean water to drink. Anyone who complained was fired. This was the life for migrant workers in the United States. 
Cesar took his childhood experience and became an activist for change. He urged people to followed Martin Luther Kings methods of peaceful protests, fasting and boycotts to get their message out.

I teach my second graders about the life of Cesar Chavez every year because he was an advocate for change, something I teach that all of us can be.  He, like many others along the way, have taken their life experiences and worked to change laws and to change minds. Our children need to learn about people in history who laid the bricks in the path to make their lives better.

The next time you eat a piece of fruit, thank a migrant worker...

Cesar captured the attention and the heart of Bobby Kennedy.

People make the desert their home.   by choice or necessity....I don't know.

Not a place to let your dogs out for a run!

Looking at the miles and miles of  dry desert, I wonder how people live here.....but they do.

California Grapes....Yum!

Strike!