Feliz Dia de Cesar Chavez!

I really wish I knew how to make the upside down exclamation mark.

Did you know that today is Cesar E. Chavez day? It's an official holiday in eight states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin) according to the Chavez Foundation site. Althou Dolores Huerta is in Chicago to celebrate and Democracy Now! says that Illinois celebrates as well. OK, maybe we celebrate but it's not an official Illinois holiday.

Who is this man I'm mumbling about?

Cesar Estrada Chavez, Senator Robert F. Kennedy noted, was "one of the heroic figures of our time.."

A true American hero, Cesar was a civil rights, Latino, farm worker, and labor leader; a religious and spiritual figure; a community servant and social entrepreneur; a crusader for nonviolent social change; and an environmentalist and consumer advocate.

A second-generation American, Cesar was born on March 31, 1927, near his family's farm in Yuma, Arizona. At age 10, his family became migrant farm workers after losing their farm in the Great Depression. Throughout his youth and into his adulthood, Cesar migrated across the southwest laboring in the fields and vineyards, where he was exposed to the hardships and injustices of farm worker life. More at the Chavez Foundation.

To mark the birth of this Latino hero, please head on over to a petition to make March 31st Chavez day across the country. And no, I had no idea that there was a breakfast this morning or else I might have gotten my tired ass out of bed early enough to shout "Viva!" at 8 am with Dolores. She is amazing.

Oh and a little humor to celebrate:




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