2008 Woodie Awards
Farm Worker Appreciation Week
Laura Blythe-Goodman
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: Features
Starting in the 1960s, Cesar Chavez helped lead strikes to improve the conditions of farm workers, specifically the grape workers in California. Hispanos Unidos de Guilford sponsored Farm Worker Appreciation Week to celebrate Chavez's accomplishments and encourage activism for farm workers today.
Farm Worker Appreciation Week kicked off on Monday, March 26, with a documentary on the life and works of Cesar Chavez. Chavez's family lost their farm during the Great Depression and joined migrant workers along the California coast.
After working with organizer Fred Ross in the 1950s, Chavez helped start the organization that would eventually become the United Farm Workers. He fought tirelessly to improve conditions for migrant farm workers for the rest of his life.
Irving Zavaleta-Jimenez, president of Hispanos Unidos de Guilford, hoped the week's events would be a fitting tribute to Chavez's life. "I wanted to educate the Guilford community about such an important leader as Cesar Chavez. I hoped to educate the community about this great leader in our community and also an important issue."
On Tuesday, March 27, the focus of the events shifted away from the specific life of Chavez and to the struggle that the farm workers he advocated for still face today. The night featured Lupe Huitron, a guest speaker from Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF).
Huitron spoke of her experiences both growing up as a farm worker and helping farm workers through SAF. "As a child, I didn't know there was anything else, it was all I knew," said Huitron. "Education opened my heart, my mind, my eyes to the injustices we face. Even though they were such a normality, I realized they weren't a just normality."
Huitron explains how important it was to her to complete her education. "The more I learn about farm workers, the more I realize I beat some very strong odds. But, I didn't think of it that way. To me, it was just something I had to do to help my family," said Huitron.
Farm Worker Appreciation Week kicked off on Monday, March 26, with a documentary on the life and works of Cesar Chavez. Chavez's family lost their farm during the Great Depression and joined migrant workers along the California coast.
After working with organizer Fred Ross in the 1950s, Chavez helped start the organization that would eventually become the United Farm Workers. He fought tirelessly to improve conditions for migrant farm workers for the rest of his life.
Irving Zavaleta-Jimenez, president of Hispanos Unidos de Guilford, hoped the week's events would be a fitting tribute to Chavez's life. "I wanted to educate the Guilford community about such an important leader as Cesar Chavez. I hoped to educate the community about this great leader in our community and also an important issue."
On Tuesday, March 27, the focus of the events shifted away from the specific life of Chavez and to the struggle that the farm workers he advocated for still face today. The night featured Lupe Huitron, a guest speaker from Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF).
Huitron spoke of her experiences both growing up as a farm worker and helping farm workers through SAF. "As a child, I didn't know there was anything else, it was all I knew," said Huitron. "Education opened my heart, my mind, my eyes to the injustices we face. Even though they were such a normality, I realized they weren't a just normality."
Huitron explains how important it was to her to complete her education. "The more I learn about farm workers, the more I realize I beat some very strong odds. But, I didn't think of it that way. To me, it was just something I had to do to help my family," said Huitron.
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