César Chávez Celebration (March & Rally) April 1, 2006

Join the Social Justice for Immigrants March & Rally!

The march commemorating César Chávez will begin at 11:00 a.m. at Martineztown Park at the corner of Edith Boulevard and Roma NE, adjacent to Longfellow Elementary School and will end at Civic Plaza. A rally will follow the march at Civic Plaza and will continue until approximately 3:30 p.m. with speakers and entertainment. Food will be available for purchase from local vendors.

The goal of the celebration is bringing Albuquerque?s diverse communities together and educating them about the life and nonviolent philosophy of César Chávez. The theme of this year?s celebration is ?Social Justice for Immigrants.?

Groups to Perform

Groups that will be performing at the celebration include La Rondalla de Albuquerque, a 24-piece musical group composed of singers and musicians of all ages and ethnicities who perform traditional musical folklore. The name of the group is derived from an old Spanish tradition of ?rounding up? musicians from the countryside whenever performers were required.

Also performing will be Los Trinos, Chuy Martinez and Oti Ruiz. Martinez is a singer, songwriter, folklorist and community cultural worker now employed by the city Cultural Services Department. Ruiz, music director of La Rondalla de Albuquerque, studied at the Music Conservatory in Xalapa, Veracruz and is a former member of Achilzavata, an international artistic company based in Paris.

Mariachi Bernalillo, an after-school student group from the Bernalillo Public Schools, will also perform as will Levi Romero, a poet and visiting lecturer in the Creative Writing program at the University of New Mexico.

Rod Rodriguez, a TVI student and member of Recuerda a César Chávez, is organizing high school students to appear at the event including mariachis, folkloric dancers, and poets from Albuquerque and West Mesa High Schools.

About César Chávez

César Chávez was born in Yuma, Arizona, on a farm that his family lost during the Great Depression. He and his family moved to California and became farm workers. Chávez struggled throughout his life to focus national attention on the substandard working conditions and lack of sufficient pay and benefits of thousands of migrant workers.

Over 40 years ago Chávez? National Farm Workers Association joined forces with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in a strike against grape growers in Delano, California. This strike catapulted Chávez and his movement onto the national scene and resulted in the formation of the United Farm Workers of America.

In 1973 a world-wide boycott of grapes persuaded growers to support the 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, historic legislation protecting the bargaining rights of farm workers.

Despite the Union?s hard-won gains, by 1987 80% of the farm workers still had no water or rest rooms in the fields. Outside of California, including in the chile fields of New Mexico, growers required use of the short hoe, a practice that was not banned in this state until 1999.

An even more dangerous threat in the fields was and continues to be the presence of pesticides that have poisoned hundreds of workers and increased the incidence of cancer and birth defects in their children.

Chávez engaged in many fasts during his struggle for farm workers? rights. He died in his sleep on April 23, 1993, less than a month after visiting Albuquerque to rally support for the farm workers.

For more information:

For further information about the César Chávez march and rally, contact Bonnie Rucobo, Albuquerque Human Rights Office Community Liaison, at 505-924-3380, 505-924-3372 (fax) or 800-659-8331 (TTY) or [email protected].

More info on CABQ.gov