A meaningful walk to commemorate César Chávez and Dolores Huerta
John Quevedo, faculty member of the mathematics department at Santa Monica College (SMC), spoke in the main quad on the SMC campus to attendees of the commemoration of César Chávez and Dolores Huerta.
“In 2014, US President Barack Obama proclaimed César Chávez Day as a U.S. federal commemorative holiday,” he said. “We are here today to say thank you to migrant farm workers, undocumented workers, essential workers.”
“We are here in solidarity to resist the temptation to be divided and we will look to the example of nonviolent protest, the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta,” Quevedo said.
SMC board members, faculty, staff and other members of the community were attended the event, seated on folding chairs and colorful Mexican blankets on the lawn.
Monica and Paulina Sahagun, sisters and members of the SMC community, opened the commemorative walk by making a ritual offering with incense from copal resin and the sound of the conch shell horn.
Monica Sahagun said, “It’s a representation of indigenous philosophy. It’s a teaching tool and a spiritual tool. It reminds us of our place in the universe.”
“We call to the four directions, which is really six, because we include the above and the below… First we burn sage in respect to the lands that we are on, we are on the Tongva-Gabriolino lands, and I also use copal, which is from Mexico,” she said.
César Chávez and Dolores Huerta were community organizers in the movement for civil rights for migrant farm workers in California. Together, they founded the National Farm Workers Association (NWFA) in 1962, a union that fought for workers’ rights and higher wages. The NFWA later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) and they formed the United Farm Workers (UFW) union in 1966.
Dr. Kathryn Jeffery, president and superintendent of SMC, addressed the crowd: “The purpose of this event is commemorative, to recognize the contributions of two selfless leaders who fought for social justice, for the farmworkers who were being treated poorly, and in some cases today are still being treated poorly.”
Chávez and Huerta advocated, she said, “to give them (farmworkers) a voice, and speak out against the ways they were receiving unfair wages, working long hours, had no health benefits, no safety while planting and picking and delivering the food many of us eat.”
SMC students Katie Marquez and Maite Duran were sitting together on the lawn, listening as Jeffery spoke.
When asked what brought them to attend the event, Marquez said, “I think it’s just important to support, I have family who are farmworkers and I want to support them.”
“We both saw the importance of Dolores Huerta and César Chávez and the work that they put in for the unions,” said Duran, a nursing major.
Another student sitting on the lawn, Arman Walker II, said he didn’t know about the event beforehand, but was drawn in by the setup and stayed to listen to the speakers.
“Everything that was said in today’s speeches was very powerful and speaks to the heart of humanity,” said Walker. “It’s very impactful and necessary for the times that we are in.”
After the speeches, Quevedo and SMC trustee Dr. Margaret Quiñones-Perez led the assembled audience members away from the main quad on a walk around campus, in a counter-clockwise direction.
They stopped first at the Organic Garden. Emily Chavez, student services specialist for the Student Equity Center, said, “(The farmers) provide us with the fruits and vegetables that nourish our lives.”
Chávez and Huerta were instrumental in the fight for civil rights. “Through protests, marches, boycotts, hunger strikes, and dialogue, the United Farm Workers union (founded in part by Chávez and Huerta) fought the abuses of inhumane treatment of farmworkers by agribusiness,” said Monica Sahagun.
After the garden, the group went on to stop at SMC’s Bodega, a place where students can come for food, supplies and other necessities at no charge. They continued the walk through the Math and Science Building. At the large fig tree that stands in front of the building, Quevedo instructed the group to split into two groups.
Dr. Nancy Greenstein, chair of the SMC Board of Trustees, said, “I was really struck at our last stop… We stopped at this big beautiful tree on campus, the tree of knowledge. They had half the group go one way, and half the group go the other way, to look at the difference and discord that we’re all facing today.”
“But then we came together, back as a group, and that just signified so much in terms of what we all need to be doing,” she said.
Quiñones-Perez, who had some final words to address the student body, said, “I think that young people need to realize all the stuff going on in their country, they are not exempt… They’re part of the target, whether they want to believe it or not.”
She said, “Me as a parent, we try to protect them, but they’re walking into some pretty hostile lands, and now it’s their turn to be able to make sure that the future is better, and those hostilities and attacks stop. They need to stop.”
The event was catered by Bludso’s BBQ, open to the SMC community and to anyone who wanted to eat. “You are all a part of this community,” said Quevedo, as he invited onlookers to get in line for food.