César Chávez Remembered on His Birthday During Assembly Floor Ceremony

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Luis Alejo (D-Salinas), Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, led a ceremony today in remembrance of labor leader and civil rights activist César Chávez, who was born on this day in 1927. The Assembly paid tribute to Chávez, who cofounded the labor union that became the United Farmer Workers, by passing House Resolution 42, which documents his life and achievements. HR 42, authored by Assemblymember Roger Hernández (D-West Covina), received unanimous support from Democrats and Republicans alike.

“My own family once struggled to make ends meet working as migrant farm laborers in the Salinas and Pajaro Valleys,” Alejo said in a brief address on the Assembly Floor. “Migrant workers made unlivable wages, worked in tough conditions, and lacked unemployment insurance or representation. They were also routinely denied the basic protections provided to other industrial workers – like fresh drinking water and access to bathrooms. Against a culture that had ignored the plight of migrant workers for generations, Mr. Chávez stood with many other brave farmworkers against these injustices and together they implemented laws to change them.”

As a part of the ceremony, Assemblymember Alejo also paid tribute to Amagda Pérez, executive director of California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation and Supervising Attorney of the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic.

“Ms. Pérez has played an important in delivering justice to our state’s indigent rural communities,” Alejo said. “She has taught a wide array of seminars on immigration-related topics, and is an expert on naturalization and family-based immigration. As a supervising attorney at the Clinic, her mentorship and training has developed law students into practice-ready attorneys—and many of them pursue public interest careers upon graduation.”

Assemblymember Hernández spoke in tribute of the Immigrant Law Clinic at UC Davis School of Law.

“The Clinic was one of the first of its kind in the United States. It provides legal services without charge to indigent persons, particularly client groups that have traditionally lacked significant legal representation,” Hernández said. “The Clinic helps to develop law students into first-rate lawyers who will serve the profession for decades. Given its proximity to the Central Valley, the Clinic is in a unique position to serve the state’s large community of immigrants.”

In 2000, Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation designating Chávez’s birthday a state holiday. In a 2014 presidential proclamation, President Barack Obama designated Chávez’s birthday a federal commemorative holiday.

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Contact: Andrew Bird / Andrew.Bird@asm.ca.gov / (916) 319-2030