Bill seeks to honor Chávez with holiday
César Chávez would have a state holiday in his honor under a bill unveiled Friday by Milwaukee lawmakers.
The proposal to create a holiday for state employees on March 31, which is Chávez’s birthday, was announced at Milwaukee City Hall during a ceremony celebrating the man who went from a farm worker to a hero for laborers, Latinos and others.
“Today, in this difficult hour of our country, I ask you never to tell Chávez’s story backwards,” Milwaukee Ald. José Pérez said standing near a bronze-colored Chávez statue. “Our minds are kind to us and help us erase the pain and the struggle and fear and difficulty, and leave us with memories golden as this statue here. This can lead to a dangerous falsehood. It can let us forget that nothing worth having is accomplished without effort, without struggle.”
Pérez was joined by city, county and state officials and community activists.
State Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milwaukee), the plan’s lead sponsor, said the legislation to honor Chávez was especially noteworthy now.
“It’s important to lift up the memory of this man because he was a great leader, but also because Latinos in Wisconsin are the fastest-growing constituency in the state,” she said. “We need to lift up this community. We are the future of Wisconsin.”
Under the bill, a state agency would be required to permit any employee to receive March 31 as a paid holiday if the worker wants to take that day off instead of another paid holiday.
Many of the speakers at Friday’s celebration touched on the current political climate, including efforts to crack down on immigrants in the country illegally. Chávez was born in Arizona on March 31, 1927, and grew up in a Mexican-American family that traveled around California picking seasonal crops.
He left school in seventh grade to work full time in the fields and later turned to organizing for farm workers’ rights.
In 1962, Chávez and Dolores Huerta co-founded the group that became the United Farm Workers of America.
State Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) stressed the importance of Chávez not only to Latinos but to all workers.
“If we don’t remember that struggle, it’s easy for us to suddenly slip backwards,” Larson said. “Those things that we take for granted can be taken away from us.”
Farm workers in four western states plan to march Saturday and Sunday in honor of Chávez, who died in 1993, and in protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
“If we don’t remember that struggle, it’s easy for us to suddenly slip backwards.” STATE SEN. CHRIS LARSON (D-MILWAUKEE)