Chavez’s grandson presents documentary
The grandson of labor rights activist Cesar Chavez, Eduardo Chavez, came to Arizona Western College on Tuesday to present a documentary that follows his attempt to understand his grandfather’s legacy.
The documentary, Hailing Cesar, came out in 2018 and has since been selected for screening in multiple film festivals throughout the US.
In the film, Eduardo endeavors to grasp the struggle of the workers whom his grandfather represented by working in a Sonoma vineyard for 30 days picking grapes.
“This was an opportunity to learn about my grandfather in an authentic manner,” Eduardo said. “This was the first time I looked at his legacy in the eye.”
He also goes to other areas in California. He stops in East Los Angeles, where he shows the murals depicting Cesar; Delano, out of which the United Farm Worker of America organized and where Chavez lived, and Sacramento, where farm workers are supporting a bill for overtime pay.
The screening at AWC’s Schoening Conference Center attracted an audience of
around 50, mostly students. A Q and A followed in which the audience asked Eduardo about his experience in vineyards, what he learned and what message he aims to spread.
“I’m tired of the disconnection we have between now and what came before us,” Eduardo told his audience. “We need to start looking somewhere for the kind of stories that matter to us.”
This was Eduardo’s first time in Yuma and the Yuma area; Cesar was born in Yuma in 1927 and died in San Luis in 1993 of natural causes.
Eduardo, 28, is from Hillsborough, Calif., a suburb of San Francisco. He played professional golf while attending the University of New Mexico and later Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His father is Fernando Chavez, the oldest son of Cesar.
Since the film’s release, he has taken the film to universities, high schools and middle schools throughout the country to teach young people about his grandfather.
He adds that he was pleased to see the impression his grandfather’s legacy has left on the area and plans on coming back.
“The fact that he was born in Yuma is overlooked because of his work in California,” he said. “It’s nice to see the pride the people here have in him.”