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Author: Ruby Rodríguez

Cesar Chavez, Naturalist, Farmworker Organizer, Friend by Albert “Abby” Ybarra

On the 23rd anniversary of the death of Cesar Chavez

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In the years since our dear brother, friend, and community leader Cesar Chavez passed away, I’ve had the occasion to think about the blessings in my life and how my family found itself in the middle of a historic movement. I learned the native ways from my grandfather who took us on many outdoor trips. As a young child, I remember walking with him as he searched for medicinal plants use for his work as a “Curandero”. These early environmental excursions to the outdoors were my entry and what soon became my life’s passion and connection to nature. It was during these treks that my grandfather told me about his farm labor organizing work. But it wasn’t until I was in high school that I had the chance to learn about the great United Farmworkers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) and it’s contributions to Latinos and labor.

While in college, my brothers, friends and I gathered food to feed the striking farmworkers in the grape fields in Delano, CA. On one of our first winter break trips to Delano, we all met Cesar Chavez at the 40 Acres United Farm Workers (UFW) headquarters. I knew immediately he was going to be someone we could follow anywhere and into the world when he was organizing. The history of my grandfather’s organizing work in the 1930s in San Diego County immediately had all the relevance in the world. I knew this stuff, although I never picked crops, I knew farm work from my family history. Our ancestors lived off the Sonora desert for generations, as gathers and farmers, and those stories and my subsequent calling to gardening became evident to me and where I was headed in life.

I am an Assistant Scout Master and Venturing Crew Advisor with the Boy Scouts of America. My work with the Scouting programs has kept me outdoors for most of my non-school time. As I learned later from my elders, this was my destiny and I was to be a person who cared and worked for others. I was born into activism with my own family and the love of social justice led me to join Cesar and the movement. I was ready and understood what had to be done – had to be done now.

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Being around Cesar Chavez and his family gave us time to see and watch him work with the union and his family. My initial inclination was that he was a hard working person who was an inspiration to all who worked with him. After his fast of 1972, we saw a different Cesar not seen by the media or masses who followed his work. He went to Arizona (Mt. Lemon) for a few weeks to heal up from the fast. He hiked daily, and continued to grow in strength with longer hikes in and around the canyon. He loved being in the natural world, surrounded by fast moving streams and playing simple games like playing horse shoes and eating healthy. I believe our long talks led me to improve my own eating habits and Cesar gave me a book to read which helped me go vegetarian for many years. Learning to eat healthy and organic in the early 70’s was not easy. There was no Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s to shop in and grocery stores rarely carried organic products.

Cesar’s activities outside of organizing revealed to me that he liked being outdoors. He enjoyed taking his family beach camping to Carpentaria Ca. The things he did with his family often showed us that Cesar was connected to the natural wonders, and led his family to enjoy it with him.

In later years of his union life, Cesar had more time to work his organic gardens. As small time gardener since early youth myself, this was an area where I felt comfortable talking with Cesar. Our last long conversation was at La Paz where he was preparing his annual winter garden. La Paz is the union headquarters and home in Keen CA. That was the winter of 1992, probably October or November. Cesar’s gardens varied in sizes but usually he grew everything on about 2 to 3 acres, and he set up his own drip irrigation system. Cesar Chavez never used pesticides on his food production. I saw him one more time in February in Los Angeles for a funeral mass for a long union supporter Fr. Olivares. I stood just a few feet away with Jackson Brown who played for the service. Cesar smiled slightly when our eyes met but I recall most is that he looked very tired that day.
Sadly, this was our last meeting, as a few months later he was called to walk to the other side on March 23, 1993.

As I look back I can see it was my destiny to meet and know Cesar. His presence was powerful. For anyone who had the chance to talk with Cesar, you would know immediately that he was an inspiration and what he envisioned for farm workers we could also wish for ourselves.

Our talks about gardens and the natural world we lived in are the best memories I have to share about my times with Cesar. Whenever I here talk about aquaponics gardening, I can recall that coldish day at La Paz (Keene CA) when Cesar and I last spoke in length. We talked at length about the future of aquaponics gardening and the understanding that our ancestors had already proven this system with the creation of the gardens of Xochilmilco in Mexico City, in the 8th century by the Nahua people.

Our meeting, the connection of our families, and now my life’s work in environmental and conservation education had its roots in the many times I spoke one on one with one of the most inspirational people in my lifetime. Knowing him up close and our personal, our family connections, makes my work more meaningful. I like to think Cesar would smile at what I’ve done with my time working to connect people back to our innate connection to the natural world.

Albert “Abby” Ybarra
Yaqui
Project Indigenous
Environmental Education Specialist
Actor
Musician

The Struggle Continues; ¡La Causa Vive! by Cynthia Espinosa and Zoraida Martinez

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¡Si Se Puede! ¡Viva La Causa! These are words that as a farm worker, activist and Latinx, I found inspiring to grow food, take care of the land and inspire others that yes, we can. We can grow our own food, we can fight for our rights as human beings, yes we can create the space for our brothers and sisters to share their voice, passion, and gifts. This is what Cesar Chavez has inspired in me. Cesar Chavez, born on March 31, 1927 outside Yuma, Arizona, has left a mark of power, dreams, and pride to migrant farm workers, civil rights activists and Latinos. After his family lost their farm in 1938, his family and him became migrant farm workers throughout California area facing the hardship and injustices that migrant farm workers still face today. In 1965, Cesar along with Dolores Huertas founded the National Farmers Workers Association, later being named the United Farm Workers Association (UFWA) in Delano, California. Along with Filipino grape pickers in Delano, UFWA organized a Grape boycott in the U.S. and Canada along with having grape growers sign the union into their contracts with farm workers (The Cesar Chavez Foundation, 2012). Cesar Chavez work has left a mark to other civil rights organizations for migrant farm workers such as the Coalition of Immokalee Farmers in Immokalee, Florida and Justicia Migrante, Migrant Justice in Burlington, Vermont. The legacy of Cesar will grow throughout our history in many different environmental fields in which Latinos are present; from farm workers, to conservation of our National Parks. Cesar has left us with a foundation to move forward towards equality of growers and migrant farm workers, exemplary leadership among civil rights movements, and pride of our roots, from our culture to our hometown, Cesar wants us to always remember that ¡Si Se Puede!

 

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Up until the sixties, farm workers were mistreated and no one seemed to be able to do anything about it. During World War II, when there was a scarce amount of labor, migrants were being welcomed to the United States to be able to pick the fields. At this time the Bracero Program was initiated under President Truman. The amount of work that was to be done to the number of people actually being admitted to the US under this program was relatively small. There was an increase in migration from Mexico. It was decided that the program would be extended to have people legally in the US while working in the fields. In a span of sixteen years, there was an annual average importation of 200,000 Braceros per year. Although legally in the US, these migrants suffered the deterioration’s of living in the fields. Cesar’s saw the struggle of working in the fields and living in such poor conditions that he started a movement that would forever influence the movements to come.

 

The traction that the movement picked up was an incredible stepping stone for other movements to come. The sixties were a time for change that would be seen across the entire country. From the beginning, with the Civil Rights movement that made a tremendous impact on other movements as well to fighting for equality. All of these movements brought to light the injustices that were seen from schools to workplaces. The movement that Cesar Chavez created along with Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong influenced students in schools that saw how they were being marginalized because of skin color. A lot of Latinxs and Chicanxs saw a disparity in higher education and they started a movement for students to have rights in all levels of education, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán. A movement that until this day still runs strong all across the country seeking equality in higher education, a space in which the population of Latinxs enrolled and that graduate has not been high. M.E.Ch.A has been highly influenced by Cesar Chavez and the movement that he helped get started inciting more and more Latinxs to follow a higher degree than just high school.

 

A fair living wage and decent living conditions is what farmers demanded. An equal opportunity to send their kids to school and a chance to live a life without fear of getting deported at any time. Farm workers have seen so many injustices and the fight for better working conditions was achieved through hard work. There is no doubt of the influential power the Farm Workers Movement has caused in the country. People now are fighting for a living wage that can sustain their families because the cost of living keeps going up but wages have remained the same. People are fighting for better working conditions because they saw the power that lies behind numbers and a movement is starting to rise in which everyone, migrant or not, has better pay and living conditions. The struggle will continue but paving the way for those generations to come will make this country a better place for all those that need to “sacar a su familia adelante.”

 

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The fight that this movement taught us is that we need to continue looking for a way to move forward as a community. The toughest thing that we will face as a community is the adversity and the wall put by others in order for us not to move forward. The Latinx community will always have struggles but with unity and strength any setback that we get presented we will be able to overcome it. Fighting for better treatment at work and better wages will be a fight that will not be over soon but at least we are voicing our concerns and we are showing that we are here and we are not going anywhere. Cesar would be proud of what his movement has brought to the country and he would see that we are fighting the good fight y que ¡la lucha sigue!

References:

Mayo, A. F., Brummel, B., Lopez, G., Bolero, D., Pessah, M. M., In Wolfmeyer, D., Southern Poverty Law Center. Bill Brummel Productions (Firm). (2008). Viva la causa.

Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance Project. (n.d.). Latino Civil Rights Timeline, 1903-2006. Retrieved from:http://www.tolerance.org/latino-civil-rights-timeline.

The Cesar Chavez Foundation. (2012). About Cesar. Retrieved from: http://www.chavezfoundation.org/_page.php?code=001001000000000&page_ttl=About+Cesar&kind=1

United Farm Workers. 2016. http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=research&inc=history/03.html

Latino Outdoors Interview: A Conversation with Claudio Rodriguez

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Tell us your story –  What is your connection to the land and conservation?

In a conch shell, I’m from South Side Tucson, Arizona and my journey began when my mom traveled from Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca to Nogales, Sonora where she worked in a maquiladora, she met my father who was an albañil, at the age of two the border crossed me, I learned choppy English in elementary, learned about guns and drugs in middle school, in high school I really learned my colors, I learned a different type of sign language. After being a trouble maker for a good while dodging bullets and ducking the law, I started losing friends. One friend in particular really impacted me, my best friend whom I lost through gang violence. After this I remembered conversations I had with him and he told me I was smart and I should go to school, after all the memories and liquor passed through my mind I decided it was time to enroll in community college, after a year in college a girl invited me to a community garden by the name of Tierra Y Libertad, I would say that I would go and I never showed up and I eventually gave in, so I showed up one Saturday morning in the fall, I walked to the address provided and I had this imagination of vegetables, trees, tomatoes and chickens but when I arrived there wasn’t anything but a dirt backyard, and I asked where the garden was and the response I got was, “we’re going to create it.” Tierra Y Libertad was a grassroots group in the south side of Tucson that talked about healthy food, gardening, and environmental justice. It saved my life and I thought they were crazy when I met them, I eventually became crazy myself. Now I create gardens in homes, schools and community centers. I have found my purpose, something the world needs, something I love, something I’m good at, something I can get paid to do, and something that makes my mother proud. Now I find myself working with kids creating food justice trough their little hands. Because it’s more than growing vegetables, it’s about seeing the magic when their eyes blow up and their smiles glow when they pull up their first carrot or taste their first cherry tomato, it’s about changing the environment that we live in, making our dreams our reality and it’s about creating value to our lives. Through mother earth we learn respect, value and humility. And of course if we ever run into each other I can tell you a gang(← did you catch the pun jaja) of stories that will make you laugh, wonder and maybe cry.

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How is this connection celebrated/expressed and understood/misunderstood in your community and culture—in the broader conservation community?

The green movement has created a belief that people of color do not care for the environment when that’s what our culture is all about! We are reflections of our realities and its time to change our realities, lets make the hood healthy, we express our needs and dreams through hood clean ups, art, fiestas, ceremonies. Sometimes we do have neighbors or friends who say, “Why you got to be such a tree hugger” obviously I’m quoting a nice version of this. Eventually what we do rubs off on people because conservation work or sustainability work doesn’t have to be super literal or linear. In society we are told to be a cholo is a bad thing but when we look at history and our language cholo is an “aztequismo” derived from the nahuatl work xolotl wich is the dog that guides us to next world in our passing. In my journey as an eco-cholo I have heard stories of nanas referring to the homeboys who would protect the barrio from anyone wanting to do harm us. So a cholo is a protector, I am proud to be a cholo, to bring back ways to not only protect the neighborhood from drive-bys but also drive-thrus. I love talking to youngsters about being green and what it really means to take care of the hood, about what it takes to be an enVATOmentalist. And don’t get me wrong this work is not only pertaining to the barrio but also to our mountains, to our rivers, to our rains. We do everything we can to show anyone willing to learn about our desert medicines, how to conserve the rain, how to ask permission before stepping on a mountain, we need to bring back our connection as indigenous people back into our daily life, because if we don’t we will just end up being conquistadores with no soul, no respect and no understanding of the connection that everything holds.

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Latino/Chicano identities are connected to the outdoors, the environment, and conservation—how are those words reflective of YOU, how is it expressed, what does it look like?

First off I’m Mexicano, a paisa and a cholo, I feel like I could never identify as a latino or hispano because I come from the people of the clouds, I’m a Zapoteca, from my mothers blood, from my mothers food, from my mothers love. When I look at my farthest relatives that I still had a connection with they speak about farming and raising animals and how they would converse with the plant nation, everything was treated with respect.
Our outdoors happens as soon as we look out or step out of the door of our home, what do we see, what do we smell and what do we hear. The outdoors and our environment are our reality, I live in the hood where hipsters in chanclas would get stung by haroin needles, were sex workers run business up and down the street and homefree people harvest tunas from the near by empty lot. But this is my environment and I feel safe in it.
My wife and I just recently came back from our honeymoon trip exploring the outdoors of Arizona in respects to national parks and monuments. I got to see beautiful site from Montezuma’s castle, the Petrified Forest, antelope canyon and many more before reaching the Grand Canyon. Our experience was a little crazy by the end of the trip I was just in awe of how everything was described with Eurocentric lenses, even when there was a chance to show a glimpse of native knowledge it was still white washed. As a brown man who hardly leaves his city (big step because before I wouldn’t even leave my barrio) it was amazing to witness the ignorance many people carried with them, from “ugly looking injuns” to white males being the first to have laid eyes on the magnificent wonders of nature when clearly there has been ceremonies carried out at all these sites for millions of years. (I’m not an archeologist). Other than that I fell in love with the mountains, the rock formations, the water that cut through rocks to make beautiful rivers and streams. Night skies are definitely beautiful when your with the love of your life.

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What needs to change and how do we grow, celebrate, and have the broader conservation movement connect with the role and values Latinos bring to the field?

I think one of the biggest changes that I see Latino Outdoors doing is education and leading by example, that we as a people belong in the outdoors, to return to our mother, to learn from her. One thing that my wife and I noticed on our trip was that there were not many people of color working in national parks and that’s a change that I would love to see! Personally I would like to have a guideline on how to be in the outdoors like what to take and what to be aware of. I think we feel like we need hiking boots or fancy backpacks to be out here but we are hiking in chucks and dickies and we need to know that that’s ok too. It also cost money to enter some of the parks and I understand the need for that money but when a family is dealing with a low income the outdoors seem quite out of reach and we have to work harder to bring it within reach. Also as local Latino/Chicano/indigenous organizations wherever you are, you need to get in contact with outdoor organizations, the conservation groups, the people who are making decisions because we need to be at that table if not we are going to be on their menu, but never forget that you have to build your own table too because if not you’ll just be picking up their plates. Always make it fun, at least that what we strive for, make people feel welcomed and appreciated but y’all do this already.
Why does this issue and work matter to you?

It matters to me because I need my kids to be able to hike, run and swim in the forest, in the valleys and in the canyons. I need my kids to go with their mother to harvest herbs, go hunting and fishing with their uncles. There are things that can be measured that don’t matter and things that matter that can’t be measured. Our environment is immeasurable, pictures cannot do justice to the real beauty and magical feeling one gets from being in the middle of nature. We are surrounded by concrete too much that we forget the health benefits of going on hikes, eating wild foods, breathing fresh air. I mean don’t get me wrong I love the roar of a work truck but that noise will never compare to the roar of a mountain lion or a coyotes howl.

What does success in all this (a Chicano/Latino conservation identity, community connection, land conservation with Latino support, diversification of conservation movement, etc.) look like to you?

Success in my eyes is happiness. If we can make families or individuals happy and knowledgeable of their own backyards then I think we may be doing something right. In the work that I do in regards to urban food production I see success when a gardener does not need me any more, when they can handle it, when they know what they are doing and are growing better peppers than me. It’s about making others better, letting it all spiral into something bigger. I mean at first I was like what is Latinos Outdoors? Then I understood when I played with my own identity and messed around with Cholos Outdoors, making myself comfortable with who I was in the environment that I placed myself in. Some of the conservation work that I have partaken in has also included building with adobe, a dying art, now we are working to conserving homes in the barrio through a Mexicano lens. I wasn’t even planning on doing this but my wife pulled me in and I’m all for it.

How has work with (your organization/current project) connected to/is reflective of all this?

My work is building strong, safe and sustainable communities through urban food production. We are outside working in the dirt, creating mini eco systems in our backyard, restoring alleys and neighborhoods that the city has forgotten. Teaching youth skills that can help them start something in their home to ease the stresses of eating healthy and living healthy. We work towards changing the hood environment; a design that was meant to kill our people should motivate us to find the means to live a healthier, happier life. We are surrounded by liquor stores, fast food, and police militarization how can we not care, its our duty to act for the our generation, our generation before us and the ones that will come after us.

I want to thank Latino Outdoors and Jose Gonzales for the opportunity.

Gracias!!