The Hispanic and Latino Student Union will host a day all about appreciating a man that fought for better farm-working conditions.
As Cesar Chavez Day approaches, Hispanic and Latino students will reach out on campus to show that they also have a long history of fighting for racial equality.
Members of the Hispanic and Latino Student Union are hosting an event Tuesday to commemorate the impact Cesar Chavez made on migrant workers in the United States during the 1970s.
“(Chavez) was an American farmworker, civil rights activist, (and) co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association,” said Miguel Gomez, a junior studying chemical engineering and president of HLSU. “He’s most famous for improving the conditions and raising wages for farmworkers.”
The event will consist of a group discussion about Chavez followed by a screening of the movie “Cesar Chavez.” Afterward, the group can discuss accuracies and inaccuracies in the film, Gomez said.
“We’re putting on this event to inform more people about him,” said Carla Triana, a sophomore studying international business. “It’s important to know the struggles Hispanics have gone through and what he has done to change the community — the migrant community that work in the fields.”
Triana is a member of HLSU, and the projected president for the organization in the fall.
“People don’t really know enough about us, and have the wrong idea what it is to be a migrant worker,” Triana said. “We really want to educate people on that aspect.”
Gomez said the day based on the activist, Chavez, is not as celebrated in America because the work Chavez did did not affect Americans as it did immigrants.
“Migrant workers came from Latin American countries, and he tried to help them, which many Americans didn’t understand,” he said.
The organization encourages anyone to come and learn about the affect activism has had on the Latino community, and now second and third generation Latinos.
“This has an impact on me personally, because when I was little my parents worked in the culture sector,” Gomez said. “They told me because of Cesar Chavez, the conditions improved. The wages increased, it made life look a lot better.”
Regardless of race, each community has worked its way to where it is now in America, but there is still more progress to be achieved through peaceful protests, Gomez said.
“There are some negative stereotypes about the Latino and Hispanic community that they’re criminals and immigrants. I want to educate people that Hispanics are moving into the country because they are fleeing their own,” Triana said. “They cannot survive in their own, so they are coming here really searching for that American dream. I really want to have the Latino community looked as a positive here.”
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