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Jan. 18- Feb. 28, 2012 Vol. 55, Iss. 5

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The Southwestern College Sun

Marcha Migrante VII

La Paz
Story by Albert Fulcher Photos by Serina Duarte and Omar Villalpando Design by Pablo Gandara and Serina Duarte

They dont know that there are immigrants working hard every day under terrible conditions and being taken advantage of that labor to bring food to their tables. We use my fathers legacy to tell their stories.

- Paul F. Chavez

estled in the Tehachapi Mountains, between San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert, rugged peaks and great oaks stand guard, protecting a sacred plot of land. In this safe haven stands a simple wooden cross with an iron crucifix behind a small granite headstone. Saint Francis of Assisi and La Virgen de Guadalupe stand on each end of a consecrated rose garden in Nuestra Senora Reina de La Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace), the home and burial site of Cesar Chavez one of Americas great humanitarian activists of the 20th century. In the midst of a mountain chain that twice almost divided the state into Northern California and Southern California, Chavez started a revolution that united people to fight for the rights of migrant farm workers. His bold but nonviolent fight for social change was influenced by his deep faith in God and the examples of Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. He fought with boycotts, fasts, marches and strikesand thousands of people joined his crusade. Cries of Si Se Puede! and Huelga! echoed through nation all the way to Washington D.C. He became the first American to found a successful farm workers union, achieving bargaining power with growers in 1962, the National Farm Workers Association (now the United Farm Workers of America).
Please see La Paz pg. A4

Top: Paul Chavez and Border Angels founder Enrique Morones plan the next segments of Marcha Migrante VII. Middle: (l) Morones reading a scripture at the Cesar E. Chavez grave site, (r) fountain mural at Cesar E. Chavez memorial. Bottom: (far left) Cesar E. Chavez tombstone, (above) Chavez and Morones share stories of Cesar Chavez. (l) A memorial to three martyrs of the UFW -- one Jewish, one Christian, one Muslim.