Cesar Chavez Ward 5 Update
By Council Member Richard Fimbres
Monday, March 28 marked the eighth anniversary for the City of Tucson Cesar Chavez Holiday and Day of Service.
¿Who was Cesar Chavez?
Cesar Chavez was an Educator, Environmentalist and a Civil Rights Leader. One of his most famous sayings was: «We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.»
The City of Tucson is the first and only city or governmental entity in Arizona to have a paid holiday and day of service for Chavez.
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Chavez’s words ring true, especially during this time with the COVID-19 health crisis. We need only to look at Chavez’s motto, “Si, se puede,” which means “Yes, it can be done.” We can win when we work together. The beauty of Tucson and Pima County is that we do not scapegoat, place blame or point fingers, we roll up our sleeves to solve the challenges that we face. As he said, “We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure. The people united will never be defeated.”
Powerful words said by Chavez that will help us get through this health crisis.
“We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure. The people united will never be defeated.”
We remember with honor
This year’s commemoration of the Cesar Chavez holiday and day of service will be different due to the COVID-19 health pandemic. We may not be able to gather or march this year but we must remember and honor Cesar Chavez, who inspires people to become involved in all the causes which continue his extraordinary legacy and shine in controversy.
I want to thank my colleagues: then Council Member Shirley Scott, then Council Member Karin Uhlich, then Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Regina Romero, Steve Kozachik and Paul Cunningham on the Council and the many organizations who joined me in support for the City of Tucson true Cesar Chavez holiday in 2014. His selfless dedication for farm worker and worker rights, economic justice, civil rights, environmental justice, peace, nonviolence, empowerment of the poor and disenfranchised, is a monumental legacy that will inspire all and the generations to come.
