ARIZONA REPUBLIC

April 1, 2006

Cesar Chavez legacy celebrated

400 honor rights leader in Glendale

Sherry Anne Rubiano
The Arizona Republic

 

Teresa Chavez Delgado, Cesar E. Chavez's granddaughter, remembers her first taste of the farmworker movement.

In the 1970s, Delgado and her family members were picketing outside a supermarket in Michigan.

When the police came, they asked whom the picket leader was. Everyone pointed to Teresa. She was 4.

The pickets refused to leave, so the police arrested Teresa and her family. They were released soon after.

Delgado told this story to about 400 community and business leaders and West Valley residents Friday, which would have marked Chavez's 79th birthday.

The Glendale Chamber Foundation hosted its third annual breakfast to honor the civil rights leader's life and legacy.

This event at the Glendale Civic Center was one of 18 events held in Chavez's name across the Valley and other Arizona cities, including Yuma, Tucson, and San Luis.

"(It's) basically to celebrate diversity and to honor those that followed in Chavez's footsteps, in his belief that everyone was created equal and we should be treated the same," said Izzy Gonzalez from the foundation.

The foundation recognized one Glendale native who embodies Chavez's message and commitment to serving others.

This year's diversity award went to Lt. Frank Balkcom, who has served the Glendale Police Department for more than 20 years.

"I consider it a great honor and a great privilege," Balkcom said. "I'm like many other Latinos, Hispanics. We are all committed to serving our communities."

Balkcom served four years of active duty in the Marine Corps and about 30 years in the Marine Corps Reserve.

He is a former president of the National Latino Peace Officers Association and is involved with the Glendale Community Center.

Balkcom said Chavez had inspired him.

"We cannot forget Cesar's struggle for justice, dignity and equality for all Americans from all walks of life," he said.

Chavez, an Arizona native, was born near his family's farm in Yuma on March 31, 1927, and passed away in his sleep on April 23, 1993, in San Luis.

His family became migrant farmworkers when he was 10, and he left school after the eighth grade to work in the fields full-time to support his family.

For more than three decades, he fought for farm workers' rights and dignity.