MARYSVILLE (California) APPEAL-DEMOCRAT

February 11, 2008

Yuba-Sutter's Cesar Chavez

By Magdalena Reveles/For the Appeal-Democrat

For more than 40 years, Edgar Diaz was a fixture in the Yuba-Sutter area, traveling dusty backroads in an old Ford Bronco, armed with folders of legal information from the California Rural Legal Assistance program.

Often with Mexican music blaring on the radio for accompaniment, he drove through hot sizzling summers in the Sacramento Valley and bitter cold Decembers, a solitary man on a mission to help enfranchise farmworkers.

"He was our Cesar Chavez," Rita Montejano said while remembering the farmworkers' advocate, who until his death in 2005 struggled to give Yuba-Sutter farm laborers a voice and dignity.

A photo of Diaz looked down on Montejano and 50 people present during a dedication ceremony last month at the newly remodeled CRLA office at 511 D St., Marysville. The long-standing legal service provides legal services to farmworkers and other rural residents unable to afford legal representation.

The Marysville headquarters now carries Diaz's name.

Montejano, a former farmworker who now works with Yuba College's nursing program, served with Diaz on the board of Del Norte Clinics for many years. She recalled his dry wit and enthusiasm to take on battles for farmworkers and the homeless.

"He reminded me of my father," said Montejano, looking up at Diaz's picture.

Jose Padilla, CRLA state executive director and an attorney in San Francisco, made the trip to Marysville to speak at the dedication.

Padilla, also a former farm laborer, recalled Diaz as a man who taught by example and who inspired him to give of himself to those in need.

"I knew Edgar from the time I became CRLA director in 1984," Padilla said. "From the time I met him, I knew he was a grassroots leader who led from the heart. Edgar was an example of public service that became life service."

In an interview before his death, Diaz, who lived in Live Oak, described harrowing images of Mexican migrant life during the Great Depression and the ability to persevere under the harshest of conditions.

Born in La Grulla, Texas, in 1928, Diaz spent his childhood traveling with his 18 brothers and sisters, constantly on the road, migrating with the crops throughout the States. There was little time for school, and he only completed the fourth grade.

"Each of us was one of a kind, no twins," Diaz said in the interview. "I was the second-born. There was a lot of work but no money. In those days, there were family farms, not corporate farms like today. At that time, we worked for a $1.50 a day from sun up to sunset, hoeing, picking cotton, onion, carrots and also spinach crops."

Diaz said his family would travel across the United States in an old Chevrolet truck. There wasn't much space on board, but room was made for a kerosene stove and food staples. When the family got hungry, they made their food by the side of the road and camped out.

"You couldn't go into restaurants; and if we went to a store, you could only go into the store in groups of three or four if you were Mexican," Diaz said in the interview. "They kept their eye on you the whole time."

Diaz was in the military during the 1950s, serving in Europe. He later came to Northern California and worked in the fields again, raising a family of six with his second wife, Olga.

During the 1960s, farmworkers had no protection against abuses. Diaz became convinced things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.

In 1962, an invitation to hear United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez speak in Sacramento became the spark that ignited in Diaz what would become a lifetime of activism.

"I liked the way Mr. Chavez spoke for farmworkers, because I was one of them," Diaz said in the interview before his death. "Mr. Chavez asked us to start organizing farmworkers."

Diaz took part in a 1963 Yuba City march supporting the Delano grape boycott. He also met marchers from Delano in Sacramento who were coming to talk to the governor.

Chavez later spent the night in Diaz's home during one of his visits to the Yuba-Sutter area.

Olga Diaz remembered Chavez and her husband talking long into the night, planning strategies to help Yuba-Sutter farmworkers.

It was about this time in 1966 that Diaz started working for the CRLA as a community outreach worker. This relationship would last until his death.

Olga said her husband's death has been hard on the family.

But, she said in a humorous tone, that wherever he is, she is sure that he appreciated having the CRLA name a building after him and for all the farmworkers that have struggled for better lives.

"Life for farmworkers is still muy duro (very hard), and much work is still needed to help them," she said.