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March 17, 2008
Chavez's grandson speaks
Paul Chavez hopes to create national holiday
The main focus of Paul Chavez's life has been to create a national
holiday for his grandfather, farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez.
He said it's surprising how hard it is to institute a holiday -- even
one that wouldn't give people a day off of work.
"My grandfather worked all the time," Paul Chavez said Saturday. "He
wouldn't want people to just sit around on a day named after him."
Paul Chavez was in Boulder as the keynote speaker of a Cesar Chavez
celebration held at the Boulder Public Library. His message revolved
around his grandfather's commitment to nonviolent struggle for justice,
and his lifetime of work organizing farm workers.
"Cesar believed that if the organization was based on violence, then it
would fail," Paul Chavez said.
In 1992, Paul Chavez leftBrown University to work with his grandfather
at the United Farm Workers. The next year Cesar Chavez died.
"I was lucky to have had the opportunity to work with him," Paul Chavez
said before his speech. "It gave me another set of memories separate
from the loving grandfather I used to call 'Ta-Ta.'
"I saw him as the man I'd read about in the history books in high
school. A sweet, quiet man who wasn't a powerful speaker, but a man who
led by example."
Boulder has hosted a celebration of Cesar Chavez, born March 31, 1927,
for 11 years. The event includes music and storytelling, but having the
man's grandson speak was a real plus this year, said organizer Dorothy
Bustamante.
"I think it's the biggest turnout we've ever had," she said.
Before the event, peace activists protested the war in Iraq, which
started five years ago Thursday.
The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center hosted the event in protest
of continued funding of the war.
"Cesar Chavez was an advocate of the same things we believe in so we
felt it was natural to combine our events," said Carolyn Bninski, a
member of the center.
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