Proclamation of the City Council proclaiming March 31 2006 as Cesar Chavez Day. P R O C L A M A T I O N CESAR CHAVEZ DAY OF SERVICE AND LEARNING March 31 2006 WHEREAS in August 2000 the California State Legislature and then Governor Pete Wilson established March 31st of each year as Cesar Chavez Day of Service and Learning which engages thousands of students annually from kindergarten through 12th grade in service projects to honor the life and work of Cesar Chavez founder of the National Farm Workers Association and the United Farm Workers AFL CIO the first successful farm workers union in United States history; and WHEREAS at the age of 10 Cesar Chavez became a migrant farm worker and along with his family and together with thousands of other displaced families migrated throughout the Southwest to labor in the fields and vineyards leaving school in the eighth grade and eventually serving in the United States Navy in the Western Pacific in the aftermath of World War II; and WHEREAS Chavez settled with wife Helen and his family in East San Jose California in 1948 to work in the surrounding fields orchards and vineyards of the region where after observing objectionable working conditions for migrant farm workers he became a full time community organizer with the Community Service Organization (CSO) organizing voter registration drives battling racial and economic discrimination and organizing CSO chapters across California and Arizona; and WHEREAS in 1962 Chavez established the National Farm Workers Association and advocated for nonviolent struggle often engaging in multi day fasts to advocate for safe food products and working conditions for farm workers and their children and was supported by such leaders as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy who joined Chavez on the steps of his home in 1968 to celebrate the breaking of a 25 day fast before an audience of 8 000 farm workers and supporters; and WHEREAS Chavez continued spreading his message through th...
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