Cesar Chavez: Forefather of Environmental Justice & Labor Leader

Cesar Chavez Day 2021

By Marta Segura, Climate Emergency Mobilization Director, City of Los Angeles

This week, the famous labor organizer, Latino leader, and environmental and social justice activist is on the minds of many. As we honor Cesar Chavez’s legacy on March 31, 2021, we must remember his compassion for the workers and families he mobilized, the emphasis he placed on intersectionality and the labor, health, and social inequality issues he raised including building awareness of the toxic dangers of pesticides to both consumers and the farmworkers and their families.

Although I was born around the same time the Grape Strikes began, the Grape Boycott was a campaign I grew up with. This is how I was first introduced to Cesar Chavez, the labor leader, but also the advocate for environmental health and justice. For Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW), the regulation of pesticides was an inextricable element of their struggle for workers’ rights and dignity. This was something he advocated for as early as 1965, so I would argue that Chavez is one of the forefathers of environmental justice. I even wrote my final thesis at UC Santa Barbara arguing this point. I had the fortune of meeting him in person, when he came to lecture and walk around with the Chicano/a students in the 1980’s. There were so many of us following him around, it felt like we were following a guru to capture the wisdom through the echoes of his voice traveling through the wind.

Cesar Chavez speaking at the Democratic Convention in New York City in 1976.

Chavez reflected the communities he worked in and people he advocated for and has left us that legacy to live up to. He suffered with the people he stood for, fasted for them, and lived in the contaminated environment sprayed by pesticides to show them he was no different. He inspired many generations and diverse communities, and he did so with broad support. The slow, complicated processes of advocacy and democracy never deterred him, but it did frustrate him as it does any great organizer. “It’s amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease,” said Chavez…