Obama hits a foul by honoring Cesar Chavez

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

President Obama made his own pilgrimage Monday to the farmland of central California. In his first visit there as president, Obama will formally establish the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument on a piece of property in Keene, east of Bakersfield. Known as Nuestra Senora Reina de la Paz, or Our Lady Queen of Peace, the property served as the national headquarters of the United Farm Workers.

It's a rookie mistake -- the kind you expect from people whose knowledge of America's largest minority is limited to mariachis and margaritas.

And I can tell you this much: Politically, Obama hit a foul ball.

Chavez has significance as a historical figure. It is because of the UFW that farmworkers now have clean water and toilets in the fields, collective bargaining, lunch breaks and other legal protections.

But Chavez was never a leader for all Latinos. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans might represent more than two-thirds of the U.S. Latino population, but the other third is made up of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans and others. To them, Chavez probably means nothing. Even Mexican immigrants don't have a stake in the legend of Cesar Chavez; they hear the name, and most of them probably think of the great Mexican boxer, Julio Cesar Chavez.

The group that Chavez has the strongest hold on is Mexican-Americans, but not all of them. He matters to baby boomers, but not to Generation X or the so-called millennial generation. And given that most Mexican-Americans now live in the cities -- Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, San Antonio, Dallas -- how are they supposed to relate to the memory of someone who was focused on the farms?

In the end, the small sliver of Latinos who will be impressed by Obama's gesture -- Mexican-American lefties over 50 -- was going to vote for him anyway. So where's the benefit?

Last, most Latinos disapprove of the president's heavy-handed immigration policies and record number of deportations.

Chavez earned many titles in his life, but "champion of immigrants" was not one of them. He was primarily a labor leader who was concerned about illegal immigrants undercutting union members, either by accepting lower wages or crossing picket lines. He never pretended to be anything else, and he resisted attempts by others to widen his agenda. When he pulled workers out of the field during a strike, the last thing he wanted was to see a crew of illegal immigrant workers take away his leverage.

According to many historical accounts, Chavez ordered union members to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service and report illegal immigrants who were working in the fields so that they could be deported. Some UFW officials were also known to picket INS offices to demand a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

In the 70s, the UFW set up a "wet line" to stop undocumented Mexican immigrants from entering the United States.

Under the supervision of Chavez's cousin, Manuel, UFW members tried at first to persuade Mexicans not to cross the border. One time when that didn't work, they physically attacked and beat them up to scare them off, according to reports at the time. The Village Voice said that the UFW was engaged in a "campaign of random terror against anyone hapless enough to fall into its net." A couple of decades later, in their book "The Fight in the Fields," journalists Susan Ferris and Ricardo Sandoval recalled the border violence and wrote that the issue of illegal immigration was "particularly vexing" for Chavez.

UFW loyalists will never admit to this ugly history. But that doesn't change it.

And this is the person Obama is honoring today with a national monument? One immigration hardliner paying his respects to another. I guess, in some perverse way, that makes sense. But it won't make most Latino voters any more enthusiastic about re-electing Barack Obama.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/08/opinion/navarrette-chavez-obama/index.html

Doesn't really matter. California is a lock for Obama. But before you come to California to make a political statement, you better learn the politics of the state first.

In Central California, "It's the water, stupid!" (They hate Obama, Pelosi, and the EPA with a passion!)

Edited October 9, 2012 by The Patriot

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I live in one of those big cities that has a predominantly Mexican-American population - San Antonio. Cesar Chavez is very well-known here and well-beloved by the Hispanic community. Chavez was very active in South Texas, and he and the UFW marched right through San Antonio. Many people here have roots in the Rio Grande Valley and have parents, grandparents or great-grandparents who were farm workers. So I think the author of the article misses the target, at least when he suggests that Chavez is irrelevant to the modern Hispanic population of San Antonio.

The city recently changed the name of downtown Durango Street to "Cesar Chavez Boulevard." Of course the switch did not come without controversy, and some groups fought against it - notably the San Antonio Conservation Society (which is, by the way, run by a bunch of rich old blueblood white women who don't live or own businesses along that street, but mostly live in the traditionally upper-class, traditionally "whiter" neighborhoods of the northside.) A lot of people who had businesses along the former Durango St. were also against the idea because they'd have to pay for new advertising, signage and even their letterhead. But other than them, the majority of the Hispanic community here very much approved of the idea.

The vote at City Council split along ethnic lines as well - all the Hispanic members voted for the change, and all the non-Hispanic members voted against it. Our City Council is predominantly Hispanic, as is the population of the city, and the motion passed.

However, if you say "Durango Street" today everybody knows what you mean, but if you say "Cesar Chavez Boulevard," you usually have to add "you know - Durango St."

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Same with Army Street in San Francisco.

[bigdog 377]

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