Cesar Chavez Day

He was the leader of a movement that inspired the downtrodden all across the land, but not the one whom some expected to grace Easter Sunday's Google doodle. On Sunday, Google's doodle over its search bar featured a beatific portrait of Mexican American labor icon Cesar E. Chavez -- rather than a celebration of Easter, the day Jesus rose from the grave. That riled some Christians and Easter fans for what they perceived as a slight. (See a selection of tweets below.) Chavez, who died in 1993, would have been 86 on Sunday.

One after another, youngsters at Nevada Avenue School spoke in high, clear voices, reading from index cards about the man who had fought so hard for his people. Many fidgeted and giggled. Others beamed. Overall, the children had the same combination of grace and stumbles that accompanies most elementary school performances. This presentation was different, though. For the first time, about 180 participating students at this Canoga Park campus were focusing on Cesar Chavez.

Re "Chavez-Columbus Debate No Holiday for Council," March 21: As an Italian American I am offended and incensed by the Los Angeles City Council's vote to allow thousands of city employees to legally observe Cesar Chavez Day as a paid holiday and, in exchange, eliminate the observance of Columbus Day in October. City Administrative Officer William Fujioka negotiated with the employee unions to bring this unfair and insulting issue before the City Council without any consideration for the feelings of all Italians in Los Angeles.

Thousands of Los Angeles County prosecutors, public defenders and their clerks will report for work today, even though the doors to every courtroom and filing office will be locked. That's because it's Cesar Chavez Day, a holiday for the judges and commissioners in the state court system but a regular workday for lawyers and others on the county's payroll. "We still have plenty of work to do," said Joe Scott, spokesman for the district attorney's office.

Faced with the sometimes choppy waters of ethnic politics, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday could have used the navigating prowess of Christopher Columbus and the negotiating skills of Cesar Chavez. The touchy issue at hand: whether to allow 2,000 city employees to take Cesar Chavez Day as a paid city holiday instead of Columbus Day.

A group of Los Angeles City Council members objected Tuesday to a proposal by many city engineers to drop Cesar Chavez Day as one of their paid holidays, calling the plan an "insult" to the memory of the labor leader and to Latinos. Councilmen Tony Cardenas and Ed Reyes successfully led others in delaying approval of the change until officials with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 could voice their concerns today before the council.

"Cesar Chavez Day White Sale," the ad read. Paul Chavez, the son of Cesar E. Chavez, joked this week about the Central Valley newspaper ad, an inevitable byproduct of how we Americans often tend to mark the passage of a holiday. "You know you hit the big time when someone has a sale about you," he laughed.

Two years ago, 500 middle school and high school students skipped classes in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles and marched to demand that Cesar Chavez's birthday become a holiday. In August 2000, legislators and former Gov. Gray Davis had approved a state bill establishing March 31, Chavez's birthday, as a state holiday, becoming the first in the country to honor a Latino or organized labor figure.

Re "Gov. Seeks to Divert Transit Funds Again," Jan. 15: So Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to take millions in gas taxes that the voters ordered in Proposition 42 to go to improving our transportation system so that he can fix his budget problems. He has promised to repay the money over 15 years. In light of the fact he made a similar promise to refund suspended education funding from Proposition 98 last year and now has reneged on that promise, there is no reason to believe he will make good on this promise.

At a Sunday birthday celebration honoring Cesar Chavez, his son, Paul, kept in mind what his father often repeated: "The work is longer than the life." "My father understood that his work wouldn't be finished in his lifetime," Paul Chavez recalled. And just as his father's legacy continues the struggle to protect migrant workers, awareness of farm worker issues will continue to grow now that the state on Saturday marked the first official Cesar Chavez Day, Paul Chavez said.