Texas 2015 84th Regular

Texas House Bill HR154 Introduced / Bill

Filed 01/20/2015

Download
.pdf .doc .html
                    84R3000 RA-D
 By: Alonzo H.R. No. 154


 R E S O L U T I O N
 WHEREAS, A passionate advocate for social justice and civil
 rights for the poor and disenfranchised, Cesar Chavez was a true
 American hero, and the anniversary of his birth provides a fitting
 opportunity to remember and honor his many contributions; and
 WHEREAS, Born on March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Arizona, Cesar
 Chavez was 10 years old when his family lost their farm in the Great
 Depression and became migrant farmworkers; throughout his youth and
 into his adulthood, Mr. Chavez traveled across the Southwest,
 laboring in the fields and vineyards and attending more than 30
 different schools by the time he was in the eighth grade; and
 WHEREAS, After serving in the U.S. Navy for two years, he
 returned home to marry Helen Fabela, whom he had met while working
 in the vineyards of central California; settling with his wife in
 the East San Jose barrio of Sal Si Puedes, he returned to farming to
 support his young family; and
 WHEREAS, Witnessing firsthand the hardships and injustices
 of farmworker life, Mr. Chavez joined the Community Service
 Organization, a prominent Latino civil rights group, in 1952; while
 with the CSO, he coordinated voter registration drives and
 conducted campaigns against racial and economic discrimination; in
 the late 1950s and early 1960s, he served as the CSO's national
 director; and
 WHEREAS, Determined to create an organization that would
 protect and serve farmworkers, he resigned from the CSO in 1962,
 leaving the security of a regular paycheck, and moved with his wife
 and eight children to Delano, where he founded the first successful
 farmworkers union in American history; originally called the
 National Farm Workers Association, the organization later became
 known as the United Farm Workers of America; and
 WHEREAS, For more than three decades, Mr. Chavez led this
 groundbreaking organization by effecting change through peaceful
 tactics such as fasts, boycotts, strikes, and pilgrimages; his
 union's efforts influenced and inspired millions of Americans,
 forging a diverse national coalition of students, middle-class
 consumers, religious groups, and minorities in a hard-won struggle
 to achieve fair wages, medical coverage, pension benefits, humane
 living conditions, and perhaps most important, dignity and respect
 for the hundreds of thousands of farmworkers across the country;
 and
 WHEREAS, In 1994, a year after his death on April 23, 1993,
 his widow accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's
 highest civilian honor, on behalf of her late husband; since his
 death, communities across the nation have chosen to pay homage to
 Mr. Chavez by naming schools, parks, streets, and libraries, as
 well as scholarships and awards, in his honor; and
 WHEREAS, His motto in life, "si se puede," or "it can be
 done," embodies the legacy that Cesar Chavez has left for the
 world's benefit, and his principles of equality, justice, and
 dignity for all Americans remain as essential and as relevant today
 as they were when he began his important life's work; now,
 therefore, be it
 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 84th Texas
 Legislature hereby recognize the month beginning March 31, 2015, as
 Cesar Chavez Farmworker Appreciation Month and encourage all Texans
 to reflect on and celebrate the extraordinary achievements of this
 inspiring humanitarian.