Chavez’s Mission Will Continue, Say Farm Workers Union Leaders

KEENE, Calif. — Here amid the rolling foothills that Cesar Chavez called home, the leadership of the United Farm Workers of America convened Saturday to send a message: The union’s legendary founder and guiding force is gone, but his work goes on.

“We must continue la lucha (the struggle),” declared Dolores Huerta, a longtime colleague, during a news conference designed in part to counter perceptions that the passing of Chavez marks the end of his cause. “We want the world to know that this union has a very strong and very firm foundation.”

The union leaders, clearly shaken by Chavez’s sudden death Friday, invited the media to the organization’s headquarters on the 200-acre grounds of a former tuberculosis sanitarium in the hills east of Bakersfield.

“Cesar forever reversed the culture of oppression for farm workers who knew him and for farm workers he never met,” said Arturo Rodriguez, the union’s first vice president.

In stressing that Chavez’s mission would continue--despite a paucity of labor contracts--the union leaders cited Chavez’s own words.

“Regardless of what the future holds for our union, regardless of what the future holds for farm workers, our accomplishments cannot be undone,” Chavez told the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco in 1984. “The consciousness and pride that were raised by our union are alive and thriving inside millions of young Hispanics who will never work on a farm.”

Besides emphasizing the message that Chavez’s cause transcends his personal presence, Saturday’s emotional session also allowed his followers to talk about Chavez’s final hours. He was found dead Friday morning, apparently of natural causes, at a supporter’s house in San Luis, Ariz.

Chavez and other top union officials had gone to Arizona as part of a bitter, protracted civil suit pitting the UFW against the Salinas-based Bruce Church Inc., a major lettuce producer.

The 20-year battle between the UFW and the lettuce giant has emerged as a kind of microcosm of union-agribusiness relations. The UFW alleges sexual harassment, pesticide poisoning and child labor violations--charges vehemently disputed by the company, which accuses the union of misrepresentations and improper boycotting activity.

Chavez, who turned 66 last month, had gone to Arizona last week and ended a six- or seven-day fast on Wednesday, his first day of grueling trial testimony, said David Martinez, the union’s secretary-treasurer, who accompanied Chavez.

Chavez, described as a deeply spiritual man, often undertook weeklong fasts as part of a physical and mental purification exercise, Martinez said.

At several points in his career, Chavez tried to draw attention to the farm workers’ plight by fasting for three weeks or more.

Fernando Chavez, the eldest of the union leader’s eight children, said Saturday that he believed a 36-day fast in 1988, when Chavez was 61, had weakened his father.

“I personally think those fasts took a lot out of him,” said Fernando Chavez, a 43-year-old San Jose attorney.

He and others also cited Chavez’s almost nonstop schedule of speeches, meetings, rallies and other appearances. He was scheduled to travel to Iowa this weekend.

“In a way, we could say that the work took its toll and eventually took him from us, sooner than it should have,” said Huerta, one of several union leaders who occasionally fought back tears Saturday.

During the trial testimony last week, a lawyer for the lettuce company quizzed Chavez for about 6 1/2 hours, said Marcos Camacho, UFW chief attorney.

Colleagues said that Chavez, while fatigued, seemed energetic during the rigorous cross-examination.

“His testimony was sharp,” Martinez said. “He was sharp.”

On Thursday evening, after a light dinner of rice and cabbage, the union leader repaired to his room at about 10 p.m., leaving the light on apparently so that he could read, Martinez said.

The next morning, though, Chavez did not awake for the planned 7 a.m. departure. Friends said they assumed he needed the sleep. At 9:05 a.m., a concerned Martinez went inside.

“I opened the door and I suddenly knew that he wasn’t going to wake up anymore,” Martinez said Saturday.

Chavez, fully clothed but without shoes, was lying on the bed, a catalogue of American Indian art in front of him.

“We didn’t see any signs that he had been through any pain,” Martinez said. “It was pretty devastating, something we had dreaded.”

Authorities were summoned to the scene, and an initial investigation indicated that Chavez had died of natural causes.

Throughout the Central Valley, where Chavez was a household name among farm workers and others, supporters went into mourning.

Church services were held in Salinas and Delano, while friends and supporters gathered for rosary at the UFW compound.

At the sprawling UFW complex--known as La Paz (Peace)--Saturday, many of Chavez’s 27 grandchildren played outside the simple wood-paneled green and white house where Chavez had resided. Their presence dispelled an otherwise somber mood.

“He was our teacher and we were his students,” said a grieving Enedina Hernandez, a former farm worker who had stood alongside Chavez for 30 years.

“Like any students, we have to continue with our careers.”

The union leader’s body was returned to California on Friday evening aboard an airplane chartered by a union supporter. An autopsy was performed at the Kern County coroner’s office.

A rosary will be held Wednesday evening at the union’s Forty Acres property in Delano, followed by an all-night vigil and a march Thursday morning. A funeral mass will follow in Delano, where Chavez founded the UFW 31 years ago.

According to Chavez’s wishes, his brother, Richard, a journeyman carpenter before joining the UFW in the 1960s, is building a plain casket.

At the UFW headquarters here, Chavez’s presence remains palpable, his image ubiquitous in posters and photographs.

Atop his desk sat a short-handled hoe--the back-breaking implement that was banned in California through his efforts.

Lining the walls of his study are images of those he admired: Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi. To friends, he professed his belief that he too might be the victim of an assassin.

“Cesar never thought he’d die a natural death,” said Marc Grossman, a longtime associate, who recalled that Chavez once told him: “I’ll live to be 100 unless they get me with a bullet.”