The 14th Annual César E. Chávez Celebration on Thursday, March 26 at California State University, Stanislaus will feature former United Farm Workers organizer and Turlock native Aggie Rose Chavez and noted labor attorney Liza Medina as guest speakers.
A birthday salute to the ideals of the late farm labor leader César Chávez who died in 1993, the program gets under way at 5 p.m. with a reception featuring Latin jazz and a silent auction in the Carol Burke Lounge that will benefit the work of the César E. Chavez Celebration Committee which sponsors and organizes the event. The main program featuring the guest speaker presentations and dance and music performances follows at 6 p.m. in the nearby Event Center. Admission is free and open to the public.
Medina and her husband, Eliseo, worked for farmworker unions in the 1970s in the Oxnard area where they live today. She credits her involvement in the farmworker labor movement to a meeting with César Chávez when she was 10 years old, an event that she said “changed my life.” Her husband, a Service Employees International Union executive vice president who represents 17 states, advised the Obama presidential campaign on Latino issues.
Aggie Rose Chavez is a well known literacy advocate. She practices law in Oakland, focusing on Social Security, SSI disability, and family law matters.
Winners of the annual César Chávez poster art, essay, and poetry contest will have their work showcased at the program and be presented with their awards. Stanislaus County kindergarten through 12th grade students participate in the contest that includes two age groups. CSU Stanislaus students will also have entries in a higher education poster contest.
Ballet Folklorico dances will be performed by the “Los Falcones,” “Xochipilli,” and “Movimiento Nahuatl” dance groups.
For more information, call Gabriela Nuno at (209) 664-6835.
