Sacramento march honoring Latino activist Cesar Chavez to include calls for Gaza cease-fire

A wide-range of Sacramentans will march near downtown this Saturday in honor of the late civil rights leader Cesar Chavez and to protest current issues affecting underrepresented communities.

The annual gathering, now in its 22nd year, pays homage to Chavez’s advocacy while connecting his work to modern day activism. This year, the march will take place one day before Chavez’s birthday, which is a federal commemorative holiday.

“We give people the opportunity to come out and tell the community what their issues are,” said Francisco Garcia, one of the organizers “This is not a parade. This is not a commercial event.”

The gathering will kick off at 10 a.m. at Southside Park, across the street from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, where Chavez finished his historic march in 1966. Marchers will head to the Capitol before returning to the park around 11:45 a.m. for a series of speakers including farmworker activists, politicians and labor advocates.

Over the years, the march has provided a platform to protest former President Donald Trump’s immigration plans, remember the police shooting of Stephon Clark and push for immigrant rights. Garcia said this year’s speakers will call for improved public education, immigration reform and a Gaza cease-fire. Last week, the Sacramento City Council approved a Gaza cease-fire resolution.

Sacramento’s connection to Chavez

Sacramento has long been tied to to the late labor leader.

As a 14-year-old migrant, Chavez picked canary tomatoes with his family in the Sacramento Delta in the early 1940s, according to Marc Grossman, Chavez’s longtime spokesman and personal aide.

Chavez returned to Sacramento years later at the end of the 340-mile 1966 march for farmworker rights. The state Capitol became the final destination of several farmworker marches that followed over the next few decades.

Following Chavez’s death in 1993, Joe Serna Jr., Sacramento’s first Latino mayor, pushed for initiatives to honor the civil rights leader.

The formerly known Old City Plaza, at Ninth and I streets, was renamed Cesar Chavez Plaza in 1997. Two years later, a sculpture commemorating the 1966 march was unveiled in the plaza.

“Millions of Americans from all walks of life and multiple generations trace their social and political activism to him nearly 31 years after his passing,” Grossman said.

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