On March 31, 1966, labor rights pioneer Cesar Chavez wasn’t celebrating his birthday in any ordinary method. Somewhat, he was 14 days right into a 25-day pilgrimage in California from Delano to Sacramento.

Main a bunch of placing farm laborers and supporters, Chavez’s
plan was to construct momentum and assist for the employees’ trigger in a march
that may conclude on the steps of the California State Capitol on
Easter Sunday morning.

The date right here is essential. A foundational, however principally forgotten,
function of the practically 300-mile pilgrimage throughout Lent was that it was a
deeply non secular endeavor.

As a scholar of faith and the farmworkers motion,
I imagine Chavez’s endeavor was not merely a “march” or “protest” –
though staff’ rights had been, in fact, central to the occasion. Somewhat,
it was a “pilgrimage,” and to miss the non secular dimensions is to
basically misunderstand what Chavez was attempting to attain.

Revolution with penance

Chavez, whose birthday is well known as a commemorative vacation within the U.S. each March 31, stays the preeminent icon of civil and labor rights within the U.S.

However contrasting with the view of labor rights as a purely secular
endeavor, Chavez fused his understanding of Catholic social doctrine
with rules of group organizing.

Accordingly, when it got here to elevating consideration to the plight of placing grape harvesters – denied the precise to unionize of their battle for increased wages and higher circumstances – Chavez leaned on his non secular beliefs.

From the outset, Chavez made clear the pious nature of the march,
calling it a peregrinación – Spanish for “pilgrimage” – within the
registration type he penned. Leaving no room for ambiguity, Chavez
detailed: “It is a non secular march” and added the headline banner of
“Pilgrimage, Penance, Revolution” – framing designed to enchantment to each
the majority-Catholic farmworker trustworthy and extra revolutionary members
of the labor motion alike.

At first blush, penance appears a bit misplaced in a world of protest. Much more mockingly, Chavez held that penance
in the course of the 1966 Lenten season march was required “for all of the failings
of Farm Staff” fairly than for the exploitative growers that stored
farmworkers uprooted and impoverished. However to Chavez, revolution may
not occur with out penance – that’s, an enterprise to supply oneself
innocent. As a collective public ritual, nonetheless, it additionally hoped to name
your complete nation to penance.

The pilgrimage was an extension of a strike launched on Mexican Independence Day
in 1965 at Our Girl of Guadalupe Church in Delano. There, the
Chavez-led Nationwide Farm Staff Affiliation joined forces with the
Filipino Agricultural Staff Organizing Committee.

Catholicism supplied a ready-made bridge between Mexican and Filipino
farmworkers. Seemingly “secular” labor points may simply be framed
by way of non secular and ethical language. Chavez’s dedication to foregrounding faith in his dedication to nonviolence took a web page from Martin Luther King Jr.’s playbook.

A girl of labor

The pilgrimage to Sacramento started on March 17, 1966, below a banner of Our Girl of Guadalupe. Guadalupe – a illustration of the Virgin Mary, which, in line with Catholic custom, originated in 1531 – has lengthy stood as Mexico’s most ubiquitous image of nationwide and spiritual protest.

Together with the banner Our Girl of Guadalupe, a star of David and a
cross had been featured as outstanding non secular symbols within the pilgrimage.
The bigger which means of the cross, when carried close to the worn and wearied Chavez hobbling alongside
with the assistance of a cane, was by no means misplaced on farmworkers. Later
ballads captured this placing allusion to the Ardour of Jesus by
describing Chavez as a struggling prophet and messianic determine who would sacrifice every thing to result in justice for farmworkers.

Regardless of the prominence of Catholic iconography, the pilgrimage
remained an interfaith endeavor. Rabbis, Catholic clergymen and Protestant
clergy stood as a few of the farmworkers’ staunchest supporters.

Music to raise souls and ease soles

Assist to raise the spirit of the marchers got here in a mess of
methods. For instance, after a day of marching, El Teatro Campesino, a
theater group established by playwright Luis Valdez, and enthusiastic
supporters placed on rallies stuffed with meals and music. One historian recorded
that these raucous celebrations resembled non secular revivals, very like
those Chavez had famous in Pentecostal church companies.

In his 1975 autobiography,
Chavez described attending one such service in Madera, within the coronary heart of
California’s Central Valley, in 1954. The younger labor organizer
recalled:

“In that little Madera church, I noticed every thing happening about
me that could possibly be helpful in organizing. Though there have been not more than
twelve women and men, there was extra spirit there than once I went to
mass the place there have been 200.”

Pentecostal music, in contrast to typical church music of the time, redeemed the fiesta of secular Mexican music
by sanctifying musical genres then thought to not be match for non secular
companies. Chavez would have instantly observed a placing distinction
between demonstrative Pentecostal worship and the staid music of
Catholicism within the pre-Vatican II years.

‘The bottom should be religion’

Virtually a decade after the pilgrimage, Chavez mused:

“As we speak I don’t suppose I may base my will to wrestle on chilly
economics or on some political doctrine. I don’t suppose there can be
sufficient to maintain me. For me, the bottom should be religion.”

Religion sustained Chavez on his pilgrimage 57 years in the past. On Easter
Sunday 1966, Chavez ascended the steps of the California State Capitol
upon the completion of the pilgrimage. By then, the purpose of securing the
farmworkers with their first-ever union contract with a grower had been
accomplished.