Camila Chávez, daughter of Dolores Huerta accepts an award on behalf of her mother. Andres Chávez, grandson of Cesar Chávez is standing next to her. All photos provided by CSUB.
Cecilia Castro was raised in Bakersfield, attended Greenfield Middle School and graduated from South High. But It wasn’t until she took a course in Chicano History at UC Santa Barbara that she learned about two historical figures of the farmworker labor and civil rights movement, Cesar Chávez and Dolores Huerta — both from Kern County.
Castro recalls a light bulb going off in her head asking herself a question. Why was this the first time she heard about them? she wondered. “It shouldn’t have to be that way! It should be included in our history books,” said Castro. She is hardly alone. Thousands of others in Kern County, including farmworkers’ children, do not know their history.
That’s just one reason why it was refreshing and inspiring to see Cal State Bakersfield host its first-ever Chavez Huerta Leadership Conference, a two-day event held last week and the brainchild of CSUB professor Dr. Mark Martinez.
“We intend to make the CSUB Chavez Huerta Leadership Conference the premier social justice convening in the nation,” said CSUB President Dr. Vernon B. Harper in his address to attendees. He added, “We want every resident of this community to understand that the crusade for justice that began here in Kern County is their birthright.”
To its credit, the conference focused more on the future than the past with an impressive lineup of speakers, and thankfully, not all were from the realm of academia.
One of the speakers was Linda Yvette Chávez, a young creator, director, writer, and producer of impactful stories for movies and television. Among her credits is the movie, “Flamin Hot,” an award-winning film. “When people hear my last name they ask, ‘Wait, are you related to Cesar Chávez?’ And I say, yes, yes, I am, he’s my uncle. Ok, he’s not,” joked the Norwalk-raised Chávez. Her candor and openness about doubting if she fit into the entertainment world shed insight into why she felt like an imposter in an industry that is all about making money, she said.
“Ironically, the fact my art can only be valued by how much money I could make was very difficult for me to reconcile, especially a Chicana from a working-class family who wanted to tell the stories of her people, at a time when most of this industry did not see much value in that,” said Chávez. “I didn’t think my stories were good enough.” Her stories are more than good enough, they bring out a human cultural experience that anyone can relate to, not just Latinos.
Another storyteller was Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arrellano who has no qualms about telling it like he sees it whether people like it or not. “The more things change, the more sometimes they become worse,” said Arrellano. He was referring to how Latino attitudes today toward immigrants have changed from what it was not that long ago. “Per polls, Latinos today are more for immigration restriction now than they’ve been since even before in 1994,” said Arrellano, recalling the passage of Proposition 187.
Prop 187 was a draconian measure to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants and it passed with 60% of the vote statewide. The only good thing about it is that it was a wake-up call for Latinos, and helped mobilize a generation of community activists to get involved in organizing their communities and getting people to vote. A judge declared most of it unconstitutional and it was struck down.
But Arrellano hit the nail on the head. Many Latinos today, while supportive of their undocumented family or friends from Mexico in the past do not support the immigrants from Central America or Venezuela because “they are not like us.” To those who think that way, Arrellano does not mince words. “Shame on you! If you forget literally where we came from, I’m calling you out on that. The reason many Latinos are for Trump is we don’t know our history or we conveniently forget it.” Amen!
Despite the challenges, Arrellano encouraged young people in particular to become active in their communities and make positive changes. And it doesn’t necessarily mean getting involved in politics, rather just by documenting their history via social media. “Wherever you’re from, tell your stories! Tell those stories from Arvin, Delano, Lamont, because if you don’t tell your story, someone else will and most likely, they’re not going to tell it the right way,” concluded Arrellano.
The conference drew the attention, and support, of the top executive of the CSU system, Chancellor Dr. Mildred Garcia, the first Latina in the nation to lead a four-year public university system. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Garcia said she eagerly began working in a factory in Brooklyn when she was 14 to help out her single mother. She was in for a rude awakening.
“[The foreman] made the mistake of screaming at me. That day, just as Cesar Chávez and Dolores Huerta had borne witness to so many times, the foreman made that mistake of trying to tell me my worth, my mom’s worth, my neighbor’s worth!” said Garcia. The experience at a young age motivated her to pursue higher education.
The first day of the conference ended with a well-documented presentation by Stanford Historian Dr. Albert Camarillo of a landmark legal case, Luna v. Kern County. In 2016, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund sued Kern County on behalf of four local residents, claiming Kern’s Board of Supervisors adopted a discriminatory district map, diluting Latino voting strength to prevent them from gaining a second seat on the five-member board, in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Camarillo testified for the plaintiffs as a key expert witness in the case, giving a historical accounting of how institutional racism and practices in Kern County played a role in Kern adopting the discriminatory district map. Lawyers for Kern County tried to get the judge to dismiss Camarillo’s testimony.
In his ruling on the case, U.S. District Court Judge Dale A. Drozd wrote, “The Court finds Dr. Camarillo’s testimony to be compelling evidence in the hearing of discrimination against Latinos in Kern County and the broader region. Consideration of this fact weighs heavily on plaintiff’s favor.”
The judge said that the redistricting plan unlawfully denied Latinos the ability to elect candidates of their choice. Kern County and MALDEF settled the lawsuit in 2018, with Kern County agreeing to draw a new supervisorial district. The new district that was created is now District 4 and includes Arvin, Lamont, McFarland, Delano, Wasco, Shafter, Lost Hills and Buttonwillow which are all majority Latino communities. Kern County agreed to pay $3 million to MALDEF for attorneys’ fees.
Camarillo ended with a stark reminder. “(Voting rights) are not guaranteed. They have to be fought for every single generation!” said Camarillo. “Powerful forces are at work to undermine the progress made.”
Day two of the conference took place at the National Chavez Center in Keene. This is the place where Cesar Chávez is buried and headquarters of the UFW. President Barack Obama proclaimed the site as a National Monument in 2012. Plans are already in the works for the next Chávez Huerta Leadership Conference in 2025. If it is half as good as this year’s it will be another success. To quote CSUB President Harper, “The struggle for justice is timeless, and it never stops.”
