Cesar Chavez holiday evokes strong feelings

I grew up in the time when Chavez was doing what he did. What I remember from my Grandfather who worked for a packing company in Delano . He was the plant supervisor . I recall he came home on weekends or during the week because the packing shed was blown up by Ceasar Chavez and his band of terrorist. He lied cheated and completly used the mexican people to generate publicity.
I do agree the farm workers deserve even more than they get BUT you cant get what you want by terrorist tactics and that is why Mr Chavez will never deserve the honor of a holiday. If he would have used peace instead of bombs I would respect him.
But I have respect for my Grandfather because he defended his workers and used respect to incourage his workers.
Holiday for terrorist well lets give one to Bin Laden also.They both used bombs.

"What does this state holiday, recognizing Chavez' birthday, mean to you?"

Well, what does it mean to me? Emotionally/nostalgic it means nothing to me. I am not Mexican American, I am not a farm worker and I am not a grower. Though socio/political/cultural; I realize that trade unions are an integral component of modern labor/management relations. I know from history that the trade unions did not come about without violence. Prior to coming here in 1952, even in Europe I had heard of Walter Reuther, the leader of the United Auto Workers and his nearly legendary "standing on the bridge" when he was beaten up by a hired anti labor squad. But the topic Labor/Management is of minor interest to me because it does not fit into my sphere of intersts. The closest friends of the family were Madera County grape growers. My husband's father ( an Anglo) worked for many years as a ranch foreman in Tulare County. Neither our friends nor my father in law ever mentioned acts of violence against them. Intellectually, it would be impossible for me to accept that the American government would have dedicated a day (holiday) to a terrorist/criminal.

I can recall the bitter divides in our Congregational Church. Many of the local churches left the "Conference", an amalgam of churches from Porterville north to the Oregon border due to the Conference's support of Chavez. And our own church, College Community, was deeply divided but voted to allow Chavez to sleep there one night on his march to Sacramento. My law office did some {non-union) work for Chavez. The summary is that the community was deeply divided, with growers feeling threatened and workers fighting bitterly for what they perceived was their survival. An example of the bitterness occurred in Bakersfield Superior Court where I was representing a Hispanic girl not allowed to graduate, or so we contended, due to her support of Chavez in a demonstration. All the attorneys went into the judge's chambers for coffee and an attempt to settle their cases; I was not allowed and the bailiff told me that was due to my representation. A bitter time. Yet Chavez was onto something. The field workers then and now need huge support, and have much less power than the growers. I suspect that the claims against him are partly true and partly exaggerated due to the bitterness around all of this; as I suspect Chavez' claims to be the same. My dream would be for everyone to find a path to mutual respect. Neither side could function without the other. And ultimately, I think Chavez was a great and courageous man with a vision still needed today.

It is my understanding that he did alot for the mexican farm workers. I am not big on unions cause I think we all have to stand up for ourselves and if we do unions are not necessary. They often cause more problems than not.