El treinta y uno de marzo/March 31st

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César Chávez Day (State Holiday) in California, Colorado, and Texas. Nationwide, though not a federal holiday, it is a day to perform service and engage in community and educational programs honoring Chávez's legacy (as proclaimed by President Barack Obama).

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... César Chávez! (1927-1993)

From usnews.com. Click HERE. 
An activist who used nonviolent means to bring attention to the plight of farmworkers, Chávez founded the National Farmworkers' Association (now the United Farmworkers) with Dolores Huerta in 1965. Born in Yuma, Arizona, he moved with his family to California to become migrant farm workers after they lost their house during the Great Depression. Chávez dropped out of school after the 7th grade to be able to work more to help support his family. He served in the Navy for two years after World War II but returned to California and his farmworker roots. His newly founded National Farmworkers' Association was responsible for the Grape Boycott of 1968 that ended with increased pay and the right to unionize for the farmworkers. A committed Catholic and follower of the nonviolent techniques of Mahatma Gandhi, Chávez fasted for justice multiple times during his life, with the most notable fasts being for 25 days before the Grape Boycott and for 33 days in 1988 to protest the use of pesticides because of their harmful effects on workers (for a current look at this issue check out Eva Longoria's 2010 documentary La Cosecha). An opponent of the Bracero Program (1942 to 1964) because he believed it exploited migrants and undermined U.S. workers, Chávez also spoke out about (and even reported to the INS) workers who crossed the border and worked as strikebreakers. Nonetheless, Chávez was completely committed to a variety of social justice causes. He died in his sleep in 1993 (some believe his 1988 hunger strike of 33 days contributed to his death), leaving behind his wife, Helen, 8 children, and 31 grandchildren (one of those grandchildren is professional golfer Sam Chávez). He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1994. For a mini-biography on César Chávez, click HERE.

For a lesson on Chávez using a 2014 Primer Impacto report on the many ways he was a visionary (a lesson that also happens to review the imperfect), click HERE.

Other March 31st birthdays:

Octavio Paz (1914-1998): Mexican poet who won the Nobel Prize in 1990. He was an important figure in the "Latin Boom."

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