Stockton labor leader to hold Cesar Chavez Day celebration. Public welcome to attend.
SACRAMENTO — This Sunday, March 31, is Cesar Chavez Day. The state holiday celebrates the labor leader's life and achievements in the farm fields of America.
One Stockton man has made it his mission to help a new generation of farmworkers.
A typical day for Luis Magaña: The labor leader ventures into the agricultural fields of the Central Valley to educate farmworkers about their rights.
On a blustery, sunny afternoon, Magaña visits with workers from Oaxaca, Mexico. They're pruning grape vines on the outskirts of Stockton, just in time for spring.
He greets each one with a handshake and a smile, even though he's not always welcomed by farm owners.
Back at his office, Magaña walked into a room filled with cultural artifacts and reminders of his homeland. Artwork and murals hang on the walls and tell the history of California's farmworkers, including his own.
In 1967, Magaña and his family moved from Michoacan, Mexico to California's Central Valley, known as the breadbasket of the world.
The move was made possible because his grandfather was part of the Bracero Program, a federally funded agreement that allowed 5 million Mexican workers to legally work in the United States.
At the age of 14, Magaña learned to organize.
"At this age, I started school. I had to gather a group of migrant students because the White kids would beat us up," Magaña said. "This happened in the Manteca school district, and that was my first time organizing a group of kids."
In the years to come, Magaña, now a dedicated organizer, would cross paths with labor leader Cesar Chavez.
In 1987, he invited Chavez to speak to Mexican migrant workers in San Joaquin County.
"He motivated me because my fight for farmworkers' rights began in the 1970s and in social movements that my parents were a part of," Magaña said.
This was the time Chavez launched a campaign to draw attention to pesticides poisoning grape workers and their children. Magaña said it remains a problem today.
"There's a lot of people that keep getting sprayed and affected by a lot of agriculture chemicals," he said.
Since the 1960s, United Farm Workers brought change to the farm fields of America.
However, Magaña said the new generation of migrant workers, many of whom come from indigenous parts of Mexico and Central America, face the same old challenges.
"From accidents, extortions, coming as subjects in a system that borders on slavery in order to work in the farm fields," he said.
Magaña spends most of his time consulting migrant workers on wage theft, reporting harassment and job injuries. He feels compelled to pick up where his predecessor left off.
"It's like Cesar Chavez's legacy stayed put in history books and not in the farm fields where workers remain," Magaña said.
On Cesar Chavez Day, Magaña plans to hold a small gathering at his Stockton office to honor the labor leader. The public is welcome to attend.
