Millions reaped what Cesar Chavez sowed - Obituary - Cover Story

National Catholic Reporter, May 7, 1993 by Arthur Jones

Henning dwelt on Chavez's deep Catholic faith, saying Chavez was "the only one" who was "able to unify the social justice issue with a cultural and religious emphasis. No other organizer was quite able to do that."

Henning said, "He was a devout Catholic. I'm not sugarcoating that at all. He was a tough cookie. But he went almost daily to Mass. He spent an hour each day in prayer."

Even though unionized farm workers are a minority, Chavez and the UFW raised the standards across the board as growers at unorganized farms raised workers' pay to keep them from forming a union, Henning said.

But while Chavez occupied a unique spot in time, history will not regard him as unique, say those who knew him.

Valesquez said, "We, of course, are beneficiaries of the struggle. We rode in on his coattails."

As for the future, he predicted, "we have a lot of talented intelligent people, who will come after Cesar and come after me, who are going to do things bigger and better, as long as we hold together the organization."

Bishops' involvement

Chavez was one of the first recipients of a Campaign for Human Development grant, said Jesuit Father Joseph Hacala, director of CHD, the U.S. bishops' domestic antipoverty program.

In 1969, Msgr. George Higgins, then director of the U.S. bishops' social action department, drafted a statement on the farm labor problem, with supportive references to the grape boycott, for the bishops to consider at their November meeting.

At that meeting, two California bishops suggested the bishops might have more effect if they offered their services in some way to mediate the dispute instead of issuing a resolution endorsing the boycott. Higgins had reservations but withdrew the boycott resolution and quickly arranged a private meeting between Bishop Hugh Donohoe of Fresno and William Kirchner, AFL-CIO director of organizing.

Chavez's union had merged with the AFL-CIO Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in 1966, becoming the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, or UFWOC.

They came up with a proposal to form the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Farm Labor as a mediation panel. By the end of the bishops' meeting, the committee was established with Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Donnelly of Hartford, Conn., as chairman.

Chavez, the committee and growers held hundreds of intense meetings over the next couple of years. A young priest of the Fresno diocese, Msgr. Roger Mahony, was named the committee's field secretary in California and worked almost constantly with Chavez and the growers. He is now Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles.

In May 1970, when grower after grower was finally signing contracts with UFWOC, Chavez told Catholic News Service that the bishops' committee had set the stage for settlement by dispelling the growers' claims that the workers did not want union representation.

"The bishops' involvement in the negotiations placed a tremendous strain on the growers' line (of argument)," he said. "Without the bishops' help, it would have been very difficult."