The annual Cesar Chavez march in Oxnard on Sunday presented the familiar sights of red United Farm Workers flags waving through La Colonia and sounds of Spanish chants to the tune of beating drums.
But this year’s tribute to the farmworker advocate and civil rights leader was different from past events.
The demonstration ended with a flood of more than 1,000 people at Plaza Cinemas in downtown Oxnard, where marchers could watch a recently released feature-length film about the labor rights movement led by Chavez.
United Farm Workers — with financial support from local elected officials, nonprofits, businesses and other unions — hosted 2,400 farmworkers, students and community members to watch the film free in English or Spanish at Plaza Cinemas on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Many farmworkers came who had never been to the movies. This was their first experience,” said Roman Pinal, a United Farm Workers organizer in Oxnard. “The interaction between the audience was special. They were clapping. They were shouting. I saw a few people with tears.”
The film, directed by Mexican actor Diego Luna, depicts the hardships farmworkers faced in California in the 1960s and the fight for better conditions championed by Chavez, who co-founded the present-day United Farm Workers union.
Pinal said moviegoers were reminded of the success of the five-year labor strike and national boycott of California table grapes that ended with prominent growers signing a union contract.
“Nothing beats winning: when farmworkers win a grievance, when farmworkers win a wage increase,” Pinal said. “We saw the victory of the grape boycott. That’s the inspiring part that the movie puts on the big screen. Farmworkers can still come together using the tools that Cesar Chavez brought to us.”
The farmworkers union has been focused on using Chavez’s tactics and support from workers to get a comprehensive immigration bill passed, Pinal said.
“Just like the prominent grower in the movie signed the union contract, we’re going to march very soon in April so that President Obama can sign immigration reform,” Pinal said. “Cesar Chavez taught us how to organize, and we’re still using that today.”
Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village, said, “The obvious next step is comprehensive immigration reform,” but said she was not optimistic that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will bring legislation to the House floor for a vote or debate before November elections.
“It’s a tragedy,” she said. “It’s frustrating for many in Congress because we know that the votes are there.”
Similar to Sunday, Brownley helped lead the Oxnard march in 2013, when she spoke to protesters about the “real chance” for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system after the power of the Latino vote in the 2012 presidential election.
The political climate surrounding an immigration overhaul has lost the momentum it had one year ago, even with a Senate bill that passed with bipartisan support in June.
But more than 150 Ventura County residents still plan to join a protest in Bakersfield at the end of April to work for “broader support” of an immigration overhaul, Pinal said.
One of Chavez’s grandsons, Andres, drove from Bakersfield join the march in Oxnard on Sunday.
“My grandfather said that if nothing continues to change, then all of his work is for nothing,” Andres said. “They’re not only marching on behalf of my grandfather, but they’re marching for peace and social justice and immigration reform ... something that my grandfather would believe in. They really are continuing his legacy in the best way possible.”
Andres, 20, was born nine months after Chavez died. His father, Paul Chavez, is president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation.
The film “tells the story of an American hero — somebody who genuinely cared about people and made change nonviolently,” said Andres, who is studying public policy at CSU Bakersfield.
Berenice Díaz Ceballos, the Mexican consul for the Tri-Counties region, also attended the film screening Sunday.
Díaz Ceballos said she works with Mexican nationals to help eradicate poverty, address migrant issues, preserve Mexican culture abroad and create better opportunities for education, health and jobs.
“We need leaders like Chavez,” she said. “The important thing is to advance and recognize the human dignity of all persons. We need leaders, and there are a lot of things we can do to improve to better the situations of all people.”
Farmworkers union member Maria Leca, 47, of Oxnard, participated in the march and attended the film screening with her husband, 10-year-old son, 7-year-old daughter and five of her brothers.
Leca, who was born in Michoacán, México, said she has been “very satisfied” picking strawberries for Dole since 1999. Her husband also is a farmworker.
Leca said in Spanish that the film will help strengthen support for farmworkers because people are “going to see how they were treated” by growers in the 1960s compared with “how they’re treated now.”
“Today’s struggle is much better than before,” she said in Spanish. “We’re moving forward and forward.”