The day before the state holiday honoring the late labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Pacoima Charter Elementary School for the annual Cesar Chavez March for Justice to remember the causes he championed and to protest against President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies.
Irv Hershenbaum was the first vice president of United Farm Workers (UFW), the union that Chavez co-founded with civil rights leader Dolores Huerta to fight for better working conditions, and coming from Los Angeles to attend the march. He has been attending for the past 30 years, describing Chavez as “more than a labor leader. He was a symbol of justice for the Latino community.”
“Cesar Chavez was a tremendous hero,” said Hershenbaum. “He meant so much to so many people, going against the odds and helping the people who [were] the poorest workers get justice through boycotting, through marching, through demonstrating for justice.
“That’s what we’re doing today. We want justice for immigrants, especially the people who built America. America is a nation of immigrants. What’s happening now is a disgrace to America,” he said about the mass deportation efforts under the Trump administration.
Trump has been using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – a wartime law that allows the president to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation – as justification for targeting immigrants with mass deportations.
More than 200 Venezuelans have been deported under the guise that they were Tren de Aragua gang members. Instead of being flown back to their home country, they were sent to a prison in El Salvador notorious for its harsh conditions.
Demonstrators, both young and old, arrived at the school, angered at Trump’s anti-immigration actions and ready to make their voices heard. They carried signs calling for reform instead of deportations, marching two miles from the school, down Van Nuys Boulevard and ending at Ritchie Valens Park.
Myrna Gonzalez, a staff member at Sylmar Biotech Health and Engineering Magnet, said this was her second time participating in the march. She explained how important it was for students to participate and to make their voices heard in a time of great political uncertainty.
“I know a lot of families that are scared to leave the house because of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” Gonzalez said. “But the students are very much into the marches and their teacher did a very good job at hyping the kids up and informing them [about the event].”
Samuel Torres – a recent graduate of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and former member of the college’s MEChA group – has taken part in the march for almost a decade, first with his family and now with his university friends. He’s joined the march to honor the legacy of the UFW movement that “sparked an explosion of social causes and justice for our community.”
While immigration was one of the bigger issues on Torres’ mind as he attended the march, what also concerns him is the fear and panic that has spread throughout the community as a result of Trump’s words and actions, calling it un-American and unpatriotic. Now more than ever, he said, it’s important for students and youth to get political.
“It is time to get active because the fact of the matter is, whether you like to talk about politics or get uncomfortable around it, it will affect you,” said Torres. “It will affect your community and your loved ones. … Through these marches and rallies, … it definitely changed me and made me feel that I have an obligation to support my community, my people, and by any means necessary, we will do that.
“By having these events, marches, rallies and people speaking, it should be fuel to the fire that is the youth’s action that will be the change in our generation,” he continued. “That’ll be the change that we need our communities to see. Seeing it, now more than ever, is crucial.”
The march was not the only action held that day in recognition of the labor leader. The annual Mass honoring Chavez’s memory and legacy was celebrated in Spanish by Archbishop José H. Gomez at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Farmworkers, including members of the UFW, participated in the procession down the cathedral’s center aisle before the Mass. Manuel Bernal, president and CEO of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, spoke after communion.
The foundation describes its mission as carrying on Chavez’s “life’s work of uplifting the lives of Latinos and working families by inspiring and transforming communities through social enterprises that address essential human, cultural and community needs.”
The Mass also reflected on the 60th anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike, a five-year labor action that began on Sept. 8, 1965, to protest poor pay and working conditions for farm workers.
It started with the strike by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a predominantly Filipino and AFL-CIO-backed (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) labor organization, against table grape growers in the Kern County city.
The National Farmworkers Association, the predominately Mexican labor group Chavez founded alongside Huerta, joined the strike eight days later. The two groups merged in August 1966 to create the UFW.
In 1966, the strikers set out from Delano towards Sacramento in a 340-mile march to bring attention to the plight of farm workers. Along the way, they were joined by civil rights workers, faith-based groups, student activists and union organizers. The strike and boycott ended in 1970 after 26 table grape growers signed contracts with the UFW.
I took part in this year’s Cesar Chavez March for Social Justice on Sunday, March 30, 2025. It was my first march, and I really enjoyed it. I took part in this march because I wanted to show my support and stand in solidarity with my neighbors. I hope that we can continue build community and stand united against tyranny. We must protect our human rights!