Nowhere was Chavez' impact felt more than in the Central Valley. Bakersfield celebrated the holiday at the school that bares Chavez's name.
It was a celebration marked by children of different races who sang in harmony to acknowledge a man who improved the lives of so many, Your 23 reported. Cesar Chavez pushed for better wages and benefits for farm workers.
He led nonviolent marches. He fasted and led boycotts.
"The best way to help with cancer and birth defects that are attacking our families is for you to not eat grapes," Chavez said during one of his boycotts.
Keynote speaker, Kern County supervisor Pete Parra, gave an emotional speech in which he said that Chavez was a man with great dignity, who opened the doors for all Hispanics.
"Be like Chavez. Be like he. Have love in your heart and do things with honor because you will be repaid," UFW Co-Founder Delores Huerta said.
And the crowd gave her a standing ovation. Huerta, along with Chavez, helped create the United Farm Worker's Union.
She said that she foresees Chavez's holiday getting bigger.
"There are many other states now that have declared a holiday. Arizona for one. Texas. And there is a bill in Congress to make it a national holiday," Huerta said.
Chavez died in 1993. He would have been 74 years old Saturday.
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