César Chávez Day: LA workers rally for immigrant rights

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of workers in Los Angeles didn't let the rain stop them from commemorating the legacy of César Chávez.

What we know:

Workers from hospitals, foster care, mental health, courts, law enforcement, libraries, street services, sanitation, water treatment, parks services, janitors, child care providers, health care and home care workers and gig workers gathered outside the headquarters of Service Employees International Union Local 721 for the rally.

The theme of the march "honors not only the labor of workers who use their hands to feed us, to care for our children, the old, and the sick, and to build our shelter. It also recognizes how much we all share in common with families seeking safety in our state and parents willing to endure deep sacrifice to ensure their children don't grow up with fear or hunger," organizers said.

Organizers have likened Monday's march to the 340-mile, 25-day march Chavez led from Delano, about 30 miles north of Bakersfield, to Sacramento in 1966 that is widely credited with awakening the conscience of America about the farmworkers' struggle for rights and creating momentum for the farmworkers' fight to form their union.

A group of workers also made the trip to Kern County to attend the events there.

UCLA marked César Chávez Day with the opening of the Latinx Success Center which the university bills as "a campus hub focused on improving student achievement, academic outcomes and overall college experiences, with academic and advising services as well as leadership and mentorship programs among its many offerings."

The ribbon-cutting ceremony and outdoor opening celebration was titled, "Floreciendo en Comunidad," Spanish for "Flourishing in Community." It will include remarks by Chancellor Julio Frenk and performances from Las Cafeteras, Mariachi de Uclatlán and Danza Azteca Tonatiuh.

The center is part of UCLA's efforts to reach benchmarks to become a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is part of a commitment "to ensure that all Bruins -- including Latino, first-generation and low-income students -- can reach their highest potential," according to the university.

Timeline:

The annual Mass honoring Chávez's memory and legacy was celebrated in Spanish by Archbishop José H. Gomez Sunday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Farmworkers, including members of the United Farm Workers union that Chávez co-founded in 1962, participated in the procession down the cathedral's center aisle before the Mass. Manuel Bernal, president and CEO of the César Chávez Foundation, spoke after communion.

The foundation describes its mission as carrying on Chávez'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 strike by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, a predominantly Filipino and AFL-CIO-backed labor organization, against table grape growers began on Sept. 8, 1965.

The National Farmworkers Association, the predominately Mexican labor group Chávez founded alongside Dolores Huerta, joined the strike eight days later. The two groups merged in August 1966 to create the United Farm Workers.

The strike and boycott ended in 1970 after 26 table grape growers signed contracts with the UFW.

Then-Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation in 2000 making the March 31 anniversary of Chávez's birth in 1927 a state holiday.