Cesar Chavez Op-Ed by my Uncle Marc Grossman

I've written, with great pride, about my family's service to El Movimiento and the United Farmworker's Union several times.

I'm lucky, I actually knew, and know, real-life civil rights leaders.

I'm even more lucky to be related to many.

My uncle Marc Grossman (yes, he's Jewish if you are wondering), was a long-time aide to Cesar Chavez, UFW spokesman, and is now the Communications Director for the Cesar Chavez foundation. He wrote an Op-Ed piece in The Californian, in response to a negative piece written about Cesar Chavez.

He corrects the record about false-claims that Cesar Chavez condoned violence and was anti-immigrant. The piece is called Cesar Chavez was the Epitome of Peaceful Protest. (He was occupying the fields and picket lines long before Wall Street protests came along).

Here's an excerpt:

Allegations that Cesar tolerated violence are patently false. Many of Day's other claims also demand correction. Here are just a few.With anti-immigrant tea partiers sometimes claiming Cesar supported their views, the fact is that the UFW organized undocumented workers and championed immigration reform decades before most unions acted similarly. When there were calls in the early 1970s for the UFW to check the legal status of workers at ranches under union contract, Cesar refused. "Our job," he said, "is to represent good, hard-working people whoever they are."

Read the rest of my uncle Marc's piece here.