Gilroy – Cesar Preciado-Cruz surveyed the Gavilan College
student center, where the Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Program
held its second annual conference Saturday.
Red and black balloons bobbed from the tables, half-filled with
El Portal Leadership Academy students, adult supporters and
activist guests.
Gilroy – Cesar Preciado-Cruz surveyed the Gavilan College student center, where the Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Program held its second annual conference Saturday.
Red and black balloons bobbed from the tables, half-filled with El Portal Leadership Academy students, adult supporters and activist guests.
“Don’t look at the empty seats,” he urged the teens, dressed in red T-shirts with Cesar Chavez’ image. “Look at the filled seats.”
Roughly two dozen people attended the conference, which spanned topics from indigenous culture to sexual health to alcohol and substance-abuse prevention. Organizers had hoped for twice as many students to attend, but were heartened by Cruz’ message.
He introduced the conference as keynote speaker, discussing his work as an activist and educator in Oakland.
The teacher led third-grade students from Richmond on a 70-mile protest march to Sacramento in April 2004 to challenge funding cuts to their elementary school.
When the protest march didn’t elicit a response, teachers at the school went on a 26-day hunger strike, eventually winning a government funding commitment for $600,000 a year for 15 years.
“When you think the government is so mighty, and we, La Raza, are so poor, remember that,” he said. ‘La Raza’ is a Spanish phrase that refers to the entire Latino community.
Additional speakers included Willy Underbaggage, director of the Indigenous Nations Network and a member of the United Nations Council on Indigenous Rights, and Salvador Alvarez, a United Farm Workers lobbyist who worked with Cesar Chavez for 12 years and was a key lobbyist for the immigrant amnesty program of the late 1980s.
“The challenge is for the youth to get more youth to come,” said Timoteo Vasquez, an adult organizer who works on youth issues, including substance abuse. “But those who were there learned a lot – and they’ll plant the seeds with others.”
The conference was co-sponsored by Gavilan College, the Leadership Institute for Diversity, Communities United in Prevention (Gilroy), People United in Prevention (Gilroy), South County Collaborative, the Institute for Non-Violence, the county’s Office of Human Relations, Rosso’s Furniture, and Main Street Bagel of Morgan Hill.
Another youth conference is planned for May 26 at Gilroy High School.
