Role Model

Saturday was California’s first Cesar Chavez Day, the new state holiday honoring the late labor leader on his March 31 birthday. But to San Fernando, the largely Latino city in the northeast San Fernando Valley, the state is a latecomer to the party.

The first city in the nation to honor Chavez with a holiday, San Fernando celebrates its 8th annual Cesar Chavez march and cultural arts festival today.

Community leaders organized the first festival in 1994, a year after Chavez died at age 66--and a year after the state Legislature made its first attempt to establish a Chavez holiday.

The bill passed the Legislature only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson, who called the founder and longtime president of the United Farm Workers of America too controversial for such an honor.

In San Fernando, the descriptive more frequently used to describe Chavez is role mode.

His photograph hangs in houses throughout the city. When the San Fernando High School auditorium was renamed for Chavez last year, 500 people turned out. Three times that many typically attend the annual festival to honor the man who fought to improve working conditions for poor Mexican immigrants.

As his growing fame attracted international attention to his campaign for laborers’ rights, Chavez kindled pride in a heritage and in work that had once been regarded with shame.

San Fernando’s commemorations include the solemn--a Mass, fasts, the march for justice--and the festive. Speakers will compete with mariachi music, folk dancers and the tempting aroma of fresh tamales.

Adults and youngsters alike will show up wearing T shirts emblazoned with Chavez’s image or his motto, “Si, Se Puede,” “Yes, it can be done.”

In a world long on rock stars and commercial logos and short on heroes and direction, saluting a man who dedicated his life to social justice is remarkable. It is certainly worth a holiday.

To Attend: The Cesar Chavez March for Justice will begin at noon today in Brand Park, 15174 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Mission Hills. The march will proceed down Brand Boulevard for 1 1/2 miles and end at San Fernando Recreation Park, 208 Park Avenue, where the festival will be held.