'That's Cesar Chavez!': Bust of civil rights icon behind President Biden stirs excitement

[SunSeeker]

Darryl Morin, national president of the advocacy group Forward Latino, jumped from his chair when he saw it on TV — a bust of the civil and labor rights leader Cesar Chavez just behind President Joe Biden as he signed executive orders.

"I literally jumped out of my chair and yelled: 'That's Cesar Chavez! Cesar Chavez!'" said Morin, whose group has taken on civil rights and anti-discrimination causes in behalf of Latinos.

The bust, created by Paul Suarez 25 years ago, quickly attracted attention on social media.

It rested on a console among family photos behind Biden as he sat at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and signed a slew of executive orders, several of them about racial equity and combating the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been brutal to the farmworkers whom Chavez championed. Biden is also sending to Congress an immigration bill that would give farmworkers temporary legal status if they pass criminal background checks and have worked in the agriculture field for four of the last five years.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cesar-chavez-bust-behind-president-joe-biden-oval-office-stirs-n1255082

[Karadeniz]

1. I didn't recognize him...

[SunSeeker]

2. It's Chavez as a young man. I thought it looked like Beau! nt

[Cirque du So-What]

3. I'm an ornery fucker

I dropped a suggestion to a RW coworker that Joe Biden has a bust of HUGO Chavez in the Oval Office.

[SunSeeker]

6. LOL

[Cirque du So-What]

9. I'll set him straight tomorrow

Maybe.

[MustLoveBeagles]

16. Very naughty of you

[Javaman]

4. This makes me so incredibly hopeful! nt

[Bluethroughu]

5. Solidary President Biden!

[ms liberty]

7. He has busts of Caesar Chavez, MLK and RFK, and FDR's portrait is over the fireplace

Sending a message, I call it.

[PatSeg]

8. Wow, I was wondering who that was!

[AnotherMother4Peace]

10. Cesar Chavez stood up farm workers who were being drenched with insecticide in the fields;

for farm workers who worked for very little pay; for farm workers who had very poor sanitary conditions, etc.

I'm proud to say I was a little part of his activism - I made posters for his marches when I was a youngster. Cesar Chavez was the real deal and true humanitarian.

[SunSeeker]

11. He was an amazing leader. nt

[Cha]

12. Bueno! Muchas Gracias, SunSeeker!

[SunSeeker]

13. De nada.

[Cha]

14. To the Spirit of Cezar Chavez on

Inauguration Day for President Joe Biden & Vice President Kamala Harris!

[SunSeeker]

15. Cheers Cha!

[Cha]

18. Cheers, SunSeeker!

I'm taking a break from watching Celebrating America now.. the Biden Inaugural Committee Uploaded it for us. I'm crying hard all the way though it.. I know what catbyte means now.

[MustLoveBeagles]

17. Cheers Cha

Happy Inauguration Day

[Cha]

19. Cheers, Beagles!

Aloha & Happy Inauguration Day to you!

I've been watching Celebrating America.. taking a little emotional break now.. been crying for happiness all the way through it!

[RussellCattle]

20. I can't tell you how happy this makes me. Cesar has been one of my heroes forever. I was thinking...

....about him today when Dolores Huerta appeared in the inauguration coverage. The United Farm Workers has fallen on some hard times lately with reduced membership leading to financial problems. I started sending them a small donation a couple of times a year and would encourage anyone to do so. And maybe buy one of their "Si, se puede" tee shirts.

[SunSeeker]

21. Mine too. He is still greatly revered and remembered here in California.

Last edited Thu Jan 21, 2021, 04:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Even though he was born in Arixona, he is considered a California native son because of all the time he spent in the agricultural fields of California's Central Valley. He empowered the most exploited workers there are, migrant farm workers. They until then were invisible, even though they were the indispensable labor that made possible the agriculture industry in CA, the largest in the nation. He unionized them and gave them bargaining power againsts their employers. They still have backbreaking work with low pay, but at least they now got the pay they were promised, and have their human dignity respected, with such human basics like fresh water and portable toilets now provided at picking fields.

[RussellCattle]

22. A change in the federal minimum wage law, that currently excludes farm workers, would be a good...

....place for the Biden administration to start. Add it to the bill that raises the minimum wage to fifteen dollars for everyone. I kept a couple of the commemorative postage stamps that had Cesar on them, just because of his kind face on them But I just came across this image of the Navy ship USNV Cesar Chavez.