Los Angeles – Christine Chavez, who as a child learned of the power of grassroots organizing at the side of her legendary grandfather Cesar, hopes to have some political effect herself with a bid for a seat in the California state legislature.
This week, coinciding with the birthday of her late forebear, Christine Chavez said she is seeking the Democratic nomination to represent the 45th Assembly District, whose score of communities included mainly Hispanic East Los Angeles and part of Hollywood as well as Chinatown, Little Armenia, Filipinotown and Thaitown.
Christine, who has spent the past eight years as the Southern California political director of the union her grandfather founded, the United Farm Workers, told EFE in an interview that she and other members of the Chavez clan have lent their efforts to struggles besides those of the UFW.
She mentions having been arrested several times at protests mounted by unions representing hotel staff, janitors and food-service workers.
On those occasions, she recounts between chuckles, she telephoned grandmother Helen Chavez to tell her: “‘They’re not arresting anybody’, and she was always very pleased.”
Christine’s first arrest came at the tender age of 4, when she and some relatives were detained for refusing to end their protest in front of a store in Detroit that was selling grapes during the UFW-led boycott of California growers.
The activist and aspiring politician was born Feb. 7, 1972, in Delano, California. She is the oldest of the three daughters of Sylvia Chavez and Jorge Delgado.
She and husband Oscar Gonzalez have been married about a year and they don’t have any children, “but I have two dogs called Boycott and Buddy,” Chavez said.
In her work with the UFW, Christine says that she has been guided by the legacy of her grandfather, who “always led by example.”
She acknowledges that the political contest she faces will be a tough one.
“But I tell people that I come from the UFW, a union used to fighting against people with a great deal of money and a great deal of power, and this post (state legislature) will not be any different,” the candidate said.
“For me it’s the same to fight from inside the ‘establishment’ for our voices to be heard,” she says.
Four other candidates have entered the Democratic primary to contend for the state assembly seat once held by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The incumbent, Democrat Jackie Goldberg, is barred from seeking re-election by term limits.
Her experience as a grassroots activist and organizer, combined with her college studies in sociology, will enable her – she says – to do a good job in Sacramento for the people of District 45.
If the voters do elect her, Christine says, it will not be only because she is the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez.
“I have worked hard and none of this has come easy for me,” she emphasizes.
“From a grandfather’s legacy to a granddaughter’s commitment, hard-working families and their children need a different kind of lawmaker that comes from a lifetime of public service, environmental justice and civil rights,” Christine Chavez said in a statement announcing her candidacy for the 45th Assembly District.
“I want to organize our neighborhoods to fight for the things people need,” she said. “No child should be denied the textbooks they need and no one student should find the doors to a community college closed to them. No worker should be paid less than a living wage and no child should be without health insurance.”
