Portraits of Courage: Latinos Shaping a Nation

In September 1968, president Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed National Hispanic Heritage Week.  In 1988, National Hispanic Week became National Hispanic Month, which celebrates people from Central America to North America to Spain and the Caribbean who have impacted America and shaped it for the best.

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Chris Fernandez and Caroline Zeller took turns impersonating honorable icons of Hispanic descent who have made a difference during “Portraits of Courage: Latinos Shaping a Nation,” a performance held at the Haugh Performing Arts Center  sponsored by ASCC and Latina Leadership Network. From civil rights hero Cesar Chavez to Roberto Clemente, a Puerto Rican sports legend from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Fernandez and Zeller gave new life to the leaders’ accomplishments.

One of the historic figures dramatized was Dolores Huerta.  Huerta was born in 1930 in the state of New Mexico. 

Huerta became involved in a community group supporting farm workers, which merged with the Agricultural Workers Organization Committee (CAWOC), where she served as secretary treasurer.  It was during this time were she teamed up with Cesar Chavez to form the Farm Workers Association, which later became known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta served a major role in the early years of the farm workers’ organization. She was also the coordinator for East Coast efforts in the table grape boycott, 1968-1969, which helped to win recognition for the farm workers’ union. 

In 1970, Huerta, now becoming part of the growing feminist movement, helped lobby for legislative protections for the farm workers.  She was on a road for helping overlooked people. It was her mission, along with Chavez, to improve the harsh conditions they were working in.

While peacefully demonstrating against the unfair treatment from the owners of the land and the police in 1988, she was severely injured and beaten by the police as they clubbed her and the demonstrators. Not only did she help to change the way that police treated demonstrators, but she gained strength.  Right after this attack she returned to the farm workers’ union.  Still alive today, Huerta has a total of 11 children, including four with Richard Chavez, brother of Cesar Chavez, a man who inspired and motivated her.
Cesar Estrada Chavez, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy noted, was "one of the heroic figures of our time." The American hero Cesar Chavez is best known for his efforts to gain better working conditions for grape pickers alongside Huerta. On March 31, 1927, Chavez was born to a poor family on his family’s farm in Yuma, Arizona.  When Chavez was 10, he and his family became migrant workers after losing their farm in the Great Depression.  While laboring across the southwest in the vineyards, Chavez was exposed to the harsh and cruel living conditions the farmers had to endure in order to make a living.

Chavez’s life as a community organizer began in 1952 when he joined the Community Service Organization (CSO), a prominent Latino civil rights group.  In the late 1950s and 1960s, Chavez served as CSO’s national director. In 1962, Chavez resigned from the CSO in order to follow his dream of creating an organization that would protect and serve farm workers.

In 1972, and again in 1988 at the age of 61, Chavez went on a hunger strike inspired by Gandhi where he fasted for 32 days in support of the United Farm Workers, and their children.  

At the age of 66, Chavez passed away in his sleep on April 23, 1993, in San Luis, Arizona.  More than 50,000 people attended his funeral service to pay their respects to their hero, in the town of Delano, California. Because of Chavez, peaceful tactics and public support contracts were negotiated to improve working conditions and increase wages.  Chavez was a true Latin American hero.  He dedicated his life to helping people without a cost.  He never earned more than $6,000 a year and he never even owned a home.  “Si se puede” are the words Chavez lived by and encouraged people to live by as well.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Rafael Cordero, also known as “The Father of Public Education” from San Juan, Puerto Rico, established in his home a free school for all children, regardlesstheir race. Cordero maintained his educational center for 58 years.

Cordero was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to a poor family; his father was a poor man who worked in the tobacco fields.  Cordero was self-educated through his love of literature and his determination to teach and educate himself.  Cordero taught reading, calligraphy, mathematics, and Catholic instruction, at his home, which he opened to the children of Puerto Rico as a public school.

In 1890, Cordero was immortalized in a painting titled La Escuela del Maestro, by artist Francisco Oller.  The house where he opened his public school for the children was turned into a museum, and marked as a historical site by the government of Puerto Rico, and the National Register of Historical Places.

Trade Union leader and civil rights activist Luisa Moreno was born in the city of Guatemala in Mexico.

During the early years of her career as a labor organizer, because of her family’s disagreement with her political position, she changed her name from Blanca Rodriguez to Luisa Moreno, in honor of a Mexican labor organizer of that era, Luis Moreno. 

Moreno was a major figure for nearly three decades.  During the 1930s, Moreno worked in a variety of areas.  She unionized black and Latin cigar rollers in Florida.  In 1934, she joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations.  She soon was elected as the first Latina member of the California CIO Council.

Marine hero Daniel Fernandez (1944-1966) was the first Latin American to receive a Medal of Honor. He joined the United States Military because the military promised to give him and his family documents and a green card.  That never happened.

The highest award that can be given by the United States military was given to him, the Medal of Honor, for his valiant action in the Hau Nghia province of Vietnam in February 1966.  Marine Fernandez, only 21 years old died, when he threw himself at a live grenade to save the lives of his friends. He was also awarded the Purple Heart.

“Portraits of Courage” also portrayed Andrea Perez’s life. Perez was a Mexican woman that fell in love with Sylvester Davis. While working together, they fell in love and wanted to get married, but couldn’t because of the law. Perez was viewed as being “white.” Back then, Mexicans were viewed as “white” because it sounded better than being “Mexican.” 

When Perez and Davis went to apply for a marriage license with the county clerk of Los Angeles,   Perez listed her race as “white” while as her to-be husband registered as “negro.”  Under the California law, individuals of Mexican ancestry generally were classified as white. 

County Clerk W.G. Sharp refused to issue the license based on the California Civil Code Section 60, which stated “All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mongolians, members of he Malacy race, or mulattoes are illegal and void.”  Perez petitioned the California Supreme Court for an original Writ of Mandate to compel the issuance of the license.

After a long hard-fought battle, the California Supreme Court became the first court of the 20th  Century to hold that a state anti-miscegenation law violates the Federal Constitution.  The California Supreme Court later declared that the portions of California law that restrict marriages based on race to be unconstitutional.

On August 18 1934, Roberto Clemente was born in Barrio San Antonio in Carolina, Puerto Rico. Clemente is remembered today as a sports legend, often referred to as “The Great One,” but in his native home of Puerto Rico Clemente is remembered as a cultural hero.
Roberto Clemente was the first Latin American player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Born to a poor family, Clemente was the youngest of seven children. His father ran a sugar cane plantation, and his mother ran a grocery store for plantation workers.
In 1955, Clemente was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and started as their right fielder. In 1960, after a few years of learning the ropes, he became a dominant player, helping the Pirates to win both the National League pennant, and the World Series.

Clemente had an impressive batting average of .317, and is one of the only players to have collected 3,000 hits.  His personal record included four National League batting championships, 12 Golden Glove Awards, the National League batting MVP in 1966, and the World Series in 1971, where he batted .414.  Sadly, Clemente’s life ended on December 31, 1972, in a plane crash while flying to Nicaragua to deliver clothing, food, and medical supplies to earthquake victims.  Clemente’s body was never found. In 1973, Clemente was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.