News & Readings

Here are some news articles written about our Chavez Clubs and our Chavistas.

Chavistas Honor Former UFW Lawyer. San Diego Union Tribune, March 23, 2018. Great article about the 2018 Las Mañanitas Breakfast Honoree, Jerry Cohen.

Giving Back Magazine February, 2018. Read this great article about our Chavez Clubs and our partnership with Southwest Airlines.

KPPBS Sept. 19, 2016 Photo Exhibit Commemorates Farmworker Movement At Another Historic Moment

A new photo exhibit at the University of San Diego pays tribute to the farmworker movement led by Cesar Chavez at another turning point for the state's agricultural laborers, as they secured overtime pay this week for the first time ever.

The photographer is Carlos LeGerrette, a San Diego native who worked as an assistant to Chavez.

San Diego Union Tribune, February 12, 2016. Learning A Watershed’s Importance. Cesar Chavez Club students from Monroe Clark visit San Dieguito River watershed as Watershed Explorers.

UT San Diego, March 27, 2015. Labor, Civil Rights Activists Honored.

UT San Diego, March 31, 2013. Student Groups Embody Chavez’s Values.

UT San Diego, October 30, 2013. Top 10 Questions From San Diego Kids Hosting Mayoral Debate.

Here is our collection of articles about Cesar Chavez. Click on the links below for a PDF file of the article.

Gringo Justice: The United Farm Workers Union, 1967-1981 By Jerry Cohen February 2008

Cesar Chavez and Animal Rights

Speech to the Commonwealth Club of California

Cesar Chavez and Vietnam

The Mexican American and the Church

The Money and Organizing Speech

The Organizer's Tale

The Speech Against the Vietnam War and for Non Violence

Here are some inspirational quotes that we use by Cesar Chavez and others that inspire thoughts of leadership with our Chavista students.. Click on the links below for a PDF file of the article.

Quotes by Cesar Chavez.

Inspirational quotes from other leaders

Longtime friend, confidant, strategist, and valuable assistant to Cesar Chavez, LeRoy Chatfield writes about his views and issues regarding Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers’ movement. Click on the links below for a PDF file of the article.

Cesar Chavez, Founder

A Turning Point

Cesar Says

Cesar Was Called

Chewing Up and Spitting Out Farmworker Volunteers

Farmworker Volunteers

Helen Chavez Tribute

How Did Cesar Do It?

Social Movements and Most People

Strike Violence vs. Non Violence

Taking the Blame

The Legacy of Cesar Chavez

The True Believer

Chavez Book Clubs reinforce the 10 Values of the Chavez Service Clubs through a supported reading program led by club volunteers, Carmen Brooks and others. Chavistas read age appropriate fiction and non-fiction award winning books (Newbery Honor, National Book Award, Sibert Informational Book Medal Honor winners). In Club meetings, Book Club members discuss the themes and characters in the books and work on writing projects to express their thoughts about what they are reading.

The Circuit. by Francisco Jiménez

"The Circuit," the story of young Panchito and his trumpet, is one of the most widely anthologized stories in Chicano literature. At long last, Jiménez offers more about the wise, sensitive little boy who has grown into a role model for subsequent generations of immigrants.

Breaking Through, Francisco Jiménez

At the age of fourteen, Francisco Jiménez, together with his older brother Roberto and his mother, are caught by la migra. Forced to leave their home in California, the entire family travels all night for twenty hours by bus, arriving at the U.S. and Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona. In the months and years that follow during the late 1950s-early 1960s, Francisco, his mother and father, and his seven brothers and sister not only struggle to keep their family together.

Reaching Out, Francisco Jiménez

From the perspective of the young adult he was then, Francisco Jiménez describes the challenges he faced in his efforts to continue his education.

Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, by Elspeth Leacock(Adapter), Susan Buckley(Adapter), Lynda Blackmon Lowery(Author), PJ Loughran(Illustrator)

One of the youngest participants in the 1965 voting rights march in Alabama, Lowery provides a moving first-person account of her experience. Through this thought-provoking volume, the picture of an incredibly courageous young woman emerges.

Baseball in April and Other Stories, by: Gary Soto

The Mexican American author Gary Soto draws on his own experience of growing up in California’s Central Valley in this finely crafted collection of eleven short stories that reveal big themes in the small events of daily life.

Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai

Inside Out and Back Again is a #1 New York Times bestseller, a Newbery Honor Book, and a winner of the National Book Award! Inspired by the author's childhood experience as a refugee—fleeing Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon and immigrating to Alabama.

Song of the Trees, by Mildred D. Taylor

Another powerful story in the Logan Family Saga and companion to Mildred D. Taylor's Newbery Award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. With the depression bearing down on her family, there isn’t much that Cassie Logan can count on anymore

Crossing the Wire, by Will Hobbs

In this riveting, action-packed novel from award-winning author Will Hobbs, a teenage boy hoping to help his loved ones must fight for his life as he makes the dangerous journey across the Mexican border into the United States.

A Long Walk To Water, by Linda Sue Park

The New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay.

CLICK to View a copy of this Reading List

Chavez Book Clubs reinforce the 10 Values of the Chavez Service Clubs through a supported reading program led by club volunteers, Carmen Brooks and others. Chavistas read age appropriate fiction and non-fiction award winning books (Newbery Honor, National Book Award, Sibert Informational Book Medal Honor winners). In Club meetings, Book Club members discuss the themes and characters in the books and work on writing projects to express their thoughts about what they are reading.

The Circuit. by Francisco Jiménez

"The Circuit," the story of young Panchito and his trumpet, is one of the most widely anthologized stories in Chicano literature. At long last, Jiménez offers more about the wise, sensitive little boy who has grown into a role model for subsequent generations of immigrants.

Breaking Through, Francisco Jiménez

At the age of fourteen, Francisco Jiménez, together with his older brother Roberto and his mother, are caught by la migra. Forced to leave their home in California, the entire family travels all night for twenty hours by bus, arriving at the U.S. and Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona. In the months and years that follow during the late 1950s-early 1960s, Francisco, his mother and father, and his seven brothers and sister not only struggle to keep their family together.

Reaching Out, Francisco Jiménez

From the perspective of the young adult he was then, Francisco Jiménez describes the challenges he faced in his efforts to continue his education.

Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, by Elspeth Leacock(Adapter), Susan Buckley(Adapter), Lynda Blackmon Lowery(Author), PJ Loughran(Illustrator)

One of the youngest participants in the 1965 voting rights march in Alabama, Lowery provides a moving first-person account of her experience. Through this thought-provoking volume, the picture of an incredibly courageous young woman emerges.

Baseball in April and Other Stories, by: Gary Soto

The Mexican American author Gary Soto draws on his own experience of growing up in California’s Central Valley in this finely crafted collection of eleven short stories that reveal big themes in the small events of daily life.

Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai

Inside Out and Back Again is a #1 New York Times bestseller, a Newbery Honor Book, and a winner of the National Book Award! Inspired by the author's childhood experience as a refugee—fleeing Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon and immigrating to Alabama.

Song of the Trees, by Mildred D. Taylor

Another powerful story in the Logan Family Saga and companion to Mildred D. Taylor's Newbery Award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. With the depression bearing down on her family, there isn’t much that Cassie Logan can count on anymore

Crossing the Wire, by Will Hobbs

In this riveting, action-packed novel from award-winning author Will Hobbs, a teenage boy hoping to help his loved ones must fight for his life as he makes the dangerous journey across the Mexican border into the United States.

A Long Walk To Water, by Linda Sue Park

The New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay.

CLICK to View a copy of this Reading List