Faith and Ideology: How Cesar Chavez merged a pilgrimage with a revolution for farm workers march
By Lloyd Daniel Barba, Assistant Professor of Religion, Amherst College On March 31, 1966, labor rights pioneer Cesar Chavez was not celebrating his birthday in any usual manner. Rather, he was 14 days into a 25-day pilgrimage in California from Delano to Sacramento. Leading a group of striking farm laborers and supporters, Chavez’s plan was to build momentum and support for the workers’ cause in a march that would conclude on the steps of the California State Capitol on Easter Sunday morning. The date here is crucial. A foundational, but mostly forgotten, feature of the nearly 300-mile pilgrimage during...
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