Hundreds of CPS middle and high school students gathered at Benito Juarez Community Academy on Saturday, March 24, to celebrate a month of service activites to honor the spirit and legacy of Cesar E. Chavez.
Throughout the month of March, 24 schools and 23 community partners engaged 1680 students in 56 service and action projects throughout the city of Chicago. Students learned about immigrant rights, food and environmental issues, the labor movement, and the civil rights movement then worked across the city with community organizations to put their knowledge to work.
Saturday was the culminating event for the students. Following a stirring opening ceremony by Danza Azteca-Mexicana, students worked in the arts - developing posters, drums, street theatre, spoken word, and murals - as preparation for a commemorative march through the streets of Pilsen. Forty-six years ago, Cesar Chavez and other labor rights activists marched 350 miles from Delano to Sacramento as a pilgrimmage to express their commitment to the cause and demonstrate to the world the injustices suffered by farm workers in the southwest. Students marched in the spirit of the Delano-Sacramento pilgrimmage so many years ago.
As they marched, students displayed their posters calling for peace, justice for workers, and invoking the spirit of Cesar E. Chavez. Thanks to all our magnificent workshop leaders and artists.
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