800 Pay Tribute to Cesar Chavez’s Legacy : Oxnard: Five months after his death, Juanita School is renamed after the man who fought for farm workers’ rights.

When Cesar Chavez first came to Oxnard at age 11, the field at the corner of Juanita Avenue and Colonia Road was a simple celery farm.

On Sunday, five months after his death, Chavez’s wife and children returned to that corner to celebrate the renaming of Juanita School to Cesar Chavez School.

“It is fitting that his school be here,” said Domingo Martinez, who was the elementary school’s first principal in 1952. “It makes it a special tribute to his work.”

Chavez’s family was joined Sunday afternoon by about 800 farm workers, elected officials and residents who packed the school grounds to pay tribute to the man who led a movement for the rights of farm laborers.

Chavez’s son Paul told the crowd that his father believed in studying both the practical, such as reading and math, and the ideals, such as equality and justice.

“The school encompasses both of these principles,” Paul Chavez said. “This (tribute) does great service to my father’s legacy and to the tradition of practical idealism.”

As Chavez spoke, many in the crowd unfurled red and black banners, emblazoned with the eagle symbolizing the United Farm Workers union. Union workers passed out buttons in honor of Chavez’s most famous boycott declaring “No Grapes,” while mariachis played folk music from the makeshift stage.

One man, who wore a UFW T-shirt, said he was proud that the school was being named for Chavez.

“In the union, we know education is a prime concern, but what’s most important is how the education is used,” Adolfo Reyes said. “That’s what Chavez was all about.”

The crowd stirred when actor Martin Sheen arrived to give a keynote address. Sheen said he met Chavez in 1988 during one of the leader’s hunger strikes.

“This is the city where he began his long twilight struggle,” Sheen said. “It’s an honor for me to be here to pay tribute to a great man.”

At the end of the afternoon ceremony, school officials unveiled a mural that was painted at the school’s entrance. Chavez’s daughter, Eloise Carrillo, wept when she first saw the mural, which depicts her father preaching for “a meaningful education.”

“It’s very moving to be here and to see this,” Carrillo said. “I think my father would have been truly honored.”

Sunday’s event marks the first of what Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said would be several tributes to the man who organized the grape boycott of the 1960s and who sparked the Chicano power movement in California.

Shortly after his death, hundreds of mourners flocked to Oxnard to push efforts to memorialize Chavez.

Supporters led an effort to make his boyhood home a historical landmark. A wood hovel in Oxnard’s La Colonia barrio served to shelter the Chavez family during the local walnut harvest in 1938. After discovering that the home was razed years ago, county officials instead decided to erect a small monument at the site.

Chavez returned to Oxnard several times during his life. He founded a chapter in the city of the Community Service Organization that still exists today, Lopez said. And, according to Lopez, Chavez spoke to farm laborers in La Colonia on numerous occasions.

“He had a direct impact on this community,” Lopez said.

In June, two months after Chavez’s death, Oxnard school officials voted to rename the 900-student Juanita School after the labor leader.

Many Oxnard residents welcomed the decision.

“For the first time, someone who was not a big, wealthy industrialist was getting recognized,” said Karl Lawson, an Oxnard housing official and former UFW employee. “People were pleased.”

Since the decision, school staff members have encouraged students to learn why Chavez was being recognized.

“We’ve taught the kids how he fought for farm workers so they could get better wages and fair treatment,” said Marcela Garza, a third-grade teacher at the school. “It really has special meaning to these children. Many of their parents work on the farms.”

The school has been raising money since June to establish a library devoted to the work of Chavez and other civil rights leaders. To date, the community has donated $7,000 for the library, funds that will be matched by the school district.

“That is a particularly difficult challenge for them,” Lawson said. “In an elementary school, it’s tough to get into the nuances of challenging unjust laws.”

Oxnard school board members are encouraging teachers to talk with students about Chavez’s struggle, including his use of hunger strikes and civil disobedience.

“You take the risk that it will be misinterpreted,” said Mary Barreto, president of the board of trustees of the Oxnard School District. “But if these issues are approached in a thoughtful, gentle way, I am confident that elementary-aged students can stand to benefit a great deal from these lessons.”

In the end, Lawson said, grappling with issues of social justice on the elementary school level will be much more significant than renaming of the school.

“I think that’s the real legacy,” Lawson said. “And the day’s events just solidify that.”