I had the pleasure of attending a large community dinner in Bellingham to honor Cesar Chavez last week.  Our partner organization, Community to Community (C2C), hosted the event, as they do almost every year near his birthday.  Community to Community, under the leadership of Rosalinda Guillen, a former organizer with the United Farm Workers, has served and organized farm workers and former farm workers and their families in the Whatcom County area for years.

It shows.  The room was filled to overflowing with families and supporters of all ages.  Young ones sang.  Two women organizers from California presented a delightful and thought-provoking skit.  There was great food and a mingling of wildly diverse people coming together to honor Chavez and C2C and to put money into the C2C coffers.

One of the particular pleasures this year was hearing Anthony Chavez, grandson of Cesar Chavez speak about his grandfather and his grandfather's organizing work with an earlier generation of farm-workers.  Anthony, who is in his early 20s, was able to bridge from his grandfather's organizing and speak directly to the young people in the room.  He talked about the importance of continuing the fight for rights and respect for the people who provide us all our food and remembering the value of service to our community.