Chants of “United we stand, united we fall,” and “Si Se Puede (Yes, it’s possible)” rang through upper campus at Cal State Long Beach as about 50 members of the Latino Student Union and the Pilipino American Coalition (PAC) paraded across campus.
The march, held on Wednesday, was an effort to commemorate the efforts of the United Farm Workers.
Halfway through the march, the group stopped at the speaker platform in front of the bookstore to allow several members to give their thoughts on the history that was being celebrated.
Alex Montances, a member of PAC and a volunteer at the Pilipino Migrant Center in Los Angeles, was one of the students who spoke.
“I think an important thing for us to ask ourselves today is, what have we learned from the farm workers?” he said. “What have we learned from labor leaders like Larry Itliong, like Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez and Philip Veracruz?”
As the march moved through campus, it picked up more members and turned heads. The simple chants of “Yes we can” and “Si se puede” evolved into full verses as the group gained momentum.
At the end of the march, the group moved to the Soroptomist House to watch a screening of “The Harvest,” a documentary on child farm labor in the Mexican-American community.
“We showed this documentary to show what’s still going on in America,” de Banate said. “It’s just crazy that this is going on here.”
According to the documentary, some minors make as little as $64 per week despite working many hours on farms that are often sprayed with dangerous chemicals and pesticides.
“The two labor industries that don’t have rights are farm workers and domestic workers,” Montances said. “The farm workers of yesterday are the working people of today.”