JESSIE GAMBRELL
STAFF WRITER

Last Friday, CSUSM took a holiday in honor of César Chávez.

César Chávez Day is a holiday that celebrates a man who fought for Mexican- Americans, who worked farms in the U.S., to have equal rights and to be treated respectfully. He helped them to get decent labor treatment, such as fresh water and bathrooms to use on the job. He was also a big activist for the unionization of farm laborers.

Our school has a statue of him at the top of the César Chávez stairs, in honor of him because CSUSM is located in a very agricultural region.

This is one reason our school decided to take César Chávez Day off in place of Presidents’ Day. All Cal State Universities have to take the same amount of days off. In February, some students wrote chalk on some stairways questioning why Presidents’ Day was not favored over César Chávez Day. Other students don’t mind the observance of this holiday.

“I know we have the César Chávez statue, so it is like we are celebrating him like our mascot. It kind of makes us different. I don’t have any hard feelings about it,” freshman Bonnie Miani said.

Presidents’ Day is a national holiday celebrating first U.S. president, George Washington’s, birthday. Since 1879, most schools, colleges, businesses, the entire military and government have taken this federal holiday off. Why doesn’t CSUSM?

Many students felt very strongly in opposition toward the fact that our school takes this day off instead of Presidents’ Day:

“This is America. Honor the holiday that honors our presidents,” freshman Bret Unity said.

“I think we honor [Chávez] enough. We should give our American presidents a day,” senior Weston Ryan said.

Personally I feel that we should observe (only) César Chávez Day as respect for a man who fought for civil/ equal rights for farm workers and who achieved the “American Dream”, but not in place of our American presidents. One of the great things about our country is the courage and bravery of our Founding Fathers and past presidents, so why ever would we not honor them? They made the backbone for our nation; that in itself should be reason enough to have Presidents’ Day off, let alone the fact that a majority of students do not even have classes on Fridays, so Presidents’ Day would be more of a holiday for the entire campus. So what can we do? Have our voice be heard and speak out, this is the best way that we as students can get things done, our voices and opinions are our main tools for standing up for what is right and I believe that it is our duty as American citizens to stand up for what is right.

Photo by Kyle M. Johnson