César Chávez
 Join
the library in March as it helps celebrate César Chávez, who dedicated
his life to the nonviolent struggle for social justice. Learn about
this American hero today!
César
E. Chávez (1927-1993) was a Mexican-American farm worker who served as a
union and civil rights leader, environmentalist and humanitarian. He
received numerous honors for his work, including the Presidential Medal of
Freedom Award, the highest honor awarded to a civilian, for bringing
respect to farm workers. During March, we encourage people to think of
the efforts of agricultural workers and how food is brought from farm to
table.
César Chávez faced many
hardships in his early years. His family lost their land during the
Depression and they joined the 30,000 migrant farm workers that traveled
to California. Throughout his youth, Chávez's family traveled from town
to town, facing deplorable conditions. There was no running water and
only one gas burner to share for cooking. Conditions at work were even
worse than at home: workers bent over all day in the heat and harvested
crops dusted with poisons. In 1942 César had to quit school and work in
the fields when his father was killed in a car accident. After serving
in the Navy, he met his wife Helen Fabela when he was 21 years old.
Helen became an important companion in his farm worker movement. They
lived in a barrio called “Sal Si Puedes,” which in English means “get out
if you can.”
In 1948 César met Father
Donald McDonnell, who changed César's life by giving him a love for reading.
McDonnell introduced the young man to books on labor history, St.
Francis of Assisi and Gandhi. From these books, César learned about
unions, nonviolence and sacrifice. These ideas reminded him of his
family's morals. In 1952 CSO organizer Fred Ross met César and together
they formed 22 civil rights groups in California. In 1962 César and Helen
started to organize farm workers in Delano, California. César was kept busy
organizing, so Helen picked grapes to support the family. In
1962 the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) was born. Their
slogan was “Viva La Causa” or “long live our cause.” The NFWA was later
to become the United Farm Workers (UFW).
In 1965 César Chávez and
the NFWA joined the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in the
famous Delano Grape Strike. The strikers wanted labor contracts,
improved working conditions, better pay and pesticide control. César
reminded the strikers of the need for nonviolence, and hundreds of
people from all cultures, backgrounds and religions came to help. The
strike gained national attention and was covered extensively by the media as
“The Harvest of Shame.” The strike created a national boycott of grapes
in which millions of Americans participated. César organized a 350-mile march in order to gain more public support, and went on three
public fasts to protest violence used on both sides of the strike in
1968. By 1970, 85% of the grape growers in California had signed
contracts with the United Farm Workers.
From 1970 to 1993 César Chávez
and the UFW continued to boycott and strike for farm workers' rights. In
1975, due to Chávez's efforts, the Supreme Court outlawed the
short-handled hoe, which caused worker back injury. By 1978 the union
had 100,000 members and had won a contract with the largest lettuce
grower in the U.S. In the 1980s, César concentrated on environmental
efforts, educating growers and the public about the dangers of
pesticides. In 1988 César conducted a 36-day “fast for life.” Both the
state of California and growers reviewed their use of pesticides. In
1993 Chávez received an honorary doctorate degree from Arizona State
University and was honored because he believed in the value of
education. He died in 1993 shortly after being honored, and his funeral
was attended by over 40,000 mourners. Chávez is honored on March 31,
his birthday and the national day of the César Chávez march. More
information about our local march can be found at the San Antonio Chávez
Foundation
website. You can find
out more about César Chávez by checking out our
library resources.
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One Laptop Per Child
 “It’s
an education project, not a laptop project.” That’s how
Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the
One Laptop per Child
project, describes his vision of providing millions of the
world’s children with an inexpensive tool for communication,
exploration and creation.
The project is
revolutionary in many ways, from its hardware feature set to
its goal of continually driving the cost of production down
from the current $150 or so to $50 in just a few years. The
laptop, called the XO, sports a built-in wireless router
that instantly forms a network with other XOs nearby. If at
least one is connected to the Internet, all the XOs in the
neighborhood will share the connection.
Another
feature that sets the XO apart from typical laptops is how
it is powered. Knowing that the XO may be deployed in areas
with little available electricity, it was designed with a
battery that can be easily recharged by a hand crank, pulley
or solar energy. Just one minute of kid power will produce
ten minutes of computing power. The XO uses so little power,
though, that it can run for about 20 hours before needing
another full charge.
Along with its
built-in wireless connectivity, the laptop comes with
built-in speakers, microphone and webcam. Imagine, then, a
tool not just for social networking, but for delivering
services where communication infrastructure may be lacking.
Though telemedicine and telebanking are part of its
potential, because it is pre-loaded with creativity software
(for music and art), the XO is decidedly a learning tool for
children.
The One Laptop
per Child project is not without its detractors, who cite
the expenditure of limited funding for technology when other
basic needs may not be met (clean water, for example).
Negroponte likens the laptop project to existing government
projects for schoolbooks. Brazil, for example, spends
approximately 19 dollars a year on schoolbooks for its
children. Over the course of five years, that is roughly the
cost of the XO, which could deliver online textbooks and so
much more.
Kid testing in
the field began at the end of February, when 2500 XOs were
sent out to such countries as Argentina, Brazil, Libya,
Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay. In one or two years,
Negroponte hopes to ship 100 million laptops.
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Discovery
Series: Carver Branch Library and Its Namesake
 While
visits often become routine, the library should be about
discovery – discovery of worlds unknown, books unexplored
and
ideas yet unrealized. Uncover wonderful history hiding
in the stacks, or even in the name of a branch.
Named after
Dr. George Washington Carver, the library on the east side
of San Antonio originally
opened in 1973, but its African-American roots go back much
further. The first Carver Library was set up in a small
wooden building established by African-American Army
officers based at Fort Sam Houston during World War I. The
Carver Library is named after a man who pursued education
and learning even when the odds were against him. In a day
when the names of buildings or locations are often based on
politics and donations, the Carver Library really does fit
the goals that were once aspired to by a young man born as a
slave.
Because George
Washington Carver was born a slave, his birth date is not
recorded, but it is believed to be sometime in the spring.
This spring, discover Carver and his many achievements at
the Carver Discovery Fair, a fun weeklong event at the
Carver Library.
Visit the
Carver Discovery Week
website to learn more about Carver and
this event.
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FEATURED
Databases |
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Three new resources are available in the Genealogy and History categories
in the Articles and Databases collection at the San Antonio Public
Library website:
- American Civil War Letters and Diaries – 100,000 pages
of memoirs, letters and diaries. Content is searchable by
author, battle and date, among others.
- Oral History Online – Full-text, video and audio
records of almost 10,000 people from all walks of life.
- North American Women’s Letters and Diaries – 150,000
pages of letters and diaries from colonial times to the 1950s.
These resources are particularly useful for:
- Students and teachers of social studies: A
hallmark of the Social Studies TAKS standards in Texas is
the analysis of primary resources, the main content of these
databases.
- Genealogists: what better way to grow the family
tree than finding your ancestor’s first-person account of
the Civil War or the Great Depression?
- Anyone interested in culture, history and
storytelling.
Check out all
of our databases.
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We urge you to call your library before heading out for a special
program. Although we verify all information, cancellations do
occasionally occur. |
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