Labor day 2024 has come and gone and the Latino Slant, along with Mexican Ironman, wanted to celebrate the legacy of labor leader Cesar Chavez. In their recent live stream they discussed what Chavez meant to them personally.

In recent times, novels and article have been written pointing out some of Chavez controversial stances. Humanities magazine wrote, “The union organizer was vehemently opposed to undocumented immigrant workers, looked with disdain upon the material comforts his own union members yearned for, and slipped into despotic isolation at his California mountain compound, La Paz, purging the UFW of many of his closest friends, allies, and mentors.”

From a Duke University paper, “Chavez claimed that undocumented workers were driving down wages, and crucially, being used as strikebreakers. Both complaints had merit, of course. Mexican immigrants were routinely used to break strikes; their desperate situation often led them to take whatever work they could get, even if it meant clashing with the UFW’s goals. And certainly, all of these dynamics played a role in wage depression.”