Child of the revolution

First arrested on a picket line at age 4, Christine Chávez continues to live by the example set by her grandfather, César.

“I can’t get arrested any more this year or I’ll go to jail,” joked the 35-year-old Chávez, who seems to have inherited her grandfather’s charisma and moral compass, having been arrested

a total of six times for civil disobedience.

“He said to get involved and stay involved in your community,” said Chávez of her late grandfather. “He would tell us, ‘If you don’t want to be involved with labor unions, pick a cause that you’re passionate about and do anything you can to help.’”

She pursues her passions by working with the gay rights movement and social justice and animal rights advocates, and she still has a hand in the United Farm Workers of America, the union started by her grandfather, for which she served as Southern California political director for eight years.

Former California Gov. Gray Davis presented the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s LA Leadership Award to Chávez and Judy Chu, a member of the state Board of Equalization and a former assemblywoman from Monterey Park, on Sept. 30 in Beverly Hills.

The next day, Chávez left her job as district director for California Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, a Democrat representing East Los Angeles and much of the San Gabriel Valley, and started working with the campaign for Proposition 92 on the Feb. 5 ballot.

Proposition 92 would separate state funding for primary and secondary schools and community colleges, reduce student fees from $20 to $15 per unit and increase the number of state community college board members.

“It’s going to have the ability to affect thousands of community college students to make college more accessible to women and people of color,” she said of the measure proposed by Californians for Improving Community Colleges, a coalition of educators and community college organizations, with major funding supplied by the California Federation of Teachers and the Los Angeles College Guild Committee.

Chávez — who lives in East Los Angeles with her husband Oscar Gonzales and their dogs Boycott and Buddy — spoke with the Pasadena Weekly about her recent forays into the peace movement, issues facing Angelenos and how injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.

—Jaymee R. Cuti

Pasadena Weekly: We first met when you were energizing a group of gay rights supporters in March in Salem, Ore. Is cheerleading a role in which your talents shine?

Christine Chávez: I feel comfortable in roles where I can make a difference and encourage others to get involved. On the same-sex marriage issue, state Sen. Carole Migden [D-San Francisco] showed me that when Latinos are polled, we are not where we need to be. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at rallies on same-sex marriage. I flourish in those kinds of settings, educating people about issues.

What causes did you champion in your role in Sen. Romero’s office?

I was the liaison to all the labor unions in the area. [Recently] I was at a rally on behalf of the senator, speaking to striking nurses who walked out in Pomona. They were in negotiations that had broken down on issues over patient safety, and their pay and health benefits weren’t comparable to other neighboring hospitals.

We also assisted the East Los Angeles Residents Association. They’ve been trying to incorporate; right now it is county administered. They’d like to make [East LA] its own city, and that’s something the senator is behind as well.

What personal projects are you working on?

I have been working on the Gen II Project [The brainchild of Martin Luther King III, the Gen II Project involves a peace delegation consisting of the children or grandchildren of high-profile peacemakers from around the world visiting foreign leaders in hopes of addressing human rights issues afflicting their countries]. Martin Luther King III has asked children and grandchildren of peacemakers to be involved: King Abdullah II, Arun Gandhi, Nadim Gemayel, Kerry Kennedy, Nechemia Peres, Dalia Rabin, Justin Trudeau and Naomi Tutu.

We all met July 16 and 17. We are going as a peace delegation to meet with leaders to see how we can effect change in targeted areas like Darfur, North Korea and Burma. We started by signing a peace accord, a declaration of interdependence. I grew up hearing of Gandhi, Martin Luther King [and] Bishop Tutu, so it was really inspiring to meet these amazing people.

Tell me about your involvement with the gay rights movement.

On Cinco de Mayo in 2005 I conducted civil unions at the Supreme Court in Sacramento, to say if my grandfather were still alive he would have been a supporter of this issue.

I took a leave of absence to lobby for gay marriage in Latino districts with Equality California, and I got UFW to support the marriage bill for the first time ever.

The strongest reaction I got was in Fresno. Latinos said, “Stick to farm workers. This isn’t what your grandfather was about.” That’s exactly what he was about, and if you don’t get that, then you don’t know what he was about.

A lot of people have made my grandfather into this noncontroversial, angelic figure, but my grandfather was very controversial and spoke out often about LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] issues. The biggest group my grandfather spoke to was at the 1989 LGBT march in Washington, DC.

People say it’s not a Latino issue. There are more Latinos in same-sex relationships in California than in any other state. When people say it’s not a Latino issue, they need to be educated.

How was this in line with your grandfather’s values?

One of the most important lessons my grandfather taught was about solidarity; not just to be there with farm workers, but with other groups that were struggling.

I remember when my sister and I were teenagers he invited us to go to New York City with him to a speaking engagement. He had a strict policy to never stay at a hotel. We saw that he was registered to stay at the Park Plaza Hotel and begged him to let us stay there. So we got there and there [was] a picket line of hotel workers. For the whole time, we picketed. Ever since then, we’ve known what solidarity is.

What are people surprised to learn about your grandfather?

That he championed animal rights. He was always against rodeos and cockfighting. He was a vegan. And that he loved — loved — jazz.

Do you have any parting thoughts about your grandfather that you want to share with our readers?

I want people to know about my grandfather’s work. People always ask, “How do I honor him?” You honor him by giving back to your community, because that’s what he was about.