Here’s the latest:                                                                                                           We’ve been on the road, in the fields, through the trenches, under the trees (literally) and getting ever closer to completion. In the editing room, we’re currently working toward our final cut. We have a wonderful editor whose eye for detail, insight and real story is impeccable.

The team also recently mailed over a hundred production photos as part of the rewards program for our Kickstarter supporters. We still have an array of rewards that we’re ancious to make good on (DVDs, screenings, etc) once our film is completed.

We promise to update you more regularly from now on! Thank You!

Cesar Chavez passed 19 years ago today. April 23, 1993.

“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community…Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.”

– Cesar Chavez –

You can read the article here:

http://chicanafromchicago.com/2012/03/31/cesar-chavez-todavia-se-puede/

http://chicanafromchicago.com/about/

We want to be clear: We are here because of your enthusiasm and support. We are deeply grateful and honored to be working with you toward the completion of this important film.

Happy Birthday Cesar and Thank you to you all!

Si Se Puede,

Rick Perez & Molly O’Brien

Rick presented clips form our work-in-progress at the Sundance Institute’s storytelling workshop in Imperial Valley. It was a big success with aspiring filmmakers attending from as far away as Yuma, Arizona (where Cesar was born), and across the border from Mexicali.

Thank you again,
Stuart Rieke
Sisseton Wahpeton College

Cesar Chavez had closely followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s career since the 1950s Montgomery bus boycott. Whenever newspapers carried accounts of Dr. King’s battles in the South, the stories “would jump out of the pages at me,” Cesar would later recall. Dr. King reaffirmed Cesar’s commitment to nonviolent struggle and inspired the boycott of grapes and other products.

Although the two men never met, they corresponded. At the end of his life, Dr. King preached that genuine equality was not possible without economic equality.

“What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?” Dr. King declared.

Only one month before his death, Dr. King joined in solidarity with Chavez, who was then fasting for 25 days in Delano, Calif. to rededicate his farm workers’ movement to the principles of nonviolence practiced by M.K. Gandhi and Dr. King.

In March 1968, Dr. King sent a telegram to the fasting farm labor leader: “As brothers in the fight for equality, I extend the hand of fellowship and good will and wish continuing success to you and your members…You and your valiant fellow workers have demonstrated your commitment to righting grievous wrongs forced upon exploited people. We are together with you in spirit and in determination that our dreams for a better tomorrow will be realized.”

Cesar was in Sacramento, Calif. campaigning for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential drive, when it was announced that Dr. King had been shot.

“The spirit doesn’t die,” Cesar said. “The ideas remain.” We study them and apply them, “and they’re alive.”

In the decades that would follow, Cesar Chavez would often be described as the Martin Luther King for Latinos.

King’s words to Chavez in 1968 still have meaning 44 years later as Americans observe some solemn anniversaries, including Dr. King’s birthday on Jan. 15.

On March 10, it will be 44 years since Cesar ended his 25-day fast for nonviolence with Bobbie Kennedy by his side.

On April 4, it will be 44 years since Dr. King was assassinated while supporting striking garbage workers in Memphis, Tenn.

On June 6, it will be 44 years since Sen. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.

Some ideas never die, as Cesar said. If King and Chavez and Kennedy were alive today, what would they say about workers who suffer abuse and injustice?

What would they say to the big corporations that own the non-union farms, factories, hotels, office buildings and health care facilities?

They would say, ’Let your workers organize!’

“Este miércoles, 6 de octubre, el Sundance Institute presenta un avance de escenas selectas del nuevo documental Cesar’s Last Fast, producido por Richard Ray Pérez y Molly O’Brien. El escenario de la presentación es el Hammer Museum de Los Ángeles. La admisión es gratis.” [Read More]

Rick Perez

Wow. It’s about all we can say. WOW. 52 backers and close to $7,200 in just four days. Thank you so much! The overwhelming response to our Kickstarter campaign reaffirms our faith that this film is meaningful to people, that the spirit and legacy of Cesar Chavez is a story that needs to be told. Thank you for taking this journey with us.

Rick Perez & Molly O’Brien

“Enough with “not yet.” The time is now. Farm worker lives are put at risk on a daily basis. When the revised “Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act and the farm worker overtime bill cross your desk, please sign them immediately.” Sign here