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Special screening of 'Cesar Chavez' movie set for April 11; tickets free to CSUEB community

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  • March 26, 2014 9:00am

As the university remembers Cesar Chavez, the late civil rights and United Farm Workers union leader on March 31, members of the Cal State East Bay campus community are invited for a special showing -- reserved for them -- of the movie "Cesar Chavez: History Made One Step at a Time" on Friday, April 11. 

The screening will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Hayward Cinemark Theatre, 1069 B Street, in downtown Hayward. There will be a limit of 130 free tickets set aside for CSUEB students, faculty, and staff members. The free tickets will be available, on a first come, first served basis, upon presentation of a Cal State East Bay ID card, starting at 4:30 p.m. in the theatre lobby.

The free screening for the CSUEB community has been arranged through the efforts of the Associated Students Inc. Diversity Center and the Office of University Diversity.

The film, starring Michael Pena as Chavez, follows the former labor leader's efforts to organize 50,000 California farm workers, many of who were braceros—temporary workers from Mexico permitted to live and work in the United States in agriculture, and required to return to Mexico if they stopped working. The movie shows how working conditions were very poor for the braceros, who also suffered from racism and brutality at the hands of the employers and local Californians.

Also depicted is how Chavez, to help the workers, formed the UFW. The film also shows how his efforts were opposed, sometimes violently, by the owners of the large industrial farms where the braceros worked.

Although numerous books, magazine articles, and scholarly studies have been written about him, this is the first feature film about Chavez, efforts to help people, and his life.

More information about the film, "Cesar Chavez: History Made One Step at a Time," is available through the following news media links:

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LA times

-- Barry Zepel

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