On a brown paper wrapper, as the legend goes, the first initial designs of an eagle with squared-off wings were created, and chosen, as has been recounted into UFW labor lore. A symbol was needed for the marches being planned, so César’s brother, Richard, and his cousin, Manuel, begin working on flag designs, borrowing the symbol of the eagle from the Aztecs, the indigenous people so many Mexican Americans identify with. The flag was conceived in 1962, when Chávez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farmworkers Union, the predecessor of the United Farm Workers. Under the eagle, a labor movement was galvanized into a working-class community, and it helped introduce that community to a country that may or may not have been happy to count its members as compatriots. The image on that flag is still a banner for worker rights, but it’s also grown into a symbol of cultural pluralism. “It had to be easy for anyone to make.” After some small talk, I thanked him for taking a moment to address our shared history, though I already knew it. “I asked my brother, Richard, to make something up,” Chávez said. It’s a story we all should know, and how it happened.”Ĭhávez quietly nodded, gracefully treating the question like it was the first time someone brought it up.

After they met, I walked up to Chávez to shake his hand and began: “The flag. Chávez was in town for a meeting with Al Kovar, then-director of the Home of Neighborly Service.

Cesar Chavez (Photo: Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)Ĭésar E.

Ufw eagle