CHAVEZ LIVES ON; MARCHERS INSPIRED BY LATE LABOR LEADER.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

Even though her father toiled for years in the fields around Sacramento before she was born, Angie Garcia, 17, never gave much thought to Cesar Chavez.

She'd heard the name growing up, of course, but didn't understand the importance of Chavez' crusade to forge farm workers into a powerful union until she asked her father about the labor leader.

His explanation so opened her eyes that on Sunday, Garcia joined more than 1,000 people in a Mission Hills park to celebrate Chavez' March 31 birthday with a parade.

``He was one of those wonderful people in the world who see something wrong and want to make it right, for everyone,'' said Garcia of Sylmar. ``People like that change the world.''

To organizers, the presence of people like Garcia was crucial to keeping Chavez' memory alive. Although youths recruited from local schools filled Sunday's crowd in Brand Park, some students said others their age have little awareness of Chavez and his struggle to secure the rights of farm workers.

Chavez' granddaughter, Christine Chavez-Delgado, said she hoped the parade would teach children something about the leader, who some kids now confuse with welterweight fighter Julio Cesar Chavez.

``I really want to commend everyone for getting the youth here, so they don't think my grandfather was a boxer,'' Chavez-Delgado said.

Indeed, the 1-1/2-mile march to San Fernando Recreation Park contained those who knew Chavez only as a distant historical figure and others for whom he was a very real, direct inspiration before his death in 1993.

The voice of Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City, rose to a near shout as he told the young marchers how, not long ago, their heritage could have prevented them owning a house. Their rights, he said, had been defended by a farm worker, and they should be willing to make similar sacrifices for future generations.

``If you don't think you can do it, think of that brown, beautiful man who did it,'' Cardenas said.

Although Chavez' political struggles remained part of the event, the warm-up to the parade was as much block party as rally.

Chavez-Delgado, a community organizer with her grandfather's United Farm Workers of America, talked about efforts to unionize 20,000 strawberry pickers around Watsonville.

Feathered Aztec-style dancers leapt and spun in a circle, accompanied by wooden drums, while a marching band from San Fernando High School hammered out its own cadence.

Still, the significance of the event was not lost on the crowd. Imaya Ramos, 17, of Sylmar recalled the scars left on her father's back from straps used to carry harvested melons. He eventually left the fields, learned tool and die making and now works on the space shuttle program for Boeing, Ramos said. She will enter college in the fall on her way to becoming a veterinarian.

Like her father, Chavez demonstrated the possibility of achieving such dreams, she said.

``If Cesar Chavez could do it, if my dad could do it, I can do it,'' Ramos said.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

PHOTO (1) Students from area schools take part Sunday in the Cesar Chavez March for Justice, which began at Brand Park in Mission Hills.

(2) Cesar Chavez' granddaughter, Christine Chavez-Delgado, speaks to the crowd.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News