Milwaukee community honors Cesar Chavez

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – Members of the Milwaukee community honored Cesar Chavez on Sunday.

The celebration was held at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. It focused on educating people about the legacy of the civil rights leader.

"That legacy is civil engagement, it's civil rights, it's equality, it's fairness, it's equal pay and those things are the values I think Cesar represented and fought for his whole life and I feel I do the same in the legislature," Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa said. 

Chavez was a union leader, an advocate of social justice and human dignity. His birthday is next week.

Sunday’s events brought in artists, musicians and dancers.

“I think he’s a wonderful symbol of humble leadership, servant leadership,” Marcus Center board of directors member Gladys Manzanet said. “Willing to do whatever it takes in order to improve the human condition. He has really served as our Martin Luther King, for lack of a better term.”

CBS 58 and Telemundo Wisconsin were proud sponsors of the event. Pari Cruz served as emcee.