7447 Cleveland Ave.

Corona, CA 92280 16 November 2009 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger: Yet we know the day must come when they would talk to us, as equals. (Huerta) My name is Andrew Sanchez and I am a 9th grade freshman at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, and I believe that we should have a state wide holiday in honor of Csar Chvez. Csar Chvez was a key figure in obtaining farm workers rights and forming unions to do so. He had taken the argument to the states capitol and helped many people there. First, Csar Chvez had started off small moving ahead to bigger battles. He began slowly, working only for his village and trying to get basic working conditions. He moved on to starting strikes with people he worked with alongside in the fields, collecting grapes. His elementary teacher, Dolores Huerta joined him and his cause and in doing that, she became his partner in trying to win the struggle. The once farm workers that stood in picket lines with him, lost their jobs as well as a source of income but advanced from picket lines to boycotts, gathering more volunteers. Many helped them with this struggle including presidential nominee Robert Kennedy. Csar and his supporters continued to go from state to state boycotting grapes and the corporations that grow them. In the end of the battle the growers signed a contract to give the workers fair treatment, the entire course of action took more than 20 years from one mans strategy. In having a state-wide holiday we would be honoring his memory. Others may argue that we would lose a much needed school day. Schools are already getting enough budget cuts, losing teachers, and extracurricular activities like sports and the arts. In fact losing another day of school would make the school days uneven, there being 179 school days total. The school district may even have to take off more school days until it is a fair number like 175 school days. However, there are a couple solutions to this dilemma. The school district can also add more days to school, like a summer vacation day. Csar Chvez deserves to have a holiday to acknowledge what he had done for Latino Americas. He and his coworkers were always working, so in his memory, students and workforce should get a day off to relax and enjoy themselves. This is a topic, in which the public can also decide whether to make it a state holiday or not, by voting. This holiday would credit Csar Chvez for all the things he has done for people like himself and the effort he had put into the conflict to resolve it in his favor. Although we would be losing a school day, the school district can always find a solution for finding another day or something along that matter. Thank you for taking your time to read this. You may contact me on my cell phone at the number 951-666-2012. Sincerely,

Andrew Sanchez