A drought of leaders

I’ll begin by paying homage to our legendary but never well-studied leader, César Dario Estrada Chávez,  known simply as “César Chávez” (b. Yuma, AZ, 31 March 1927 – d. San Luis, AZ, 23 July 1993).   Leader and activist for the civil rights of farm workers in the U.S., Chávez, a reality for his contemporaries, is now simply a part of the history of this great country.

What I have been thinking about not just lately but for decades, is this:  we Latinos need a leader.  We desperately need someone who will represent us and stand up for us,  we who everyday seem to become less consequential,  we the Latino community living in this giant of a country under capitalism in its purest expression.

“Leadership” is almost a mystical term that encompasses an infinite number of differing meanings.  Still there is something essential that floats in the atmosphere, in the air we breathe as we go through the daily grind of life as a Latino; something that we have forgotten or maybe we don’t notice even though it is consuming us, every step we take, with every decision we make.   Up to now, in this time of transition, tribulation and – why not say it? – crisis, no one yet has taken that courageous step forward, saying: “I am burning with longing to defend my people, my race!”

And not someone who wants to move outside the system. Rather someone who seeks to represent the people and ensure that their petitions are heard, their hardships are made known, their marginalization noticed.  Someone to speak out against the injustices under which the largest population group – and one of vital importance to the state’s economy – lives.  Injustices they have been enduring for decades.

For far too long now we have been waiting for this courageous person to rise up from among us.  Someone who wants to be remembered by posterity for standing up for the well-being of the Latino people.   Someone who knows that he or she is risking their own life, and the lives of their supporters, but who nonetheless will follow the peaceful methods of dialogue and negotiation, not working with “caudillos” or guerrilla fighters. Someone selfless.   The Latino community is dying of thirst for a leader.  When he was with us, Pope John Paul II stated clearly: “Jesus Christ doesn’t want you to admire idols, his command is to follow leaders.

I think if a Martin Luther King were around, aware of how the policies surrounding immigration and immigrants  affect us, he would be unbearably sad.  The reason is simple, it is the essential missing factor:  we have not stood up with courage, there is no unity or support.   Even as I write, the unspoken question is a muffled cry:  when will we finally be able to take advantage of the actions of the leader the Latino community so desperately needs?

The answer lies dormant in the longing of this great hardworking people whose only intention is to make this country more powerful and stronger than it already is.

This is only my opinion, my humble point of view. In my next column I will give details about the injustices we face daily  – working for wages we can’t live on, being shut out of housing in this valley, and many other hardships. I take my leave for now, and thank you for taking a few minutes to read my view.

Alejandro “Alex” Águilar recently earned his GED through Santa Rosa Junior College, and tutors math for adults at the Family Resource Center of El Verano School.