San Francisco will go all-out again this year to celebrate Cesar Chavez Day, a national holiday celebrating California’s own civil rights and labor movement activist, Cesar Chavez. The official holiday is on March 31st, but SF’s Mission District parade and festival will happen on Saturday, April 29th, 2023.
The festival will take place from 10am-5pm on 24th St between Folsom and Bryant, and will include plenty of food and drink vendors as well as live performances, arts and crafts, a lowrider car show, games for children and much more.
The parade will happen from 11am-12pm starting at Dolores Park on 19th Street, traveling south on Mission Street and east on 24th Street to end on Folsom. It will include plenty of labor unions, religious groups, schools, community organizations, Aztec dancers, performances, music, lowrider cars and more.
Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist who dedicated his life to la causa (the cause) – that is, improving living and working conditions for US farm workers. He was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi to act through nonviolent resistance, achieving pay raises and improved conditions during the 1960s and 1970s. He also founded the National Farm Workers Association (now the United Farm Workers). Chavez was an prolific figure in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, and his legacy is a critical part of Chicano identity across the country and especially in California.
Be sure to check out the Cesar Chavez Parade & Festival on Saturday, April 29, 2023 in San Francisco’s Mission District.