Pedro who?

The Reverend Peter Marshall, as one of three co-authors of The Light and the Glory for Children: Discovering God’s Plan for America from Christopher Columbus to George Washington is — according to the lights of Texas governor Rick Perry — qualified to be one of six “experts” selected by the Texas Board of Education to revise the state’s social studies curriculum.

The Rev. objects to including teaching Texas school children about César Chavez (1927 -1993), whose birthday (31 March) is a Texas state holiday, and proposes as an alternative “hispanic” role model, Pedro Flores (1915 -1979).

Arizona born Chavez was an early civil rights leader, who worked in California and the southwest in the 1950s registering Spanish-speaking and Mexican-American voters.  In 1962, with Delores Huerta, he co-founded the United Farm Workers’ union, which was responsible for closing down the abusive “bracero” program (spun by the anti-immigration organizations in the United States to suggest he opposed “illegal” immigration), immigration reform and numerous labor, heath and safety reforms in agriculture and food processing.   His birthday (31 March) is a state holiday in Texas, and numerous schools, streets and other public facilities are named in his honor.  He was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.

Flores, a Filipino immigrant, manufactured yo-yos in Santa Barbara, California between 1928 and 1932.