Elizer Silva Vasquez

84, an early United Farm Workers activist and a grape striker who selflessly devoted years to the

movement—from organizing boycotts in five cities to service on Cesar Chavez’s security detail to

years as a union mechanic at the UFW’s La Paz, Keene, Calif. headquarters.

Elizer Silva Vasquez was born in 1939, in Brawley, Calif., the youngest of eight children in a

family living in a farm labor camp. When the Vasquez's moved north out of the Imperial Valley,

they still owed money to the company store despite seven years laboring there. That inspired

the later activism with the union. They settled in a Delano-area farm labor camp west of

Earlimart, and later bought a small house in Earlimart.

All of the Vasquez's were early union activists. In 1965, Elizer’s brothers Manuel and Mike

struck Delano grape growers under what became the UFW. Busy supporting a young family,

Elizer’s main union involvement began when, as a tractor driver at Roberts Farms, he joined the

bitter and bloody second grape strike in 1973. Elizer and his son, Elizer Jr., then 11, both worked

on the Los Angeles boycott, thus beginning Elizer’s full-time service with the UFW, which lasted

until 1987.

Cesar Chavez called Elizer at home in 1975, asking him to join his security detail. Elizer and his

girlfriend, Terry Carruthers, lived at La Paz, where their three children were born. They married

in 1977. The next year, Elizer graduated from the first auto mechanic training program under the

Farmworker Institute for Education and Leadership Development (FIELD) that Cesar set up. It

was a nine-month course at the co-op service station on the farm worker movements' Forty

Acres property in Delano.

Over the next nine years Elizer was a skilled mechanic at La Paz, with an affinity for working on

the union’s fleet of 1960s-era Plymouth Valiants. Cesar liked the vehicles because their Slant-6

engines made them easy to repair. Elizer loved working on those cars. He also tended to Cesar’s

late 1960s Ford Country Sedan station wagon that for years took the civil rights and farm labor

leader across California, the Southwest, and into northern Mexico. Elizer would also accompany

Cesar on the road—and guard him at La Paz—during tough times when federal agents were

notifying the UFW about assassination plots.

Elizer’s mechanic duties were interrupted when he happily helped organize UFW lettuce

boycotts in Seattle, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Detroit in 1979 and 1980.

In later years, Elizer returned briefly to the fields and then worked with the state mosquito

abatement program until retirement in 2014.

Elizer Vasquez passed away on September 13, 2023. He is survived by his sons Augie, Raul, and

Chris Vasquez as well as eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Son Elizer Vasquez Jr.

and daughter Marisol Vasquez preceded him in death.

A visitation for Elizer will be held Tuesday, October 3, 2023 from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM at Funeraria Del Angel Delano, 707 Browning Rd., Delano, CA 93215. A rosary will occur Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 4:30 PM, 707 Browning Rd., Delano, CA 93215. A mass of christian burial will occur Wednesday, October 4, 2023 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church, 1270 E Washington St., Earlimart, CA 93219. A committal service will occur Wednesday, October 4, 2023 from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM at North Kern District Cemetery, 627 Austin St., Delano, CA 93215.

Serving as pallbearers are Raul Vasquez, Christopher Vasquez, Mangas Williams, Elizabeth V. Rodriguez, Nick Vasquez and Julian Vasquez.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.delanomortuary.com for the Vasquez family. Services entrusted to Funeraria Del Angel Delano, a Dignity Memorial provider.