many others to make sure our local hire is successful. it reaches into every community, and that makes lines of communication, training of the skill sets for the future of san francisco. that local hire is no longer read about construction. while we have created the foundation in construction with our brothers and sisters and the labor unions working with us, we're going to take the idea and the philosophy of local hire and meet it with every level of business in san francisco. every level. [applause] so it should not surprise you that we are going to create those employment training programs linked to mission, language -- mission language vocational school right here. as part of the mission, part of san francisco. [applause] so that the most successful technology companies -- you know the names, twitter, zynga,

salesforce, that they had a workforce that also looks like all of us to make sure generations -- because guess what? if the work with us, there will be that much more successful. they are successful now, but there will be even more successful when the cultural values and diversity reflected -- reflect it in the products produced. then they will truly become the international companies they want to be. you cannot be international without working right here in the heart of the mission, in the heart of our city. with that spirit, with the direction we're heading in, with all the programs we have, i want to thank the breakfast committee for your sacrifice, for the work that you do to include all of us, from our labor, business owners, department heads, fire department representatives -- all of us are recommitted every year we come together. we know what we have to do. we spend a lot of time doing it. and guess what, i think this city is 10 times richer than any

other city because we worked so well together. thank you for your commitment. thank you for celebrating with us. [applause] >> bank you, mr. mayor. is everyone enjoying the food? thank you rosario, for giving us this room today. thank you to all of us are and to all of the staffs serving us so patiently and diligently to day. >> i want to make sure we recognize the other level of leadership. i want to recognize the commissioners. if i forget anybody, please do not be hesitant to nudge me. commissioner from building instruct -- inspections, thank

you for being here. another member from the brooklyn unified school district, thank you for being here. commissioner ortiz-cartajena, pedro jesus, thank you for being here today. [applause] we are lucky this morning to have a special key note speaker that will be speaking to us in a few moments. to introduce that person, i want to have join me at the podium one of the great leaders of our brothers and sisters in the room who is no stranger to any of you. he is the current secretary- treasurers of the california labor federation, afl-cio. of like to introduce -- i would

like to introduce art polaski. thank you very much for being with us today. [applause] >> thank you. i want to acknowledge that this is the first time walter johnson -- that must have been henny who said that. thank you. is that better? i would like for all bus to acknowledge the back that walter johnson is not with as for the first time in the history of this breakfast. senator chave -- cesar chavez

would have said that titles do not matter. he has a lot of titles but does not live on them. eliseo medina joined his family at the delano grape strike at the age of 19. at the age of 20, he was an organizer in the difficult and sometimes violent campaign, as an organizer under cesar chavez. he was trained by both cesar and fred ross, sr. he became an organizer for the campaign in chicago.

he worked with the sugar cane workers of florida in the campaign against the slave like conditions of the workers in florida. since then, he has not stopped being an organizer. an organizer for all working people in the workplace and a fighter for all working people for social and economic justice. he also has been a monumental leader in the fight over the last two decades for immigration reform. a monumental national leader for immigration reform. in california, he has been the primary leader for how we look at building a voter outreach program to all latino voters, not just union members, in terms

of voter registration, contact, and get out the vote. he is a union organizer par ex cellance and a community organizer like no other. he is a primary leader in california and across the nation in terms of how we fight for immigrant rights and build the latino community with support for reaching out to get latino voters registered and voting. he has fought for economic justice for workers in mexico as well. he has been a mentor for many of us in this room and a leader for both community and labor since he was 19 years old. that was the first time he was on a picket line with cesar chavez. please give a warm welcome to the keynote speaker, one of the finest leaders anyone could ever

have, whether in the latino committee, the union committee, or the community itself. please give a warm welcome to eliseo medina also happens to be the secretary-treasurer of the afl-cio. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] that was very nice, if little embarrassing. thank you so much. art and i have been friends and colleagues in the battle for social justice for many years.

i do not know how your hair stays the same color while mine gets white. thank you, art. your truly one of the great labor leaders of our time. i appreciate your very generous introduction. brothers and sisters, it is a great pleasure for me to join you this morning, to join mayor lee, all of my brothers and sisters, trade unionists, officials, for remembering one of the great leaders of our time. i want to thank and congratulate eva for organizing this event. [applause]

12 years she has been doing this. let me just say that i have been too many cesar chavez events around the country. this is certainly one of the premier events i have never been to. thank you and congratulations. i also want to recognize eva martinez. [applause] father-son shows, -- father sanchez and our own olga from the local union. [applause] let me say that we are so proud

of olga. she has been in the trenches fighting so that janitors in san francisco are treated as first class citizens, to make sure they are honored and respected for the work that they do. thank you for your leadership for the local and the international union. we are proud of you. [applause] brothers and sisters, let me just say we're carrying on the legacy of cesar chavez. cesar chavez was a man and believed in the american dream region who believed in the american dream. cesar chavez was a man who believed that all working people deserve recognition and appreciation for their contributions they make to our

society. cesar chavez was a very humble man, which is what i always loved about him. he was not someone who would constantly call attention to himself. i remember the first time i met cesar chavez. i was an immigrant to this country. when i came to this country, they said to raise my right hand and promise i will obey every law and regulation in this country. if you do not, you could get deported about -- back. when i went to work in the fields full time at the age of 15 making 80 cents an hour, i work in fields where there was no cold drinking water. we just had a can that sat out

in the sun all day and tasted more like soup than water. there were no toilets in the field. if you needed to go to the bathroom, you had to go hide behind a tree or underneath the grapevines. if you were working somewhere where you did not have that edge recover, especially if you are a woman, other women have to stand around you and form a barrier to preserve your dignity. if we complained about the working conditions, we were told if we did not like it, we could quit. there was somebody else that could take our job. we were fired more times than i can remember for asking for our wages to be raised, but i thought that was the way it was in america. i thought that if you complained, you would be

breaking your oath that you made when you came to this country. we on this something was wrong, we just did not know what we could do about it. until one day i picked up a copy of the newspaper that translate to "ill bred," a not to child -- naughty child, someone who does not behave themselves. i read about how the farm workers association and its director, cesar chavez, had taken a labor contract before the labor commissioner. they had gotten him fined for not paying workers their wages.

to me, this was unheard of, that mexican workers could stand up, fight, and win. not only did they beat the labor contractor, this contractor happened to be the largest labor contractor in the delano area. he also happened to be white. to me, it was like a light went off in my head. then we started hearing that there was going to be a great -- grape strike. i was 19 years old. i did not know what that was. but i could feel the electricity in the air. i could feel the sense that something big was going to happen, but i just did not know what. one day my mother and sister came running into the house and said, " we are on strike."

they said they walked out. i had been at home because i had broken my leg. i was watching "i love lucy." [laughter] that took me away from watching it. i thought it was incredible. they said there is going to be a march. i went out and there were these workers, mexicans and filipinos, marching. there had never been a march in the city of delano. that night, there was going to be a strike meeting. i went. i could not stand the excitement of something big going on. i could taste it. i could feel it. i walked into the church of our lady of guadalupe in delano. it was packed. people were all around the walls and yelling.

for somebody to have created this, cesar chavez must be like 10 feet tall. he must have a voice like james earl jones, the voice of god. this man stands up, very well- spoken. do you remember a movie star called david niven? very distinguished, well-spoken. i thought that must be cesar chavez. he was introducing siegler to of this -- he was introducing cesar chavez. then cesar chavez walks up. he is like 5'5"with a very soft voice. it did not make sense. the more he began to speak, the

more i forgot his height, what he looked like, because i focused on his message. he talked about human dignity, the rights of workers, the fact that working people have to sell their labor, but it does not mean they have to sell their souls or dignity. the more he talked, the more i understood the power we had as individuals and collectively. the next morning, i cracked open my piggy bank. oci paid three months' worth of used to join the union. [applause] that was 47 years ago.

cesar chavez was a life changer. he made you believe you were capable of doing much more than you believe you were capable of. he said that imagination in new and that belief in yourself. he fed that imagination and belief in yourself. i went to chicago. i just turned 21. he said we were going to start a boycott and they needed me to go to chicago. me. i had barely graduated from eighth grade. i had been a farm worker all of this time, an immigrant. he said, you have to go to

chicago for about two weeks. [laughter] i said, where is chicago? not far. [laughter] ok. but you have to take an airplane. i had never been on an airplane in my life. we're going to give you a name. when you get there, looked him up and figure it out. he gave me a bag of buttons to sell to raise money, one name, and $20. he put me on an airplane. who in their right mind would go to a city they have never been, you have no idea where it is, how big it is, with one name. it was not that i was dumb and young, it was that i believed. i went to chicago. i was there for four years, not

two weeks. but we did stop the sale. we did win the grape boycott. we did build the union. [applause] cesar was also a master strategist. he was a master at power jujitsu, using your opponent's strength against them. he was a firm believer in nonviolence. he also had a very strong moral core that grounded his work and police -- and belief in the righteousness of the cause, social justice, and the belief that there is nothing you cannot accomplish when you are united

and working together. those lessons are just as relevant today. today, many of the things that cesar fought for are in danger. today, we are facing difficult situations as a society. today, in the richest and most powerful country in the world, we are seeing such income inequality that we have never seen before. today, we have more millionaires and more poor people than in the middle class at any time in our history before. the unions have always been the ticket to the middle class for working people. they are under attack like never

before. look at wisconsin, ohio, indiana. look at the state of california where again the corporations are trying to take away the voice of working people. they are doing that because they believe if they are to control the wealth of the country and the ballot box that they must do away with independent political forces. the labor movement is the largest, best resource, independent political force in this country. they think they have to do away with that because it is what stands between them and complete control in this country. if you look around the country, you see all of these bills that have been introduced to limit and restrict the right to vote for people of color, for

students, for other people. you see the destruction of community organizations, acorn, it tends to defund planned parenthood. there is a coordinated attack going on in this country by the powerful in our society. it is not just that i am paranoid. if you just look at what is going on in state after state, it makes you understand that if we do not join together, we are going to see the american dream that cesar fought for, the martin luther king fought for, the out of the reach of average people in this country. we have huge challenges in front of us. the best way to honor cesar chavez in june 19 together to

make sure -- is uniting together to make sure his dream and vision for society come true. freedom is a hard-won thing. every generation has to win it again. the song was part of a movie made it was called "the inheritance." it is true. every generation has to win it again. i am glad that this event is bringing us together again. the war horses with the young, the next generation. together, we have to fight for this country, for this nation that lives on in our hearts and dreams, a nation where it is a land of liberty and justice for

all. that is our task. let's do it in memory of cesar chavez, but more importantly, let's do it for our children and grandchildren. thank you very much. [applause]

>> i came out to san francisco about seven years ago. i was trained as a carpenter. i got sick of the cold weather and the hot weather. i wanted to pursue art. i thought i really be here for about three years. here i am, 7 years later. ♪ i have problems sleepwalking at night. i wanted to create a show about sleep. a mostly due painting kind of story telling. these are isolated subject matters, smaller studies for the larger paintings. i fell in love with it and

wanted to create more of them. it is all charcoal on mylar. it is plastic. i was experimenting and discovered the charcoal moves smoothly. it is like painting, building up layers of charcoal. it is very unforgiving. you have to be very precise with the mark-making. a mark dents the paper and leaves the material embedded. you have to go slowly. the drawings are really fragile. one wipe and they are gone completely. it is kind of like they're locked inside. all of the animals i am showing

are dead. i wanted them to be taking -- taken as though they are sleeping, eternal sleep. i like to exaggerate the features of the animals. it gives it more of a surreal element. it is a release subtle element. -- it is a really is subtle elements. the range of reactions people get is that normally they get what i am trying to achieve, the sense of calmness, it's really gentle state of mind -- a really gentle state of mind, i guess. ♪