“Who would have thought wearing masks would turn out to be a symbol of liberalism? Who would have thought that masks would be debated so vigorously on par with immigration, tax and foreign policy?”

This moment calls for honesty, it calls for reflection, and it calls for a renewed commitment to the values that the farmworker movement was built on.

I gotta have lived through some stuff. I gotta make my mistakes. I gotta win enough to get the wisdom part and then I gotta lose enough to speak honestly.

To me, it all goes together so well, ’cause it’s all so me. I never had a conversation with myself about ‘Oh, this fits,’ or, ‘This doesn’t fit.’ It was just, ‘I like this feeling, I like this feeling, I like this feeling,’ create a loose structure for what it could be, get together with musicians who are sensitive and caring, and go for it.

I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way.

We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?

There's a reason that the opera and ballet have been around over 400 years, and I think that when you have access, you have opportunity to be a part of something, it can change your life.

This is not our war; we did not start it.

It’s a war.