Ricardo 'Wheaties' Gonzalez, right, receives the Cesar Chavez Legacy Award from UAW Local 2244 President Tito Sanchez at the first annual Cesar Chavez breakfast celebration in the San Francisco bay area.

Ricardo "Wheaties" Gonzalez, active in two UAW local unions before retiring out of the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont, Calif., has been given the first annual Cesar Chavez Legacy Award in honor of the founding president of the United Farm Workers union.

Gonzalez, who was active in both UAW Local 2244 and Local 1364, received the award at the first annual Cesar Chavez Breakfast Celebration held in the San Francisco bay area.

"Cesar Chavez is alive in us," said Gonzelez, president of the Alameda County chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. Gonzalez urged UAW members to fight for the rights of farm workers and to support the campaign to make March 31, Chavez’s birthday, a national holiday.