Obama Leads Cheers of “Si Se Puede!” At Cesar Chavez Rally (Video)

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President Obama’s trip here to dedicate the Cesar Chavez National Monument wasn’t for a campaign rally, but sure felt like one.

There were the chants of “Si, se puede,” led by Obama himself at the beginning and end of his remarks. There were the cries of “four more years” from the thousands of mostly Hispanic people who gathered to watch. There were the “Obamanos” stickers and shirts arrayed throughout the scene.

And there was Obama’s speech, 12 minutes devoted to Chavez and his labor movement, but reflective of the same all-together-now aspirational themes that coarse through the re-election campaign.

The event served as a twofer – showing Obama as honoring both a Hispanic hero and a pioneer of the nation’s rural labor movement.

“He believed that when a child anywhere in America can dream beyond her circumstances and work to realize that dream, it makes all our futures just a little bit brighter,” Obama said of Chavez. “It was that vision, that belief in the power of opportunity that drove Cesar every day of his life. It’s a vision that says, ‘Maybe I never had a chance to get a good education but I want my daughter to go to college. Maybe I started outworking out working in the field but somebody I’ll own my own business. Maybe I have to make sacrifices but those sacrifices are worth it if it means a better life for my family.’ That’s the story of my ancestors, that’s the story of your ancestors.”

Obama sandwiched his trip here to dedicate the remote memorial in the midst of California’s Tehachapi Mountains an hour southeast of Bakersfield between fundraising stops Sunday night in Los Angeles and Monday night in San Francisco. He raised $9.5 million at the three stops Sunday.