How did Graham Nash get involved in ‘A Song for César’ Chávez? Watch PBS on Sept. 29.

When Bay area singer/songwriter Abel Sánchez, a longtime Chicano movement crusader, teamed with Santana to write ‘A Song for Cesar,’ the feedback was positive.

“You should put some footage with it,” Sánchez remembers hearing in 2003. A music video was made, then someone suggested a documentary be done.

A 6½-minute video evolved into an hour-and-a-half documentary that will premiere Friday (Sept. 29) on PBS. The project – which mushroomed to include the arts – counts on contributions from Maya Angelou, Graham Nash, Joan Báez, Santana, Cheech Marín, Edward James Olmos, Luis Valdez, Taj Mahal, and others.

The filmmakers – Sánchez and Andrés Alegría – present previously untold stories about Chávez and the movement he began in the early 1960s in Delano.

Did you know César loved to drape himself in the baggy pants and over-sized jackets like pachucos of the era?

Or that he had a lifelong appreciation for jazz music? Julie Chávez Rodríguez, César’s granddaughter who now directs President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, recalls he carried a list of top 100 jazz albums he wanted to collect.

What Sánchez, a 74-year-old musician and retired U.S. Postal Service worker, wanted was to show a side of Chávez that was rarely seen by the public. That was in addition to the music and artwork the farmworker leader inspired.

“There were a lot of people that gave their time and support, musicians and artists and bands,” said Sánchez. “I started calling them, and we started interviewing them. They started telling the story that we created.”

▪ Marín: “Art is integral to this project right from the very beginning ’cause artists are naturally drawn to those causes that are pure. They are naturally fun.”

▪ Angelou: “Señor Chávez, his dreams, his hopes, his desires, his work will live as long as we, throughout our lives, think about it.”

▪ Malaquias Montoya: “We didn’t know who we were. We were seeking identity. César Chávez gave us that.”

Sánchez was able to get the usual supporters like Dolores Huerta, Agustín Lira, Daniel Valdez and Olmos.

How did British rocker Nash become part of the project?

Juan Martínez, a farmworker who became one of many local bodyguards Chávez would use during his travels, asked Sánchez to listen to ‘Fieldworker,’ a song Nash wrote and recorded in 2014 by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

“Oh my God! You know, it’s a beautiful song,” said Sánchez, who then contacted Nash’s agent to inquire about using a piece of the song for the documentary.

Sánchez was told that Nash was grateful for being asked. Sánchez then figured that if Nash was grateful, perhaps he’d agree to sit down for an interview.

Nash agreed.

“I had a friend who lived in Beverly Hills, and he had every kind of food at a party,” Nash recalls in the documentary. “I then drove from LA to Delano, and I went to see the food store of the UFW and there was very little in it.

“There was some soup, some beans, some rice. The contrast between (the Beverly Hills party and the UFW store) led me to write ‘Fieldworker.’ The dichotomy was so stark, I had to write it. I had no choice.”

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young performed the song at the famous Wembley Stadium in London.

Sánchez calls the Nash interview “one of the highlights of the documentary.”

Sánchez, whose work at the Postal Service as a program specialist included helping make a Chávez stamp a reality in 2003, still performs with his band, Abel and the Prophets. The band played at a benefit concert for Chávez 50 years ago in San José.

“A lot of the history we put in there we learned in the making of the film,” said Sánchez.

The documentary is a special presentation of American Masters and Latino Public Broadcasting’s VOCES.