On Wednesday, March 31, Jill Biden travelled to Delano, California, to mark the birthday of César Chávez, who was considered a transformational labor leader and Latin American civil rights activist.
Along with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the First Lady also visited a pop-up vaccination site for farmworkers and appeared as she delivered a speech on the grounds of the Forty Acres property to honor Chávez, praise the contributions of farm workers, stress the importance of the COVID-19 vaccination drive and advocate for her husband's immigration reform proposals.
Biden gave her address with a red flag in the background that featured an Aztec eagle symbol. However, images of Biden's speech were widely circulated on Twitter after right-leaning social media users accused the FLOTUS of delivering her remarks in front of what they claimed was a Nazi flag.
Some users even called for a fact-check, drawing comparisons to similar accusations faced by the Trump campaign last year over shirts featuring an imperial eagle, a Nazi symbol. Here are some of the posts:
Fact-Check: False
We can confirm that Biden did not deliver her speech with a Nazi flag in the background. The flag, which shows a black eagle symbol with squared off wings against a red backdrop, is actually a United Farm Workers (UFW) union flag. The UFW is the country's first permanent agricultural labor union and it was founded by Chávez.
The flag, which was designed by Chávez's cousin in 1962, when Chávez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farmworkers Union, the predecessor of the United Farm Workers union. The Aztec eagle symbol on the flag was meant to be a sign of courage for the farm workers. The historic Forty Acres property, where Biden gave her speech from, serves as the headquarters for the UFW.
Following her speech, Biden was also mocked for mispronouncing the phrase "¡Si Se Puede!," which translates to "yes we can." The phrase became popularized by Chávez and his UFW co-founder Huerta, and has also been used as a motto by the union.
