César Estrada Chávez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist , co-founder of National Farm Workers Association, later the United Farm Workers. His work led to numerous improvements for migrant workers. One of the greatest Mexican American civil rights leaders. His birthday on March 31 is a holiday in four U.S. states, and many parks, cultural centers, libraries, schools, and streets are named for him.
His early life was difficult: the small adobe home where he was born was swindled from his family by dishonest men. Chavez didn´t like school, probably because he spoke only Spanish at home and Spanish spoken caused a ruler to his knuckles for punsihment. Some schools were segregated. He frequently encountered racist remarks. He and his brother, Richard, attended thirty-seven schools. In 1942, he graduated eighth grade,but couldn´t attend high school because his father was in an accident and didn´t want his mother, Juana, to work in the fields. Instead, Cesar became a migrant farm worker for two years when he joined the Navy in 1944 for a two-year enlistment.
In 1948 Chavez married Helen Fabela visiting all the California Missions from Sonoma to San Diego. They settled in Delano and had six children.
In San Jose he was influenced by Father Donald McDonnell about farm workers and strikes. Chavez began reading about St. Francis, Gandhi and nonviolence. As an organizer for Fred Ross´s organization, the Community Service Organization (CSO) a Latino civil rights group, Chávez urged Mexican-Americans to register and vote, traveled through-out California making speeches in support of workers´ rights. He became CSO´s national director in the late 1950s.
Four years later, Chávez left the CSO to co-found the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with Dolores Huerta. In 1965, Filipino farm workers initiated the Delano grape strike on September 8 for higher wages.
Six months later, Chávez and the NFWA led a strike of California grape-pickers on the march from Delano to the California state capitol in Sacramento for similar goals. Recognizing common goals and methods, Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, Filipinos, and Filipino-Americans formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), eventually the United Farm Workers. The UFW encouraged all Americans to boycott table grapes . The strike lasted five years , got national attention, Robert Kennedy´s support and resulted in the first major labor victory for U.S. farm workers, inspiring similar movements in 1966 in Texas and in the Midwest.
In 1969, Chávez and the UFW marched through the Imperial and Coachella Valleys to the border of Mexico to protest growers´ use of undocumented workers as temporary replacement workers during a strike. Reverend Ralph Abernathy and U.S. Senator Walter Mondale joined him.
In the early 1970s, the UFW organized strikes and boycotts to protest for, and win, higher wages for farm workers in grapes and lettuce. During the 1980s, Chávez led a boycott to protest the use of toxic pesticides on grapes. Bumper stickers read “NO GRAPES” (“NO UVAS”in Spanish) were widespread. He again fasted to draw public attention. UFW organizers believed that a reduction in produce sales by 15% was sufficient to wipe out the profit margin of the boycotted product. These strikes and boycotts generally ended with the signing of bargaining agreements.
Later in life, education became Cesar´s passion. The walls of his office in Keene, California (United Farm Worker headquarters) were lined with hundreds of books ranging in subject from philosophy, economics, cooperatives, and unions, to biographies on Gandhi and the Kennedys.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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