Cesar Chavez
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César Estrada Chávez (March 311927 – April 231993) was an American farm worker, labor leader, and activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. His birthday on March 31 has subsequently become a holiday in a handful of U.S. states, and a number of parks, libraries, schools, and streets have been named in his honor in several cities across the United States.
Early Life
César Estrada Chavez, named after his grandfather, Cesario, was born near Yuma, Arizona on March 31, 1927. He died in San Luis, a small village near Yuma, on April 23, 1993.According to the United Farm Workers web site, as a young Mexican American growing up in Arizona, Chavez was acquainted with prejudice and injustice from an early age. In one significant incident, the small adobe home where Cesar was born was swindled from his family by dishonest businessmen. Cesar's father had agreed to clear 80 acres of land and add to the home in exchange for the deed to 40 acres (16 ha) of land. The agreement was broken and the land sold to a man named Justus Jackson. Cesar's father then went to a lawyer who advised him to borrow money to buy the land. When Cesar's father could not pay the interest on the loan the lawyer bought back the land and sold it to the original owner. Cesar learned a lesson about injustice that he would never forget. Later, he would say, "The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being, but it is also the most true to our nature." [[Citing sources citation needed]]
He did not like school as a child, probably because he spoke only Spanish at home. The teachers didn't permit them to speak Spanish. Spanish was forbidden in school.[[Citing sources citation needed]] He remembered being punished with a ruler to his knuckles for violating the rule.[[Citing sources citation needed]] He also remembered that some schools were segregated and he felt that in the integrated schools he was like a monkey in a cage. [[Citing sources citation needed]] He remembered having to listen to a lot of racist remarks.[[Citing sources citation needed]] He remembered seeing signs that read whites only. He and his brother, Richard, attended thirty-seven schools.[[Citing sources citation needed]] He felt that education had nothing to do with his farm worker/migrant way of life.[[Citing sources citation needed]] In 1942 he graduated from the eighth grade. He could not attend high school because his father, Librado, had been in an accident and he did not want his mother, Juana, to work in the fields. Instead, he became a migrant farm worker.
While his childhood school education was not the best, later in life, education was his passion. The walls of his office in Keene, California (United Farm Worker Headquarters ) are lined with hundreds of books ranging from philosophy, economics, cooperatives, and unions, to biographies on Gandhi and the Kennedys. He believed that, "The end of all education should surely be service to others," a belief that he practiced until his death.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
In 1944 he joined the Navy at the age of seventeen, serving a two year enlistment.
In 1948 Cesar married Helen Fabela. They honeymooned in California by visiting all the California Missions from Sonoma to San Diego. They settled in Delano, a town located in the grape-growing region of the San Joaquin Valley, and started their family. First Fernando, then Sylvia, then Linda, and five more children followed.
Cesar went to San Jose where he met and was influenced by Father Donald McDonnell. They talked about farm workers and strikes. Cesar began reading about St. Francis and Gandhi and nonviolence. After Father McDonnell came another very influential person, Fred Ross.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Cesar became an organizer for Ross's organization, the Community Service Organization - CSO. His first task was voter registration.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Career as a labor leader
Chávez was taught and trained by Pete Fielding, and started working as an organizer in 1952 for the Community Services Organization (CSO), a Latino civil rights group. Chávez urged Mexican-Americans to register and vote, and he traveled throughout California and made speeches in support of workers' rights. He became CSO's national director in the late 1950s.[[Citing sources citation needed]]Four years later, however, Chávez left the CSO. He co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with Dolores Huerta. In 1965, Filipino workers, under their organization the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), initiated the Delano grape strike on September 8 to protest in favor of higher wages.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Six months later, Chávez and the NFWA led a strike of California grape-pickers on the historic farmworkers march from Delano to the California state capitol in Sacramento for similar goals. Through the recognition of common goals and methods, and the realization of the strengths of people formation, Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, Filipinos, and Filipino Americans jointly formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), which would eventually evolve into the United Farm Workers of today. In addition to the strike, the UFW encouraged all Americans to boycott table grapes as a show of support. The strike lasted five years and got national attention. When the US Senate Subcommittee looked into the situation, Robert Kennedy gave Chávez his total support. This effort resulted in the first major labor victory for US farm workers. [[Citing sources citation needed]]
These activities led to similar movements in South Texas in 1966 where the UFW supported fruit workers in Starr County, Texas, and led a march to the Texas state capital, Austin, in support of UFW farm worker's rights. In the Midwest, César Chávez' movement inspired the founding of two Midwestern independent unions: Obreros Unidos in Wisconsin in 1966.The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in Ohio in 1967. Former UFW organizers would also found the Texas Farm Workers Union in 1975. [[Citing sources citation needed]]
In 1969, Chávez and members of the UFW marched through the Imperial and Coachella Valley to the border of Mexico to protest growers' use of illegal aliens as temporary replacement workers during a strike. Joining him on the march were both a Reverend Ralph Abernathy and a U.S. Senator Walter Mondale. Chávez and the UFW would often report suspected illegal aliens who served as temporary replacement workers as well as those who refused to unionize to the INS.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
In the early 1970s, the UFW organized strikes and boycotts to protest for, and later win, higher wages for those farm workers who were working for grape and lettuce growers. During the 1980s, Chávez led a boycott to protest the use of toxic pesticides on grapes. He again fasted to draw public attention. These strikes and boycotts generally ended with the signing of bargaining agreements.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Legacy
César Chávez died on April 23, 1993, of unspecified natural causes. He is celebrated in a bill to create a paid state holiday in his honor. The holiday is celebrated on March 31, Chávez's birthday. Texas also recognizes the day. Also, in both Arizona and Colorado, it is an optional holiday. It is the first and only holiday honoring a Mexican-American in the United States.
His eldest son Fernando tours the country, speaking about his father's legacy of union organizing and fighting for workers' rights. Many cities have also paid respect by renaming or naming streets, schools, and buildings for Chávez (see List of places named after Cesar Chavez).
The California cities of Sacramento, San Diego, Berkeley, and San José have renamed parks after him, and in Amarillo Texas, a bowling alley has been renamed in his memory. Also, in 2004, the United States Postal Service honored him with a postage stamp. Also in 2005 there was a Cesar Chavez commemorative meeting in San Antonio for his courageous attitude towards freeing immigrant farmworkers and other immigrants.
Timeline
ImageSize = width:600 height:700
PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1927 till:1994
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ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:3 start:1927
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shift:(25,0) # shift text to right side of bar
at:1927 text:March 31, César Estrada Chávez born near Yuma, Arizona.
at:1942 text:Begins as a farmworker, picking lettuce and beets
at:1946 text:Forms the National Agricultural Workers Union, his first.
at:1948 text:He and his family join the National Farm Workers Labor Union.
at:1952 text:Recruited for Saul Alinsky's Community Service Organization,~ an activist group that fought racial and economic discrimination against Chicano residents.
from:1958 till:1959 text:Chavez organizes strikes, marches, and a boycott of merchants~ in Oxnard to protest local unemployment.
at:1962 text:Leaves the CSO and moves to Delano where he founds the Farm Workers Association.
at:1965 shift:(25,-5) text: The NFWA and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee start the grape boycott.
at:1966 shift:(25,8) text:In March, Chavez marches with 75 others from Delano to the capital, Sacramento, 340 miles~ to bring attention to the plight of farmworkers.
at:1968 text:In February, he begins his historic 25 day fast.
at:1969 text: UFW declares National Grape Boycott Day.
at:1970 text:In December, Chavez imprisoned for challenging injunction against the boycott.
at:1973 text:UFW celebrates first convention in Fresno. U.S. Supreme Court declares use of short hoe illegal.~ In the same year, U.S. Supreme Court declares use of short hoe illegal.
at:1984 text:Chávez announces a new grape boycott, this time focused on pesticides.
at:1988 text:Chávez fasts for 36 days to protest pesticide use.
at:1992 text:Chavez directs march of over ten thousand in Salinas Valley.
at:1993 text:April 23, after a fast of several days, Chávez dies in his sleep.
at:1994 text:Chávez receives the U.S. Medal of Freedom from President Clinton.
Places named after Chavez
References
- Levy, Jacques E. and Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. New York: Norton, 1975. ISBN 0393074943
- Dalton, Frederick John. The Moral Vision of César Chávez. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2003. ISBN 1570754586
- Ross, Fred. Conquering Goliath : Cesar Chavez at the Beginning. Keene, California: United Farm Workers: Distributed by El Taller Grafico, 1989. ISBN 096252980X
- Soto, Gary. Cesar Chavez: a Hero for Everyone. New York: Aladdin, 2003. ISBN 0689859236 and ISBN 0689859228 (pbk.)
- Ferriss, Susan and Ricardo Sandoval. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997. ISBN 0151002398
- [Handbook of Texas History, Online Edition]
- Jacob, Amanda Cesar Chavez Dominates Face Sayville: Mandy Publishers, 2005.
External links
- ["The Story of Cesar Chavez"] United Farmworker's official biography of Chavez
- ["Cesar Chavez Timeline"], Napa Valley Register, March 30, 2006.
- [Cesar Chavez Foundation]
- [Spectrum Biographies-Cesar Chavez]
- [Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy in Washington, DC]
- [The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworker's Struggle] PBS Documentary
- [Fresno Adult School (Cesar Chavez Campus)]
- [Musical inspired by the life of Cesar Chavez]
- [Cesar Chavez Student Center]
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