César Chávez

César Estrada Chávez (March 31 1927 – April 23 1993) was a Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.^[1] His work led to numerous improvements for union workers. He is considered a hero for farm laborers. He is hailed as one of the greatest American civil rights leaders alongside of Martin Luther King, Jr.. His birthday has become a holiday in four U.S. states. Many parks, cultural centers, libraries, schools, and streets have been named in his honor in several cities across the United States.

Early times

Cesar Chavez (named after his grandfather) was born near Yuma, Arizona on March 31 1927. His early life was difficult: among other problems, the small adobe home where Chavez was born was swindled from his family by dishonest businessmen: Chavez's father Librado had agreed to clear 80 acres of land and add to the home in exchange for the deed to 40 acres of land, but the agreement was broken and the land was sold to a man named Justus Jackson. The elder Chavez went to a lawyer who advised him to borrow money to buy the land, but when he could not pay the interest on the loan, the lawyer bought the land and sold it back to the original owner.

Chavez did not like school as a youth. He remembered being punished with a ruler to his knuckles for speaking Spanish. Some schools were segregated, and he frequently encountered racist remarks. He and his brother Richard attended thirty-seven schools over the course of their lives.

Chavez felt that education had nothing to do with his farm worker/migrant way of life. In 1942, he graduated from the eighth grade. He could not attend high school because his father Librado had been in an accident and did not want his mother Juana to work in the fields. Instead, Cesar became a migrant farm worker. After two years he joined the Navy in 1944 and served a two-year hitch.

In 1948 Chavez married Helen Fabela. They honeymooned in California by visiting all the California Missions from Sonoma to San Diego. They settled in Delano and started their family. First Fernando, then Sylvia, then Linda, and five more children followed.

Chavez went to San Jose where he met and was influenced by Father Donald McDonnell. They talked about farm workers and strikes. Chavez read about St. Francis, Gandhi and nonviolence. After Father McDonnell came another very influential person, Fred Ross, and Chavez became an organizer for Ross's organization, the Community Service Organization (CSO). His first task was voter registration.

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.

Four years later, Chávez left the CSO. He co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with Dolores Huerta. In 1965, Filipino farm workers initiated the Delano grape strike on September 8 to protest in favor of higher wages.

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, Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, Filipinos, and Filipino-Americans jointly formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), which would eventually evolve into United Farm Workers. 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 U.S. Senate Subcommittee looked into the situation, Robert Kennedy gave Chávez his total support. This effort resulted in the first major labor victory for U.S. farm workers.

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 Austin, in support of UFW farm workers' rights. In the Midwest, César Chávez' movement inspired the founding of two Midwestern independent unions: Obreros Unidos in Wisconsin in 1966, and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in Ohio in 1967. Former UFW organizers would also found the Texas Farm Workers Union in 1975.

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. Bumper stickers read "NO GRAPES" and "UVAS NO" (the same thing 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.

Animal Rights Advocate

Chávez was an ethical vegan and vocal advocate of animal rights.[1] He stated, "I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings." [2] He also said, "Kindness and compassion towards all living beings is a mark of a civilized society. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bullfighting and rodeos are all cut from the same defective fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves." [3]

In accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award from In Defense of Animals in 1992, Chávez stated, "We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves...We know we cannot be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them – exploiting animals in the name of science, exploiting animals in the name of sport, exploiting animals in the name of fashion, and yes, exploiting animals in the name of food." [4]

Chávez's granddaughter, Christine Chávez, continues not only César's legacy of civil rights and labor movement activism [5], but also speaks out in support of animal rights and has called for a ban on foie gras due to what she believes is extreme animal cruelty in its production.[6]

César Chávez and Illegal Immigration

In 1969, Chávez and members of the UFW marched through the Imperial and Coachella Valleys to the border of Mexico to protest growers' use of undocumented workers as strikebreakers. Joining him on the march were both Reverend Ralph Abernathy and U.S. Senator Walter Mondale. [7]

In 1973, the United Farm Workers set up a "wet line" to prevent Mexican workers from entering the United States to break their strike. [8] During one such event in which Chávez was not involved, some UFW members physically attacked the strikebreakers, after attempts to peacefully convince the undocumented workers not to cross failed. [9]

Legacy

See also: List of places named after Cesar Chavez

In 1973, college professors in Mount Angel, Oregon established the first four-year Mexican-American college in the United States. They chose César Chávez as their symbolic figurehead, naming the college Colegio Cesar Chavez. In the book Colegio Cesar Chavez, 1973-1983: A Chicano Struggle for Educational Self-Determination author Carlos Maldonado writes that César Chávez himself visited the campus twice, joining in public demonstrations in support of the college. Though Colegio Cesar Chavez closed in 1983, it remains a recognized aspect of Oregon history. On their website, the Oregon Historical Society writes, "Structured as a 'college-without-walls', more than 100 students took classes in Chicano Studies, early childhood development, and adult education. Significant financial and administrative problems caused Colegio to close in 1983. Its history represents the success of a grassroots movement."^[2]

César Chávez died on April 23 1993, of unspecified natural causes in a rental apartment in San Luis, Arizona. He is celebrated in California by a law that established a state holiday in his honor. The holiday is celebrated on March 31, Chávez's birthday. All state government offices, community colleges, and libraries are closed, except for K-12 schools. Texas also recognizes the day, and it is an optional holiday in Arizona and Colorado.

His eldest son Fernando Chavez tours the country, speaking about his father's legacy of union organizing and fighting for workers' rights.

The California cities of Modesto, Sacramento, San Diego, Berkeley, and San Jose, California have renamed parks after him, and in Amarillo, Texas a bowling alley has been renamed in his memory. In Los Angeles, César E. Chávez Avenue, originally named Brooklyn Avenue, extends from Sunset Boulevard and runs through East Los Angeles and Monterey Park. In San Francisco, César Chávez Street, originally named Army Street, is named in his memory, and in Austin, Texas, one of the main central thoroughfares was changed to César Chávez Boulevard. In 2003, the United States Postal Service honored him with a postage stamp. In 2005, a César Chávez commemorative meeting was held in San Antonio, honoring his courageous acts for the sake of immigrant farmworkers and other immigrants. Also in Santa Fe, NM there is an elementary school named after him in his honor. César Chávez kept fighting for migrant workers until his death in 1993. The American Friends Service Committee nominated him three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.^[3] people like his great grandson, anthony chavez and other family members help by spreading his remebrance to important events and schools.

Timeline

<timeline>

ImageSize = width:600 height:700 PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10

DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1927 till:1994 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:3 start:1927 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1927

PlotData=

 color:red mark:(line,pink) align:left fontsize:S 
 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 farm worker, 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.
 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.

</timeline>

Further reading

• Levy, Jacques E. and Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. New York: Norton, 1975. ISBN 0-393-07494-3
• Dalton, Frederick John. The Moral Vision of César Chávez. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2003. ISBN 1-57075-458-6
• Ross, Fred. Conquering Goliath : Cesar Chavez at the Beginning. Keene, California: United Farm Workers: Distributed by El Taller Grafico, 1989. ISBN 0-9625298-0-X
• Soto, Gary. Cesar Chavez: a Hero for Everyone. New York: Aladdin, 2003. ISBN 0-689-85923-6 and ISBN 0-689-85922-8 (pbk.)
• Ferriss, Susan and Ricardo Sandoval. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997. ISBN 0-15-100239-8
• Handbook of Texas History, Online Edition
• Jacob, Amanda Cesar Chavez Dominates Face Sayville: Mandy Publishers, 2005.
• Prouty, Marco G. Cesar Chavez, the Catholic Bishops, and the Farmworkers' Struggle for Social Justice (University of Arizona Press; 185 pages; 2006). Analyzes the church's changing role from mediator to Chavez supporter in the farmworkers' strike that polarized central California's Catholic community from 1965 to 1970; draws on previously untapped archives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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