Lydon 1

Jack Lydon

Civil Rights

December 9, 2016

Research Paper

Cesar Chavez

One of the most influential people to make improvements and change during the civil

rights movement in America is Cesar Chavez. He was known for his work on the west coast near

Arizona and in lower California. Born originally in Yuma, Arizona he moved around with his

family living in poverty, moving between California and Arizona his family eventually resided in

San Jose. Cesar and his family worked in the fields of California where he soon began to believe

in the idea that the only way to get out of living in poverty is to work his way out and then

eventually he can send his children to college. This idea of the importance of education was very

evident in his work later in life, yet it was not at first. At first, he did not like school because that

was where he first experienced discrimination and prejudice. Spanish being his native language,

it was forbidden at his school and he was forced to speak English. His teachers would actually

slap his knuckles and anyone else that would break the rule also. He and his brother had moved

around from 37 different schools due to the day-by-day discrimination they would both face.

Unfortunately, he and his brother were forced out of schooling when he was in the eighth grade

because his father had been in an accident. This caused them both to go back to the fields and

work as a migrant farm worker so their family would have an income and there would still be

food on the table. After serving in the Navy for 2 year and marrying his wife Helen, he settled in
 Lydon 2

San Jose where he would build his family and eventually begin his work that would permanently

change or improve migrant farm workers civil rights.

It could be argued that Cesars ideals and motivation came from his farming background

as well as when he met Father Donald McDonnell. Through Father Donald, Cesar began to study

the strategies used by St. Francis and Gandhi and how they could cause so much change by

utilizing nonviolent methods. One of his many accomplishments was when he founded the

National Farm Workers Association that would later change its name to the United Farm Workers

when it joined force with. With the help of Dolores Huerta and his brother Richard, they began to

build up the organization and set forward its strategies to represent the industry of Farm Work

and Agriculture. In 1965, the UFW passed a vote that would have them join a strike started by a

group of Filipino workers that worked in the grape fields in Delano, California. This strike would

soon become the epicenter or more accurately the beginning of Cesar Chavezs civil rights work.

He would be the leader of change that was desperately needed by these farm workers. The way

he accomplished this was by creating union contracts that they would then propose to field

owners to help improve the working conditions that the field workers had to deal with. But this

was a hard task because these grape field owners would have to pay more money to the workers

salary and to the improvements of the working conditions. Also, the state had put laws in place

that prevented the workers from forming a union to begin with, which denied any collective

bargaining needed for improving the working conditions. Chavez utilized many different

nonviolent strategies that he had learned about from his reading mentioned before when leading

the strike. Furthermore, Cesar led a march from Delano to Sacramento in the attempts to make

this movement and injustice known by the American people. He realized that these migrant

workers were not going to be able to get anything done in this battle for civil rights if no one
 Lydon 3

knew about it. From this 340-mile march, his strikes were able to turn into boycotts of the grape

companies. One strategy in particular that was extremely influential in the strike was the 25 day

fast he endured to where he stated it was being an act of penitence towards those in the strike

who were trying to advocate violence. He managed to lose 35 pounds during that fast and his

health was in trouble. Luckily, he survived the starvation he put himself through and it was

completely effective in getting rid of all talk of violence amongst the movement. What really

made this conflict so known in America was when Cesar made the realization of how he could

really take down the grape companies that owned these fields. He understood that not a lot could

be done by just boycotting in Delano, so he sent hundreds of boycotters all over north America

asking people to not eat grapes. See, what was so important about this strategy of nationalizing

the boycott was that he knew people couldnt just leave their jobs and homes and boycott in

some place far away. With that in mind, by just telling people to stop eating grape for a little

while and explaining the injustices that the grape companies were imposing upon the workers

seemed to get people on board. This almost nationwide boycott made such an impact on the

financial status of the table grape companies that the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act

would eventually be passed. This act would ensure the needed improvements to the working

environment in the fields. Chavez continued to use fasting as one of his strategies when seeking

civil rights improvement, he went as far as not eating for 36 days when the field owners resisted

his preposition for them to stop using harmful pesticides in the field. Unfortunately, fasting

would ultimately be one of the reasons why he died. It may not have been the main cause but it

definitely was a factor because just a couple of days after a fast Cesar went to sleep and never

woke up. In some ways his death is comparable to the way he lead his life, peaceful and not in

any way violent. What was so special about Chavez gaining these civil rights for the farm
 Lydon 4

workers was that for more than 100 years there had been multiple attempts by farm workers to

form unions. He was the first and only person to do it, all without him or anyone in the strike

acting out in violence. Its honestly astonishing how he could accomplish so much with the

mindset of nonviolence.

Cesar Chavez is known for his civil rights work, and typically when people talk about

him they will refer to his work in Delano. Yet during his time leading the UFW he was able to

lead many strikes and marches for farm workers all over the country. Also, because of all the

legislation that he managed to help gets passed, multiple independent unions formed. Moreover,

Chavez went on another fast when Arizona passed a piece of legislation that would prohibit farm

workers from going on strike or boycotting during the harvest season. Not only did Chavez value

the essential civil rights that these farm workers deserve, he understood that these workers

should be treated the same way an office worker in New York City should be treated. With that in

mind, one obstacle that he and the UFW faced was that their whole campaign almost could be

taken down due to the fact that a lot of the workers in these fields were illegal immigrants. The

argument there is that why should these workers be given all these rights when they are not even

of this country and are staying there illegally. Understanding this, Chavez lead the UFW straight

into the problem. He organized a march all the way from California to the Mexico border to

protest the field owners use of illegal immigrants. It was even reported that the UFW would turn

in illegal immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the efforts to handle this

problem. The UFW even set up a wet line to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the Mexico

border and entering the United States. At one unfortunately, the streak of nonviolence was

broken when the group tried multiple times to be peaceful with these immigrants but they

continued to try and enter. Cesar Chavez was not there though when the violence occurred. I
 Lydon 5

think one of the reasons why Cesar was so effective and efficient during his civil rights

campaigns was because he was so adamant about not resorting to violence. It shows consistency

over time and almost an aura of strength and resilience. Honestly, if I was ever in the shoes of

any of Chavezs opponents, I would be nervous because of how determined he would be to make

the change he wanted to see. To add on to that idea, it takes a special kind of person to be so

selfless as to put their own life in danger by not eating or standing up to state legislation just to

improve the lives of others. There was no personal gain for Chavez by doing what he did, but his

sheer amount of empathy for these workers like stated before easily came from his early

childhood experience. But as I also stated before, he understood the importance of education and

saw that it could be a way out of poverty. So yes, he did become very educated when he was

older, but he used his education and wisdom for the greater good of society.

The way that the media portrayed Cesar was exactly the way he wanted them to. Like

stated before, he was able to gain an advantage in the Delano grape strike when he spread the

news of the boycott. So naturally, the media told his story and it spread like wild fire, so

essentially the media was a key factor in that tactic. Furthermore, the media was what created his

notoriety, his name being associated with civil rights or farm workers constantly in the news built

up the credit almost with the people watching. So in the long run, the media was very beneficial

to Cesar and his efforts with the UFW to improve farm workers rights.

From a Civil Rights perspective, without the work of Cesar Chavez, the rights of workers

in todays job world would be completely different. For example, some of the specific things that

Chavez was able to fix during his civil rights movement was longer rest periods for the field

workers. If not for that change, workers would have continued to suffer from heat stroke and

dehydration from the long workday. Furthermore, he also increased the pay of the workers and
 Lydon 6

got the field owners to provide clean drinking water for them. Lastly, one of the many difficulties

that the field workers faced was the pesticides that were used when growing the grapes. These

pesticides would float in the air of the fields and cling to the workers hands and clothes. So,

solve this, part of the deal that Chavez was able to make with the grape field owners was that

they build hand-washing stations and provide protective clothing that will stop any pesticides

from touching the skin and causing harmful rashes. Looking back at it now, these changes seem

almost essential in our current society. But what needs to be understood is that it would still be

those horrid conditions if it werent for Chavez. Besides farming, just the development of union

contracts for migrant workers in general was something that stands out to me. Because of Cesar,

there is now almost this model or example of how workers should be treated, especially when

doing the painstaking work of picking grapes out in a hot field.

The life of Cesar Chavez if by far one of the most interesting lives that have had a major

impact in U.S. history. All the qualities he acquired from working in the fields as a child and

most of his adolescence were what drove him to achieve all his goals set early on in life and later

during his work with the UFW and multiple unions. His courage, relentlessness, education, and

selflessness were ultimately the driving factors in his success as a civil rights activist. The many

laws and legislation that he had gotten passed would not have happened without all those

qualities mentioned before. Since he saw so much importance in being educated, odds are he

would not have been able to help found the UFW. He represented an industry or group of people

where a great majority of them lived in poverty, yet he was able to represent them professionally

and created a peaceful image of them. Cesar Chavez will go down in history as one the most

influential civil rights activists in America because without him unions and migrant workers
 Lydon 7

would still be living and working at a disadvantage comparatively to other working-class

Americans.
 Lydon 8

"The Story of Cesar Chaves." Www.ufw.org. United Farm Workers, n.d. Web.
04 Nov. 2016. <www.ufw.org/_page.php?inc=history/07.html>.This source is
basically tells the story of Cesar Chavez and what he did for Civil Rights. It doesnt
really talk about his early life, but more about his life in America. This is a great
source because it summarizes what Cesar Cavez did while in America. It gave me a
good overlook of what his goal was and how he went about life.

Flanagan, Caitlin. "The Madness of Cesar Chavez." The Atlantic. Atlantic

Media Company, July 2011. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/the-madness-of-cesar-
chavez/308557/>. Story told by a little girl, talks about Cesar Chavez. She tells a
story about his madness in the way he did things. She we very interested in him.
This is a very useful source I think. She tells a unique story of Chavez and talks
about a side of him not many know.

Ganz, Mashall. "Not the Cesar Chavez I Knew." The Nation. The Nation, 29
June 2015. Web. 07 Nov. 2016. <http://www.thenation.com/article/not-cesar-chavez-
i-knew/>. This article reduces Cesar Chavez as a caricature and ignores his true
strengths as an organizer. It shows me a new perspective on Chavez. This a good
sources, just like all the others I am using. It shows a perspective of Chavez that no
one would think of.

Costly, Andrew. "Cesar Chavez." Constitutional Rights Foundation. CRF, n.d.

Web. 07 Nov. 2016. <http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/cesar-chavez>.
This gives a complete overview of Cesar's life. It talks a lot of how he came up to be
a man and his early life, which is always important to know. It is a great source
because it is my only source that talks about his early life.

Cesar Chavez: Embrace the Lagacy. Perf. Cesar Cavez. Youtube.com, 2008. Y.
Talks about Cesar's legacy during Civil Rights Movement. Talks about all the people
 Lydon 9

that helped him along the way. This source helped me figure out what Cesar is really
like. I saw actual footage of him and how he acted and solved problems.