Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American civil rights activist who devoted his life to

bettering the treatment, pay, and working conditions of Mexican farmers.

Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona. Twelve years later, him and his

family moved to California. For the next ten years, they moved all over the state working in the

fields. In this, he experienced the circumstances that he would later fight against. At nineteen,
Cesar joined the Navy. He would only stay for two years because he returned home to marry his

love, Helen Fabela. For the next few years, he worked in the fields until he received a job at the

Community Service Organization (CSO). There he worked for the civil rights of Latinos. After

about thirteen years, he quit his job at the CSO to start a union of migrant farm workers, and he

fabricated the National Farm Workers Association. In search of workers to draft into the union,

Cesar went back to working in the fields. Most people were unsure about joining, they didn't

believe it could work. Chavez soon talked them into it, and they titled the movement La Causa,

meaning The Cause. His union then joined with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee

in its first strike against grape growers in California in 1965. Him and sixty seven others

marched all the way to Sacramento, starting from Delano. Though this took them several weeks,

the end result of a contract being signed, agreeing to the conditions, was worth it. Because of

this, Chavezs association was nationally known within months following the strike in California,

and as a result of this, his union received many other signed contracts, agreeing to the changes of

conditions toward the workers. Over the next decades, the group continued to grow and

continued to fight for the rights of migrant workers.

With a great past in farming services as an immigrant, Cesar was aware of the conditions

immigrant farmers were placed under. Because he had experienced this same setting, something

urged him to stand up and fight against it, for the people of equal background. A famously

known quote from Chavez says Preservation of ones own culture does not require contempt or

disrespect for other cultures. This really kind of explains the reason he stood up for the migrant

farmers in California. Its saying like the wealthy in a place such as California use and disrespect

the farm workers by placing them under rough circumstances. He thought that this was wrong,

which it is. He saw their treatment as unfair and discriminatory, and he was a very inspirational
man. Though Cesar Chavez died on April 23, 1993, his name will forever be remembered,

especially by those who were impacted by his actions. He was awarded with the Presidential

Medal of Freedom after his death.

In closing, the dedication of this man was very impactful and inspirational, and his

actions led to the improvement of the conditions of migrant farm workers. Cesar Chavez and his

devotion shall never be forgotten.

Works Cited

Google Images

http://www.history.com/topics/cesar-chavez

http://www.biography.com/people/cesar-chavez-9245781

http://www.ducksters.com/biography/cesar_chavez.php