CESAR CHAVEZ

Cesar Chavez was the founder of the National Farm Workers Association which later

converged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to form the United Farm

Workers . Their goal was to protest peacefully about civil rights and the poor working

conditions that migrant workers faced. Chavez started working in the fields around the age of 12

with his parents. Once he got older he started to see the way immigrants were treated, as if they

were some piece of property. He witnessed their living conditions of migrant camps, the harsh

treatment they took from corrupt labor contractors, the little wage they got for such hard work,

and all the endless racism they received on a daily basis. Chavez grew up deciding that he was

going to change this, and thats exactly what he did. He began to help people, when he was a

teenager, by driving migrant workers to nearby hospitals so they could get the medical attention

they so desperately needed. The workers would always offer to pay Chavez for gas money, but

he would never accept because his mother raised him to help those in need out of kindness.

Once Chavez became a few years older, he decided to join the navy. In doing so he learned

about the importance of freedom, and the power that comes with it. He returned home after two

years, and married his girlfriend. They then started a family as well as moved to San Jose,

California where he met Fred Ross and Father Donald McDonnell the men that changed his life.

Ross hired Chavez at the Community Service Organization where he started his activist life.

Chavezs job was to bring people together and help solve their problems, however this was a

difficult task due to the low amount of respect most leaders of the community had for people. In

order to solve this Chavez taught the community the importance of voting, which in turn gained

them respect from the leaders. After a while Chavez decided to leave the organization and use

the experience he gained to help migrant farm workers by starting a union. This is when Chavez

started the Farm Workers Association, and it became very popular very quickly. Popularity was
partly due to the way Chavez represented civil rights movements, protested nonviolently, relied

on ethnic and religious volunteers, and had organized labor. During the time Chavez was

working on a boycott/strike of Delanos grape fields and due to his successful methods the

conflict was brought to the nations attention. The company wasnt particularly happy about

Chavezs protesting, so in turn they resorted to violent methods and other acts in hopes of

preventing workers from acting out. However, a few of the grape growers signed contracts in the

first year, but Chavez didnt stop there. He continued to protest the increase in violent acts

towards the migrant workers by fasting for 25 days. Finally, all of the growers signed the

contracts, which in turn brought peace to the grape fields. For over 30 years Chavez worked

successfully to improve the working conditions and low wages of all migrant farmers nation

wide. On April 23, 1993 at the age of sixty Cesar Chavez died due to what was believed to be

too much fasting. Everyone remembers him as a man of courage and wisdom.
http://chavez.cde.ca.gov/ModelCurriculum/Teachers/Lessons/Resources/Biographies/K-

2_Bio.aspx

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