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César Chávez
1927-1993
Labor Leader
"For most of his life, César Estrada Chávez chose
to live penniless and without property, devoting everything he had, including
his frail health, to the UFW." — Peter Matthiessen, New Yorker.
Renowned labor leader César Estrada Chávez was raised in
a poor family that lost its farm during the Depression and was forced into
migrant farm labor when Chávez was only ten years old. As a boy
Chávez had little time for school or leisure activities, and he
frequently experienced racial prejudice because of his Mexican American
heritage. Despite these obstacles, Chávez rose to become a gifted
leader and organizer who inspired thousands of people to better their lives.
During the 1960s he founded the United Farm Workers, an organization that
led its members in the fight for improved working conditions.
Chávez was born to Librado Chávez and Juana Estrada on
March 31, 1927, on the family's farm in Yuma, Arizona. He was a child during
the Great Depression, a period in the late 1920s and 1930s when the United
States suffered from an extremely slow economy and widespread unemployment.
During this time, many people lost their jobs and homes, and some were
forced to wander the country in search of work. In the American Southwest,
farmers were further devastated by the effects of a severe drought on their
crops. They could hardly sell what they could grow, and eventually they
were not able to grow anything at all.
The Chávez family fell victim to the drought. With no money coming
in, Librado Chávez could not pay the taxes on their land, and the
farm was lost in 1937. The Chávezes were forced to become migrant
farm workers, wandering throughout Arizona and California following the
harvest of other landowners' crops. Since his family never stayed in one
place for very long, Chávez attended over thirty different schools
and was able to achieve only a seventh grade education.
The Plight of Migrant Farm Workers
Life for migrant farm workers was incredibly difficult. They toiled in
the hot sun for hours picking beans, peas, grapes, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes,
cotton, and other crops. Sometimes they were paid fifty cents for every
basket they picked. Other times they were paid only twenty cents. At the
end of the day, some farm owners subtracted money from the laborers' pay
for any water they drank while in the fields. At night, farm workers were
often forced to sleep in run-down shacks or in their cars if they could
not afford a room. And, since many of the migrant laborers were of Mexican
or Mexican American descent and knew little English, unscrupulous farm
owners often took advantage of the language barrier and swindled them out
of the money they had rightfully earned for their work.
Faces Rampant Racism
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Chávez and his family faced prejudice
everywhere — in the schools, in the fields, in the towns. Restaurants refused
to serve Mexican Americans and theaters allowed them to sit only in certain
sections. In 1944, when he was seventeen years old, Chávez joined
the U.S. Navy to fight in World War II. Even while fighting for his country,
he experienced discrimination because of his Mexican American background.
After two years of service, Chávez returned to California to work
on the farms. In 1948 he married Helen Fabela, settled down in a one-room
shack in the town of Delano (where he picked grapes and cotton), and began
to raise a family. Over the years, the couple had eight children.
The prejudices and poor working conditions facing migrant farm workers
before the war did not change after it. Because of the experiences of his
childhood, Chávez was greatly concerned with solving the problems
of the nation's farm laborers. In 1952 he met Fred Ross, founder of the
Community Service Organization (CSO), a group that sought better living
conditions for migrant workers. Impressed with Ross and his ideas, Chávez
began working for the CSO as a community organizer. Going from door to
door at night, he helped some workers with their day-to-day problems, instructed
others on how to become U.S. citizens, and encouraged all to register to
vote. By 1958 Chávez had become director of the CSO in California
and Arizona.
Struggles to Form a Union
Chávez heard many complaints from migrant workers as he traveled
between the two states. He was especially concerned about claims that landowners
often used Mexican farmhands — who were illegally bussed across the U.S.
border — to work in the fields for the lowest of wages. This prevented
migrant workers already living in the United States from getting jobs on
American farms. Since the workers were not organized as a group, however,
they could not effectively protest the situation. Over the next few years,
Chávez tried to convince CSO leaders to develop a special farm labor
union that would work to improve the rights of migrant workers. When the
CSO refused to do so, Chávez resigned from the organization in 1962.
Chávez and his family then settled down again in Delano, California,
where he began to organize the National Farm Workers Association. For several
years, Chávez worked eighteen-hour days for very little or no money
at all. He drove to the fields and talked to the workers, urging them to
join the National Farm Workers Association. The uneducated migrant workers
were a difficult group to organize, and at times Chávez felt discouraged
and defeated. But by continually pressing ahead with his efforts, he began
to meet with success and the union slowly increased its ranks.
Huelga!
In 1965 the National Farm Workers Association was catapulted to national
attention. Migrant grape pickers in Delano, who worked under harsh conditions
for a dollar an hour, went on strike. They wanted the association to back
them, but Chávez thought the union was still too young and weak.
National Farm Workers Association members disagreed and voted to join the
strike. Once the Huelga (Spanish for "strike") was on, Chávez
worked tirelessly for the cause. The picket lines grew as more and more
workers left the fields. Nonetheless, the landowners refused to give in
to the workers' demands for better wages and working conditions. Some even
threatened the workers with violence.
Chávez believed in nonviolent methods of social change. He had
studied the life and teachings of Mohandas Gandhi, who had helped India
gain its independence from England in 1947 through nonviolent means. Chávez
responded to the landowners' threats by calling for a countrywide boycott
of grapes. By discouraging the American people from buying grapes until
working conditions for grape pickers improved, he attracted national attention
to the plight of the farm workers. Many large labor unions supported Chávez
and the strikers, including the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations) and the United Auto Workers. Robert
F. Kennedy, an influential senator from New York, also gave his support
to the cause.
Leads strikers on a march to the California capital
In March of 1966 the strikers marched 250 miles from Delano to the California
capital of Sacramento to take their demands to state officials. By the
time they arrived in Sacramento, one of several large grape companies had
agreed to sign a contract with the workers. But the fight was not yet over.
Soon the Teamsters Union, the powerful truckers' alliance led by Jimmy
Hoffa, began to compete with the National Farm Workers Association for
its members. To strengthen the association, Chávez merged his organization
with part of the AFL-CIO, America's oldest and strongest group of unions.
The new union was called the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC).
After 1972 it was known simply as the United Farm Workers (UFW).
Fast gains national attention
The struggle against the grape growers continued throughout the late 1960s.
In February of 1968, to draw more attention to the strike, Chávez
began a twenty-five-day fast, during which he ate no solid food. People
across the nation sympathized with Chávez's commitment to the cause
and his nonviolent means to achieve justice. The grape boycott spread and
the grape companies lost money. Finally, in June of 1970, vineyard owners
agreed to a contract with the UFWOC that gave workers health insurance
benefits and a raise in pay.
But the celebration did not last long. Chávez quickly turned
his attention to the problems of America's lettuce workers. The Teamsters
Union had signed contracts with lettuce growers that hurt rather than helped
migrant workers. Chávez again organized strikes and rallies, and
he called for a national boycott of lettuce. The struggle against the growers
and the Teamsters, which at times had turned violent, finally came to an
end in 1975 when California governor Jerry Brown passed the Agricultural
Labor Relations Act. This was the first bill of rights for farm workers
ever enacted in the United States, and it allowed them to vote on which
union would best represent their needs. In elections held in August of
that year, the UFW clearly beat the Teamsters.
Continues fight for farm workers' rights
In the 1980s Chávez protested against grape growers who used pesticides
(chemicals used to kill insects) on their crops. He believed the pesticides
were dangerous not only to the farm workers who picked the grapes but also
to the general public who consumed the grapes. He called for another boycott,
and in 1988 he fasted for thirty-six days. Although his fast again gained
national attention, the boycott did not take hold as earlier ones had.
The fight for farm workers' rights continued.
"For most of his life," Peter Matthiessen wrote in the New Yorker,
"César Estrada Chávez chose to live penniless and without
property, devoting everything he had, including his frail health, to the
UFW." While in San Luis, Arizona, on union business, Chávez died
in his sleep on April 23, 1993. Messages of sympathy came from leaders
of churches and government, including Pope John Paul II and President Bill
Clinton. More than thirty thousand mourners formed a three-mile-long funeral
procession to carry Chávez's body to its final resting place. A
year after Chávez died, famed playwright and director Luis Valdez
began writing a script for a film biography about the late labor leader.
In 1994 President Clinton posthumously awarded Chávez the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
FURTHER READING
Cedeño, Maria E., Cesar Chavez, Millbrook Press, 1993.
Collins, David R., Farmworker's Friend: The Story of Cesar Chavez,
Carolrhoda Books, 1996.
Dunne, John Gregory, Delano: The Story of the California Grape Strike,
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1967.
Ferriss, Susan, and Ricardo Sandoval, The Fight in the Fields: Cesar
Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement, Harcourt Brace, 1997.
Franchere, Ruth, Cesar Chavez, HarperCollins Children's Books,
1986.
Gonzales, Doreen, Cesar Chavez: Leader for Migrant Farm Workers,
Enslow Publishers, 1996.
Griswold del Castillo, Richard, and Richard A. Garcia, Cesar Chavez:
A Triumph of Spirit, University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
Matthiessen, Peter, Sal Si Puedes: César Chávez and
the New American Revolution, Random House, 1969.
New Yorker, May 7, 1993, p. 82.
Roberts, Maurice, Cesar Chavez and La Causa, Children's Press,
1986.
Rodriguez, Consuelo, Cesar Chavez, Chelsea House, 1995.
Source: Hispanic
American Biography, U·X·L, 1995; U·X·L
Biographies 2.0 CD-ROM, 1998.
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