Cesar Chavez

SSC101

Duayne Clarke

Dr. Snowden

                      Cesar Chavez

      Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927, in Yuma Arizona; he was a Mexican-American farm worker, who is hailed as one of America’s great civil rights and labor leaders. He was born into a poor Mexican American family that ran a farm, grocery store, garage, and pool hall. In1938 the Chavez family was evicted from its land after losing their livelihood in the Great Depression. That same year his family moved to California and became migrant farm workers. Chavez quit grammar school in 1942 to work full-time in the fields after his father got hurt. Four years later Chavez enlists in the Navy, where he serves for two years in the Pacific.

      In 1948 Chavez marries Helen Favela. Over the years, they have eight children. Chavez works as a ranch hand and at a lumber yard in San Jose, Calif. Chavez joins the Community Service Organization (CSO) in San Jose, Calif. In 1952, and becomes an organizer in the Mexican American community, spearheading voter registration drives and fighting racial and economic discrimination.   He then spearheads the movement and becomes executive director of the CSO, and moves to its headquarters in Los Angeles in 1958.

      In 1962 Chavez founds the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) in Delano California; the organization is dedicated to the rights of migrant workers, including a minimum wage, insurance, and collective bargaining. Three years later the NFWA, primarily made up of Mexican Americans, joins the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), primarily made up of Filipino Americans; who had begun striking against grape growers in Delano. The strikers march 250 miles from Delano to Sacramento, California's capital, to present a list of their demands. Several grape companies agree to sign a contract with the union. These were the first contracts for American farm workers.

      Chavez advocated strikes, picketing, boycotts,...