César Chávez
I | INTRODUCTION |
César Chávez (1927-1993), Mexican American labor leader and cofounder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) labor union. His work gained nationwide attention for migrant farmworkers and helped improve their working and living conditions.
II | EARLY LIFE |
Chávez was born near Yuma, Arizona. During the Great Depression, his family lost their farm and became migrant farmworkers, moving from one place to another in search of work. Chávez was raised in migrant worker camps and left school after the eighth grade to work in the fields. He joined the U.S. Navy during World War II (1939-1945).
III | FOUNDING OF THE UNION |
From 1952 until 1962, Chávez worked for the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group. In 1962 Chávez and Dolores Huerta founded a farmworkers union, known as the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). They hoped to establish a union that would provide field workers with better working and living conditions and change labor laws to give farmworkers more rights. Chávez and Huerta started recruiting members, registering farmworkers to vote, and lobbying for better temporary housing, increased wages, and clean drinking water and field toilets.
IV | STRIKE FOR GRAPE PICKERS |
In 1965 Chávez led 2,000 NFWA members on a strike in support of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to demand better wages for wine-grape pickers in Delano, California. From the beginning of the strike, Chávez had to improvise tactics to counter the greater power of the growers. In 1966 he led a 547-km (340-mi) march from Delano to the state capital of Sacramento. The march brought national attention to the grape-picker’s strike. Chávez also relied on less conventional methods; he fasted for 25 days to emphasize the nonviolent philosophy of the unions.
In 1966 the NFWA and the AWOC, while both on strike, merged to create the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) with Chávez as president. The UFWOC became an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). In 1968 Chávez called on consumers nationwide to stop buying table grapes grown in California to put more pressure on the growers. This boycott became one of the most successful in U.S. history. Numerous student groups, churches, and political organizations backed the union, and many California growers were forced to sign union contracts in 1970. During that year, membership in the union increased to 50,000 people. In 1973 the organization changed its name to the United Farm Workers of America.
V | LEGAL REFORM |
In 1975 Chávez and his supporters pushed for passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act. This law, the first of its kind in the United States, guaranteed farmworkers in California the right to join unions and bargain as a group. It also protected farmworkers from unfair labor practices.
VI | LATER EFFORTS |
Chávez continued to lead more boycotts in the 1980s. However, he was criticized for not recruiting more union members, and the union lost much of its political influence. By the mid-1980s, membership in the UFW had dropped to about 15,000 people. In 1984 Chávez led the union in another grape boycott to rally public support against the use of pesticides. However, the boycott failed to generate much support.
VII | DEATH AND HONORS |
Chávez died in his sleep in 1993. In 1994 President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded Chávez the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. In 2000 the state of California declared March 31, Chávez’s birthday, an official state holiday.
Chávez, César Estrada
Ferriss, Susan, and Ricardo Sandoval. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement. Ed. Diana Hembree. Harcourt Brace, 1997. A biography that traces Chávez's path from a happy childhood on his family's Arizona farm to being a champion of workers' rights in the fields of California.
Hammerback, John C., and Richard J. Jensen. The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez. Texas A&M University Press, 1998. An analysis of Chávez's superb oratorical skills.
Jacobs, William Jay. Great Lives: Human Rights. Scribner, 1990. Biographies of human rights activists, from Thomas Paine to Martin Luther King, Jr., to César Chávez. For younger readers.
Morey, Janet, and Wendy Dunn. Famous Mexican Americans. Cobblehill, 1989. Sketches of Chávez and 13 other Mexican Americans. For younger readers.
Rodriguez, Consuelo. Cesar Chavez. Chelsea House, 1992. From the Hispanics of Achievement series.
For younger readers
Collins, David R. Farmworker's Friend: The Story of Cesar Chavez. Lerner, 1996. For readers in grades 3 to 5.
Gaines, Ann. Cesar E. Chavez: The Fight for Farm Workers' Rights. Child's World, 2003. For readers in grades 3 to 5.
Krull, Kathleen. Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez. Harcourt, 2003. For readers in grades 3 to 6.
Marcovitz, Hal. Cesar Chavez. Chelsea House, 2003. For readers in grades 6 to 8.
Posts
