Caesar Chavez and his labor movement legacy

¶ … life of Cesar Chavez. The writer explores the life and accomplishments of Chavez and illuminates what he did for the Hispanic workers in America. There were five sources used to complete this paper.

The Story of Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez was one of the most important people in American history when it came to the Hispanic migrant farm worker (United Farm Workers). He spent his adult life organizing and teaching the masses how to force farm employers to provide the workers with fair pay and benefits (United Farm Workers). He began his life in 1927 when he was born just outside of Yuma, Arizona (United Farm Workers). His parents named him after his grandfather (United Farm Workers). When he was still a small boy he began to learn about racial injustice. He and his parents lived in a small adobe home and his father worked hard on the farm that it was attached to. His father made a deal with the landowner that would allow Chavez to own the land and the home they lived in (United Farm Workers). If Chavez cleared 80 acres of land that the house sat on, the landowner agreed to deed to him 40 of the acres and the house itself. After Chavez completed his part of the deal the landowner backed out and effectively swindled Chavez out of the house (United Farm Workers). Chavez panicked and took advice from someone to take out a loan to buy the house and land and when he could not pay the interest on the loan the attorney who lent him the money took the house back, sold it to the original owner and Chavez was once again swindled out of the house he had rightfully earned. Little Cesar never forgot the defeat and despair the double cross caused his parents and he kept the story with him throughout his life, vowing to make changes in the way migrant farm workers were treated in the United States (United Farm Workers).

As he was growing up Cesar traveled with his family to various farm areas. He did not enjoy attending school, in part because of the language barrier he encountered daily. During that time in history Spanish was forbidden to be spoken in school and his teachers spoke only English which created a situation for Cesar that made it almost impossible to keep up with studies (United Farm Workers).

He later told a story that a teacher hit him in the knuckles with a ruler for speaking Spanish at school one day (United Farm Workers).

He and his brother attended almost 40 schools during their educational years. Each school brought with it new racist comments and each school had a new set of "Whites only" signs above water fountains and restrooms (United Farm Workers).

He felt that education had nothing to do with his farm worker/migrant way of life. In 1942 he graduated from the eighth grade (United Farm Workers)."

His father was in an accident when Cesar was about to enter high school. Not wanting his mother to work the fields, and being discouraged by the racism he encountered at school Cesar dropped out and went to work in the farms.

Though he dropped out and disliked school as a child, he later went back to school and became almost obsessed with attaining as much education as possible in his adult life (United Farm Workers).

He believed that, "The end of all education should surely be service to others," a belief that he practiced until his untimely death (United Farm Workers)."

When he turned 17, he joined the Navy and again experienced extreme racism which further convinced him that there had to be a way to change things for migrant farm workers (United Farm Workers).

In 1948 Cesar married Helen Fabela. They honeymooned in California by visiting all the California Missions from Sonoma to San Diego (again the influence of education). They settled in Delano and started their family. First Fernando, then Sylvia, then Linda, and five more children were to follow (United Farm Workers)."

Following his Navy stint he returned with his family to San Jose where he met the man who would change his life. Father Donald McDonnell spent many hours talking to Chavez about the plight of the migrant farm worker. They talked about strikes, lack of benefits, lack of appropriate shelter and poor pay (United Farm Workers).

It was at that time that Chavez began to study the works of Ghandi and the impact of non-violent protest (United Farm Workers).

When Chavez met another mentor, Frank Ross he agreed to become involved and organized something called the Community Service Organization - CSO. His first task was voter registration (United Farm Workers).

It was in 1962 that he focused on farm workers and founded the National Farm Workers Association. He later changed it to the United Farm Workers Association.

He had his brother design a logo and emblem and they chose the colors black and red to represent their organization (United Farm Workers)."

Initially, there were very few dues paying members in the UFW. However, he did not give up. Chavez continued to work toward the betterment of life for the migrant farm worker and to that end by 1970 the union group had negotiated a contract with grape growers that provided protection for those workers. Following that contract negotiation the UFW recruited more than 50,000 paying members which provided it with the financial clout to begin tackling more issues (United Farm Workers).

Chavez took the UFW and its cause on as a personal passion. Through the years he became known for fasting until he could get the powers that be to listen to his concerns and it worked. He also organized marches that went hundreds of miles and involved thousands of migrant workers to shine national attention on their plight.

Cesar knew that he could not make national changes on his own. He began to train workers and sent them to various states to recruit and lead other union members to victory using synchronized strikes and picket lines to force not only the farm owners to listen, but politicians as well (United Farm Workers).

Cesar was willing to sacrifice his own life so that the union would continue and that violence was not used. Cesar fasted many times. In 1968 Cesar went on a water only, 25 day fast. He repeated the fast in 1972 for 24 days, and again in 1988, this time for 36 days (United Farm Workers)."