César Chávez
Categories: 1927 births | 1993 deaths | Labor organizers | Mexican Americans | Social justice | American labor leaders | People from California | People from Arizona | Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients | Roman Catholic activists
César Estrada Chávez (March 311927 – April 231993) founded the National Farm Workers Association that later became the United Farm Workers.
Chávez was born near Yuma, Arizona. He became a migrant farm worker at age 10, with the rest of his family, when they lost their farm during the Great Depression. He attended over 30 schools, Once Chávez completed the eighth grade, he quit school and worked full-time in the vineyards. His family was able to rent a small cottage in San José and make it their home.
He joined the U.S. Navy in 1944 and served in the western Pacific until completing his duty two years later. Chávez then returned to California. While on leave he sat in the white section of a racially segregated movie theater and refused to move, forshadowing his future as a civil rights activist. After service, he returned to central California and married Helen Fabela. He married Helen Fabela in 1948, and they moved into a one-room shack in Delano. Chávez again worked in the fields, but he began to fight for change. That same year, Chávez took part in his first strike in protest of low wages and poor working conditions. However, within several days the workers were forced back to the fields.
Chávez was recruited and trained by Fred Ross (who was himself a student of Saul Alinsky), and started working as an organizer in 1952 for the Community Services Organization (CSO), a Latino civil rights group. Chávez urged Mexican-Americans to register and vote, and traveled throughout California and made speeches in support of workers' rights. He became their national director in the late 1950s.
Four years later, however, Chávez left CSO to form his own organization, which he called the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). The name was later changed to the United Farm Workers (UFW). In 1965, Chávez and the NFWA led a strike of California grape-pickers to demand higher wages. In addition to the strike, they encouraged all Americans to boycott table grapes as a show of support. The strike lasted five years and attracted national attention. When the U.S. Senate Subcommittee looked into the situation, Robert Kennedy gave Chávez his total support.
In 1965, Chávez and the NFWA led a strike of California grape-pickers in demand of higher wages, along with a national boycott of California table grapes. Five years later, this effort resulted in the first major victory for US migrant workers. He continued to struggle against large growers, including going on three hunger strikes over wages and conditions. At the time of his death he was leading another grape boycott to protest the use of harmful pesticides.
In 1968, Chávez began a fast to call attention to the migrant workers' cause. Although his dramatic act did little to solve the immediate problems, it increased public awareness of the problem. In the late 1960s, the Teamsters attempted to take power from the UFW. After many battles, an agreement was finally reached in 1977. It gave the UFW sole right to organize field workers.
In the early 1970s, the UFW organized strikes and boycotts to get higher wages from grape and lettuce growers. During the 1980s, Chávez led a boycott to protest the use of toxic pesticides on grapes. He again fasted to draw public attention. These strikes and boycotts generally ended with the signing of bargaining agreements.
He became an American labor rights hero for supporting labor rights for all migrant workers. Chávez was also a vegetarian.
Chávez is celebrated in California where the state legislature, in 2000, approved a bill to create a paid state holiday in his honor. The holiday is celebrated on March 31st, Chávez's birthday. Texas also recognizes the day, and in Arizona and Colorado it is an optional holiday. The holiday is the first in the history of the United States awarded to a Mexican American and a labor leader.
Many cities have also paid respect by renaming or naming streets or schools for Chávez. These cities include San Francisco (San Francisco USD), Los Angeles (Los Angeles USD), Santa Barbara, Houston, Texas (Houston ISD, Chávez High School), Albuquerque, New Mexico, Austin, Texas, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Washington, DC, Kansas City, Missouri, Saint Paul, Minnesota, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix, Arizona. The California cities of Sacramento, San Diego, Berkeley, and San José have also renamed parks in his memory. The United States Postal Service honored him with a postage stamp in 2004.
Colegio César Chávez
Colegio César Chávez was the only four year Chicano college in the United States with accredation status. Colegio was headquartered in Mount Angel, Oregon. It opened its doors in 1973 and closed in 1983. César Chávez himself visited the campus twice, taking part in attempts to save the college from closure.