Cezar Chavez

Cesar Chavezs childhood started in March 31, 1927 close to Yuma, Arizona He was

named after his grandfather Cesario.Early in his life his family lost their home because of the

great depression. So his family moved to California to work as migrant workers in the fields. In

and outside of school Cesar started to see challenges in his daily life due to discrimination for

speaking. As a result, he dropped out of school in the 8th grade and just worked the fields to help

his family. When Cesar was eighteen he went into the navy and fought in the Pacific during

World War II.

After the war, Cesar went back home to work in the fields he left two years ago. Soon he

joined the NAWU (national agricultural workers union) in 1947. A year later Cesar married

Helen Fabela and lived in Sal Si Puedes. Later they had eight children who later had thirty-one

kids of their own. Together they taught migrant farm workers to read and write in order to pass

the U.S. citizenship test.

Cesar soon got influenced by reading the teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King jr.

who practiced the philosophy of nonviolence, which Cesar adopted into his life. Cesars first

steady paying job was being the head director of CSO (community service organization). He

started out by a friend asking him to join the CSO. His task would be to inform Mexican-

Americans about their rights, pick apricots, and organize farm workers to vote. During the first

two months he registered two-thousand workers to vote. As time went on he had to fight racial

and economic discrimination. He became head organizer and brought up twenty-two new chapter

of CSO throughout California and Arizona.

On March 31, 1962, Cesar resigned from the CSO, moved his family to Delano,

California, and founded the NFWA (national farm workers association). Cesar traveled to several

farming communities in California to build his base of farmers. The first convention of NFWA
was on Septembre 30, 1962, at Fresno, California, with 300 of its members. By 1965 the NFWA

had over 1,200 members and CEsar published a newspaper called El Malcriado which was

their official voice.

Cesar caught attention of latino workers going on strike against the grape growers and

decided to to help. The NFWA went on strike, boycotted grapes, pickets, fast, marches and

pledged to nonviolent protest. They targeted Schenley Vineyard Corporation in 1965 and went on

along march with a start of 75 people and ending with over a 1,000. Later, in !966 Schenley

Vineyard Corporations signed a contract with the NFWA, in addition this was the first contract

between farm workers and the government. As time went on Cesar lead the farm workers to

victory in getting better pay, better treatment, and better living conditions. Cesar was a humble

man who devoted his life to helping people and changing the way migrant farm workers were

treated.
Work Cited Page:
http://castle.eiu.edu/~wow/classes/fa03/ccchildhood.html

http://www.imahero.com/is/bios/cesarchavez.html

http://www.biography.com/people/cesar-chavez-9245781