The Life and Legacy of Cesar E. Chavez

The Chavez Legacy

Cesar Estrada Chavez was born March 31, 1927 near Yuma, Arizona. Chavez was named after his grandfather, Cesario, who escaped from slavery on a Mexican ranch and arrived in Arizona during the 1880s. Chavez' grandparents homesteaded more than one hundred acres in the Gila Valley and raised 14 children. Chavez' father, Librado, started his family in 1924 when he married Juana Estrada. Cesar was the second of their six children. Librado worked on the family ranch and owned a store in the Gila Valley . The family lived in an apartment above the store.

In the 1930s, Chavez' father lost his business and land during the Great Depression, and the family moved back to the ranch. However in 1937, a severe drought forced the family to give up the ranch. The next year, Chavez and his family packed their belongings and headed to California in search of work. In California , the Chavez family became part of the migrant community, traveling from farm to farm to pick fruits and vegetables during the harvest. They lived in numerous migrant camps and often were forced to sleep in their car. He and his family worked in the fields of California from Brawley to Oxnard , Atascadero, Gonzales, King City , Salinas , McFarland, Delano , Wasco, Selma , Kingsburg, and Mendota. Chavez began school at age 7, but he found it difficult because his family spoke only Spanish. Chavez preferred to learn from his uncles and grandparents, who would read to him in Spanish. In addition, Chavez learned many things from his mother. She believed violence and selfishness were wrong, and she taught these lessons to her children. Chavez sporadically attended more than 35 elementary schools, often encountering cruel discrimination. He did not like school as a child, probably because he spoke only Spanish at home. The teachers were mostly Anglo and only spoke English. Spanish was forbidden in school. He and his brother, Richard, attended thirty-seven schools.

In 1942 he graduated from the eighth grade. Cesar then opted to become a migrant farm worker because his father had been in an accident and he did not want his mother to work in the fields. His family was able to rent a small cottage in San Jose and make it their home. Then in 1944, Chavez joined the navy and served in World War II. After completing his duty two years later, Chavez returned to California . He married Helen Fabela in 1948, and they moved into a one-room shack in Delano . Chavez again worked in the fields, but he began to fight for change. Cesar returned to San Jose where he met and was influenced by Father Donald McDonnell. They talked about farm workers and strikes. Cesar began reading about St. Francis and Gandhi and nonviolence.

In 1952, Cesar was laboring in apricot orchards outside San Jose when he met Fred Ross, an organizer for the Community Service Organization, a barrio-based self-help group sponsored by Chicago-based Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation. Within several months Cesar was a full-time organizer with CSO, coordinating voter registration drives, battling racial and economic discrimination against Chicano residents and organizing new CSO chapters across California and Arizona .

Cesar served as CSO national director in the late 1950's and early 1960's. But his dream was to create an organization to help farm workers whose suffering he had shared. In 1962, after failing to convince the CSO to commit itself to farm worker organizing, he resigned his paid CSO job, the first regular paying job he had. He moved his wife and eight young children to Delano , California where he founded the National Farm Workers Association . He was joined by Dolores Huerta and the union was born. That same year Richard Chavez designed the UFW Eagle and Cesar chose the black and red colors. Cesar told the story of the birth of the eagle. He asked Richard to design the flag, but Richard could not make an eagle that he liked. Finally he sketched one on a piece of brown wrapping paper. He then squared off the wing edges so that the eagle would be easier for union members to draw on the handmade red flags that would give courage to the farm workers with their own powerful symbol. Cesar made reference to the flag by stating, "A symbol is an important thing. That is why we chose an Aztec eagle. It gives pride . . . When people see it they know it means dignity."

It was the beginning of La Causa a cause that was supported by organized labor, religious groups, minorities, and students. Cesar Chavez had the foresight to train his union workers and then to send many of them into the cities where they were to use the boycott and picket as their weapon.

These were difficult years for Cesar and Helen Chavez. Helen worked in the fields during the week and on weekends with her husband to support the family. He often babysat his youngest children as he traveled to dozens of California farm communities, slowly building a nucleus of dedicated farm worker members. "If you're outraged at conditions, then you can't possibly be free or happy until you devote all your time to changing them and do nothing but that," he said. "But you can't change anything if you want to hold onto a good job, a good way of life and avoid sacrifice."

In September 1965, Cesar's NFWA, with 1200 member families, joined an AFL -CIO sponsored union in a strike against major Delano area table and wine grape growers. Against great odds, Cesar led a successful five year strike-boycott that rallied millions of supporters to the United Farm Workers. He forged a national support coalition of unions, church groups, students, minorities and consumers. The two unions merged in 1966 to form the UFW, and it became affiliated with the AFL -CIO.

From the beginning, the UFW adhered to the principals of non-violence practiced by M.K. Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1968, Chavez 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. The late Senator Robert F. Kennedy called Cesar "one of the heroic figures of our time," and flew to Delano to be with him when he ended the fast.

Cesar lived with his family since 1970 at La Paz , in Keene , California , the union's headquarters in Kern County 's Tehachapi Mountains, east of Bakersfield ,. Like other UFW officers and staff, he received subsistence pay that didn't top $5,000 a year.

In 1991, Cesar received the Aguila Azteca (The Aztec Eagle), Mexico 's highest award presented to people of Mexican heritage who have made major contributions outside of Mexico . On August 8, 1994 , Cesar became the second Mexican American to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States . This award was presented posthumously by President Bill Clinton. Helen F. Chavez and six of her eight children traveled to the White House to receive the honor.

On April 29, 1993 , Cesar Estrada Chavez was honored in death by those he led in life. More than 50,000 mourners came to honor the charismatic labor leader at the site of his first public fast in 1968 and his last in 1988, the United Farm Workers Delano Field Office at "Forty Acres.” It was the largest funeral of any labor leader in the history of the U.S. They came in caravans from Florida to California to pay respect to a man whose strength was in his simplicity. Farm workers, family members, friends and union staff took turns standing vigil over the plain pine coffin which held the body of Cesar Chavez. Among the honor guard were many celebrities who had supported Chavez throughout his years of struggle to better the lot of farm workers throughout America . Many of the mourners had marched side by side with Chavez during his tumultuous years in the vineyards and farms of America . For the last time, they came to march by the side of the man who had taught them to stand up for their rights, through nonviolent protest and collective bargaining. The body of Cesar Chavez was taken to La Paz , the UFW's California headquarters, by his family and UFW leadership. He was laid to rest near a bed of roses, in front of his office.

On August 8, 1994 , at a White House ceremony, Helen Chavez, Cesar's widow, accepted the Medal of Freedom for her late husband from President Clinton. In the citation accompanying America 's highest civilian honor which was awarded posthumously, the President lauded Chavez for having "faced formidable, often violent opposition with dignity and nonviolence.

And he was victorious. Cesar Chavez left our world better than he found it, and his legacy inspires us still. He was for his own people a Moses figure," the President declared. "The farm workers who labored in the fields and yearned for respect and self-sufficiency pinned their hopes on this remarkable man who, with faith and discipline, soft spoken humility and amazing inner strength, led a very courageous life"

The citation accompanying the award noted how Chavez was a farm worker from childhood who "possessed a deep personal understanding of the plight of migrant workers, and he labored all his years to lift their lives." During his lifetime, Chavez never earned more than $5,000 a year. The late Senator Robert Kennedy called him "one of the heroic figures of our time."

In 1994, Cesar's family and the officers of the UFW created the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation to inspire current and future generations by promoting the ideals of Cesar's life, work and vision. The Foundation's headquarters is at La Paz , the future location of the Cesar E. Chavez Library and the Cesar E. Chavez Training and Education Center.

* The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation is the intellectual property owner of Cesar's name, voice, image, and likeness, speeches and writings. Permission to reproduce said intellectual property for publication purposes may be obtained by contacting the: Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, 634 S. Spring St., Su. 727, Los Angeles, CA, 90014, (818) 265-0300, fax: (818) 265-0312, info@cecfmail.org