Bing - bootstraps

LOL! I, for one, am NOT searching Bing to uncover - closet googlers. :) nm

Does it ever end? - NK

oh, wait - NK

Another oldie here. I'm sure I boycotted for CESAR's - people, but too long ago to remember what. :)nm

Do not confuse the two - Thornbush

My bad. Chaves was a Mexican-American civil rights activist - Thornbush

Wow. - a(h)c

Since apparently the Wikipedia info didn't answer the question for you, maybe this will help:

About César E. Chávez

Sponsored by the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors

Photographer: George Rodriguez

Table of Contents

• Biography


• Precepts of César E. Chávez


• Chronology


• Prayer of the Farm Workers' Struggle


• United Farm Workers Flag

Biography 

The man who founded the United Farm Workers Union, who fought for the rights of some of the most powerless members of American society, and inspired thousands of people to better their own lives and the lives of those around them was not marked for greatness when he was born in Yuma, Arizona in 1927 on his family's farm. The Chávez family eked out a living on their small farm, but as the Great Depression wore on through the 1930s they could no longer make ends meet and eventually lost their farm and were forced to become migrant farm workers, following the harvest through California and Arizona. Chávez attended over 30 different schools before his formal education ended after the seventh grade. His education in the ways of being a migrant worker would continue, however.

The Chávez family, like all migrant farm workers at that time, worked very hard picking fruits and vegetables for a pittance. Living conditions were harsh, many farm workers couldn't afford to rent a place in the miserable shacks near the fields and were forced to sleep in their cars. Farm owners would sometimes refuse to pay the workers what they were owed for their work or would charge them for expenses as petty as the water they drank while they worked in the field. César escaped this life temporarily in 1944, when at age 17 he joined the U.S. Navy to fight in World War II. Returning to California in 1946, Chávez married Helen Fabela and they made their home in Delano, a small town in the Central Valley. He resumed his life as a farm worker, picking grapes and cotton and as he worked he realized that nothing had changed for those in the fields since the war had ended, and nothing would change unless farm workers won for themselves the rights other workers enjoyed. He resolved to work to better the conditions of farm workers like himself.

In 1952, Chávez joined the Community Service Organization (CSO) and became a community organizer, sometimes helping fellow farm workers with their everyday problems, encouraging them to register to vote or to become U.S. citizens. He tried to convince the CSO leadership that farm workers needed a union devoted to their interests. When the leadership refused, he resigned from the CSO, took his life savings of $1,200 and formed the National Farm Workers Association, the precursor of the United Farm Workers union (UFW). The first years of the union's existence were a struggle to survive. Chávez traveled to migrant labor camps all over California and Arizona, discussing with farm workers the need for a union and recruiting organizers to help him do what many labor leaders thought was impossible. Past attempts to form a labor union of farm workers had been defeated by violent reprisals by farm owners and law enforcement against organizers and union members. The migrant workforce was scared, divided, and easily manipulated by farm owners and labor contractors, and a lack of connection between well meaning labor organizers and the migrant workers had also doomed previous organizing efforts.

One of Chávez's great insights was that a successful union of farm workers had to be one they formed themselves. Much of his time was spent recruiting, training, and inspiring farm workers to take on the monumental task of forming a union, negotiating contracts with hostile growers and withstanding the sometimes violent reactions of the communities that hated the idea of a farm workers union and hated the man who led them. "Si se pueda!" ("Yes We Can!") was a rallying cry of the UFW, and in part it meant that the people in the union, whom no one thought were capable of doing anything more than picking fruit and vegetables, could indeed fight for their rights as workers and human beings and succeed. Again and again one reads testimonials by former farm workers whose potential was recognized by Chávez (often even before these people saw it in themselves) and whose work for the UFW opened new vistas in their lives, changing how they thought of themselves and what they were capable of.

In 1965 the UFW reached a turning point. Migrant grape pickers had gone out on strike, demanding a raise from the dollar an hour they were paid. More and more workers joined the Huelga (Spanish for "strike"), even in the face of threats from farm owners and labor contractors. Chávez worked tirelessly in support of the strike. In March, 1966 he led a group of strikers on a 250 mile march from Delano to Sacramento, to take the union's demands to the state government and to bring national attention to the cause of the UFW. By the time the group arrived in Sacramento, one of the large Delano grape growers had settled with the union, signing a contract guaranteeing better pay and working conditions for migrant workers. The battle for the rights of the workers would continue. In 1968, to draw more attention to the strike, Chávez began a 25 day hunger strike, organized more rallies and demonstrations and called for a national boycott of grapes. By 1970, the grape growers had agreed to a contract with the UFW which gave the workers health care benefits and a raise in pay. A similar call for a boycott of lettuce was less successful, but in 1975 Governor Jerry Brown signed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act-the first bill of rights for farm workers ever passed in the United States. It gave workers the right to vote on which union would represent them for the first time. The UFW easily defeated the Teamsters in an election to represent the lettuce pickers.

César E. Chávez continued to fight for the rights of farm workers as head of the UFW until his death in 1993. Over 50,000 mourners came to pay their respects to the humble man from Delano whose simple, humble manner belied a man of iron principles whose commitment to social justice was absolute and whose efforts to better the lives of his fellow men made him, in the words of Robert F. Kennedy, "One of the heroic figures of our time." He was awarded posthumously the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Clinton in 1994.

>>back to top

Precepts of César E. Chávez

Perseverence

Many times the task of organizing farm workers seemed like a hopeless one. There were many setbacks, but Chávez never wavered in his belief that what he was doing was right and never stopped working towards his goal of bettering the lives of migrant workers. He once compared organizing to harvesting grapes-concentrate on one bunch at a time and eventually the whole vineyard will be harvested.

Humility

For César E. Chávez, being humble didn't mean being passive, it meant that he never felt the need to deny his roots. He was a farm worker, the son of farm workers and even though he became world famous he lived as simply as a farm worker, never earning more than $6,000 a year.

Non-Violence

Chávez embraced the ideals of Mohandas Gandhi, he never saw violence as the solution to any problem. He said, "I am convinced that the truest act of courage...is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice."

Foster Hope

To act with courage one first needs hope. So much of what Chávez and the UFW were able to achieve was due to his ability to instill the hope in people that by taking control of their own lives they were taking the first step in bettering them. In one speech before a group of farm workers he proclaimed, "It [the poor conditions and low pay suffered by farm workers] is your fault. You let them do it to you. And only you can change what is happening to you. You-we-have that power. Each of us has the power to control our lives. When we take that power, we can improve our living and working conditions."

Fight For Justice

Chávez recognized that the battle for the rights of farm workers was more than a simple labor dispute, that ultimately it was a fight to secure basic human rights for those who toiled in the fields. He also recognized that it was hopeless to wait passively for things to improve without the impetus of people willing to stand up and work for justice. In a 1989 speech he said, "The times we face truly call for all of us to do more to stop this evil in our midst. The answer lies with you and me. It is with all men and women who share the suffering and yearn with us for a better world. Our cause goes on in hundreds of distant places. It multiplies among thousands and then millions of caring people who heed through a multitude of simple deeds the commandment set out in the book of the Prophet Micah, in the Old Testament: 'What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?'

....

You didn't even know who he was - and now you're

aye chihuahua - ningun (h) mensaje

research - NK

He was quite a man, and we absolutely did boycott. - We knew people who'd ruined their

I suggest you read a history book. - nm

grapes, lettuce, or Gallo wine (I'd forgotten about Gallo) - n(h)m

That's one of the reasons why I don't use Google. I'm a Bing girl - Bing is excellent

:)! Of course, the right wing smear machine is busy - pushing this one. You'd think they'd lik

At this point I'm imaging what these people would - do with Cesar today. They did NOT like him.nm