Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez His equality for farmworkers activism life

From the time Cesar Estrada Chavez was a baby, he was already exposed to the fields. His family were poor farmers. They worked up to 15 hours a day, earning minimum wage, sometimes only 1 dollar per hour. Because of this, Cesar's future was kind of defined for him, he would have to become a farmworker at some point in his life.

After a day of 8th grade, Cesar happily ran back from school, chasing his friends throughout the village and fields. Laughing, he ran into his house, but his mood immediately changed, after seeing his parents sad serious face. “Cesar, we have some bad news.” His mom paused, and then his dad continued. “We can barely pay for basic needs anymore. Nevertheless can we pay for school fees anymore, so you’re gonna to have to drop out of school and work in the fields.” “No!” Cesar screamed, tears gushing down his face. “If you don’t have enough money than work for that money!” Cesar shouted. “We are very sorry Cesar, but we just can't,” Cesar's mom replied. “Even if we work more hours, we won’t get the money.”

Cesar was sad and mad mixed into one emotion he couldn’t describe. He didn’t like working, he wondered why farmworkers worked so hard to benefit others, and yet get very little money. He thought it was unfair. He knew he had to make things right for farmworkers, but what possibly could he do?

In the year 1985, right after he returned from the navy, Cesar became a grassroots organiser, for latino civil rights group. At first he felt like the was the best possible job for him, but, soon, he felt like that was not his true passion.

He felt passionate about what he experienced and thought was unfair. He knew that farmworkers needed to be treated fairly. Soon, he left the group and formed the National Farmworkers Association. Now known as the United Farmworkers of America. His goal was to unionise farmworkers to negotiate the improvement on their lives.

After they had gathered enough farmworkers, and with a lot of preparation, they went out and protested for a national boycott of table grape growers.

Cesar’s hands were shaking, sweat dripping down his face, he sensed the protest would last for years. He also knew that the union would encounter many difficulties, that they have to do their best to overcome. Cesar wouldn’t let anyone back down from this challenge, even if they were the underdog.

Cesar had to use his leadership to lead his union. One night, he slumped down in his chair and thought about why he would even bother to do this work, he felt like it was not worth it, but he forced himself to continue. He was willing to work hard, because he knew that if they had success, it would change farmworkers lives for the better. He didn’t want any farmworkers to suffer like he did.

One day, a farmworker in the union came up to Cesar and weakly said, “I want to quit, I want to stop this. We’re not gonna win the battle. It can’t be done.” Cesar just laughed and replied, “Si, se puede.” Meaning, yes, it can be done. Before the man could reply, Cesar walked away.

Although it was very tough, in the end, all the hard work payed off. Cesar and his union won many victories for the workers when a lot of growers signed contracts with the union. He even earned respect and support from important people, such as Robert Kennedy, a former united states senator, and Jesse Jackson, a civil rights activist.

After the protest ended, Cesar knew his work with the union wasn’t done. He knew he could definitely better his cause and raise more awareness. He decided to continue to oversee the union and guide them through difficulties. Even though he did make the cause better, he felt like his goal was only half completed. He hoped that one day, without protests, farmworkers would get much more money than they do now.

As he returned home, to the fields, he felt like it wasn’t the same fields. He felt like it wasn’t the place of suffer, but his true home, where he was born, and meant to be.

I chose to research about Cesar Estrada Chavez, because I was interested in the social issue topic of equality, and Cesar Chavez stood up for the equality of farmworkers. The minute I read a paragraph on him, I immediately knew that he was someone worth writing about. He not only had an interesting story, but also a clear activism story. In some parts, I made up some dialogue, that are meaningful to the story. I thought this was important, because it helped the scene come alive. One struggle about writing this book was, what to base the story on. I came up with 2 big ideas that the story could be based on. Equality for farmworkers and equality for latinos. For both of these categories, Cesar faced many challenges. But, in the end, I thought that he did more activism work for the equality of farmworkers.

Cesar Chavez

Cesar Estrada Chavez was born on March 31st, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona. He worked in the fields from 8th grade until he joined the navy after world war II. Despite all of his success, life was extra hard for Cesar, because he was latio. Back then, Latinos had no rights. It made people not want to listen to him when he tried to speak out. In 1945, 10 years before Rosa Parks got arrested, Cesar Chavez got arrested. He was arrested in California for sitting in the Japanese and Whites only section of a movie theatre. He had also seen signs that horrified him, like a sign that said no dogs or mexicans allowed. Cesar had a very important quote, which was “Si, se puede” which meant yes, it can be done. On April 23, 1993, Cesar died in his sleep, at age 66. He had gone on several hunger strikes while protesting, which is said to have contributed greatly to his death. Even though he has passed, he has also passed the word to many others, who today, still continue the advocacy work.

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Cesar Chavez His equality for farmworkers activism life

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