M A R C H 3 1 , 2 0 2 1 IN CELEBRATION OF CESAR CHAVEZ DAY I m a g i n e w a k i n g u p e v e r y d a y , h e a d i n g t o a j o b , w h e t h e r i t b e t h e b l a z i n g h o t s u n o r p o u r i n g r a i n , y o u w o r k e d i n d i r e c t c o n t a c t w i t h t h e e l e m e n t s . I m a g i n e f a c i n g t h e s e h a r s h c o n d i t i o n s e a c h d a y , k n o w i n g y o u w o u l d r e c e i v e u n f a i r w a g e s . T h i s i s w h a t f a r m w o r k e r s e n d u r e d . M e x i c a n - A m e r i c a n l a b o r l e a d e r a n d c i v i l r i g h t s a c t i v i s t C e s a r C h a v e z r o s e t o t h e o c c a s i o n t o b r i n g a w a r e n e s s a n d m a k e c h a n g e f o r f a r m w o r k e r s t h r o u g h o u t t h e U . S . C h a v e z d e d i c a t e d h i s l i f e t o t h e w o r k h e c a l l e d l a c a u s a ( t h e c a u s e ) : t h e s t r u g g l e o f f a r m w o r k e r s i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s t o i m p r o v e t h e i r w o r k i n g a n d l i v i n g c o n d i t i o n s t h r o u g h o r g a n i z i n g a n d n e g o t i a t i n g c o n t r a c t s w i t h t h e i r e m p l o y e r s . “We cannot seek achievement for 1927: Chavez is born on March 31 in Yuma, Ariz., one of five children. When bank ourselves and forget foreclosure forces the family to leave its small farm, the Chavez family joins the about progress and some 300,000 men, women and children streaming into California, following the harvest, during the Great Depression. prosperity for our 1939: Chavez is first exposed to unions in San Jose, Calif., where his family is community… Our working at the time. ambitions must be 1946: Joins the U.S. Navy and serves for two years at the end of World War II in a broad enough to include segregated unit. Chavez returns to agricultural work when his service ends. the aspirations and 1948: Meets and marries Helen Fabela in Delano, Calif. They have eight children. He begins learning about Gandhi — who used nonviolent civil disobedience in the fight needs of others, for for India's independence from British rule — and the teachings of St. Francis, who their sakes and for our championed the poor. own.” Cesar Chavez. 1952: Starts working for the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group that organized communities around issues such as voter registration, immigration and police abuse. He rises to become the group's national director. 1962: Chavez resigns from the CSO because it won't endorse his proposal to form a farmworkers union. He uses his life savings of $1,200 to form the National Farm Workers Association in Delano. 1965: Chavez criss-crosses California's Imperial and San Joaquin valleys to recruit members. At the time, he is so poor that he sometimes asks for food from the workers he is trying to help. 1966: Chavez leads strikers on a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to bring tps://www.youtube.com/watch awareness to La Causa of farmworkers. The NWFA also merges with the AWOC to ?v=Wznw9TA2jXk form the United Farm Workers. 1966: Chavez leads strikers on a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to bring awareness to La Causa of farmworkers. The NWFA also merges with the AWOC to form the United Farm Workers. 1967: In addition to the strike, Chavez calls for a nationwide boycott of non-union California table grapes. He sends UFW workers to cities across the country to raise awareness. Their efforts dovetail with the civil rights movement and a greater consciousness of racism and economic inequity. Millions of Americans supported the boycott, which eventually became international in scope and lasted until 1970. 1970: After five years, the strike and boycott against the grape growers ends in victory for the UFW. In the past, big agribusiness had been able to end strikes through violence or negotiating small, one-off pay increases. This time, the union is able to secure broader rights: to organize and bargain collectively, in addition to better wages. 1972: Chavez fasts for a second time, for 24 days, to protest an Arizona law that bans farmworkers from organizing, boycotting or striking. 1973: After a second strike against grape growers turns violent, Chavez calls off the strike and begins a second boycott of grapes and lettuce. 1975: California passes the state's landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which establishes and protects the rights of all farmworkers to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions.1982: With the strong support of agribusiness in the state, Republican George Deukmejian is elected governor of California. He proceeds to defang enforcement of the farm labor laws. 1982: With the strong support of agribusiness in the state, Republican George Deukmejian is elected governor of California. He proceeds to defang enforcement of the farm labor laws. 1986: Chavez kicks off his "Grapes of Wrath" campaign to draw attention to the pesticide poisoning of farmworkers and their children. 1988: Chavez goes on his third and final fast, which lasts 36 days. 1993: Chavez died in his sleep on April 23 while he was in San Luis, Ariz., on UFW business. He was 66 years old. More than 40,000 people attend his funeral. 1994: Chavez posthumously receives the Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian award. Who is Dolores Huerta? Cesar Chavez was not alone in his fight for fair rights of Farm Workers in the USA. Dolores Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the Nationa Farmworkers Association, which became the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta met Chavez, in 1962 at the age of 25. Together formed what is now the UFA, organizing farmworkers who toiled for wages as low as 70 cents an hour, in brutal conditions. Dolores Huerta is the originator of the phrase, "Sí, se puede". https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=d7h_W-Fy06s.