Cesar Chavez

The Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez dedicated his life's work to what he called la causa (the cause), the struggle of farm workers in the United States to improve their working and living conditions through organizing and negotiating contracts with their employers. Cesar Estrada Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona on March 31, 1927. In the late 1930s, after losing their homestead to foreclosure, he and his family joined more than 300,000 people who moved to California during the Great Depression and became migrant farm workers. A Quote from Cesar: If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him…the people who give you their food give you their heart. - Cesar Chavez Facts: • The Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez dedicated his life's work to what he called la causa (the cause); the struggle of farm workers in the United States to improve their working and living conditions through organizing and negotiating contracts with their employers. • Cesar Estrada Chavez was born in Yuma Arizona on March 31st, 1927. In the late 1930’s, after loosing their homestead to foreclosure, he and his family joined more that 300,000 people who moved to California during the Great Depression and became migrant farm workers. • In September 1965, the NFWA launched a strike against California's grape growers alongside the Agriculture Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a Filipino-American labor group. The strike lasted five years and expanded into a nationwide boycott of California grapes. The boycott drew widespread support, thanks to the highly visible campaign headed by Chavez, who led a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966 and undertook a well publicized 25-day hunger strike in 1968.