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Cesar Chavez was born in Arizona, his parents were both Mexicans, struggled to lived by raising chickens, watermelons, and vegetables on their farm.
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He lived in Arizona until he was 11 years old. 1938 the Chavez family went broke. Cesar’s family moved to California in 1938 where they became migrant workers. Cesar was 11 years old when he began working in the fields.
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By 1939, there were 300,000 migrants workers in California, growers could always find another person to do the job. it didn't take long for Cesar to discover how bad the life of a migrant worker was.
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Because his Family moved so often, he never stayed in one school long enough to make any friends or finish a school year in one single school. In the age of 11 and 15, he attended more than 30 schools.
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Chavez was discharged from the Navy and returned to his family in Delano, where he resumed work in the fields. At this time, Chavez joined his first union, the National Agricultural Workers Union.
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When Cesar was 21 years old, got married to a woman named Helen.
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The Chavez family joined the National Farm Labor Union (NFLU) and participated in a cotton strike.
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Four years later when Cesar got married he got his fist steady job. He become a stuff member of the community service organization, a group member that dedicated to protect Mexicans civil rights.
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By the time of 1962 Helen and Cesar had eight children. The family was not rich, but they had enough money to pay rents and bills. Also Cesar had a few hundreds in his bank account to if Cesar needed
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Hardened by his early experience as a migrant worker, Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. His union joined with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in its first strike against grape growers in California, and the two organizations later merged to become the United Farm Workers.
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NFWA (The National Farm Workers Association) was born, to create another organization to advance the cause of farmers.
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Chavez organized a five-year "grape boycott," a movement that urged people to stop buying California grapes until farm workers had contracts insuring better pay and safer working conditions. The name of the union was changed to the United Farm Workers (the UFW) in 1974. In 1978, some of the workers' demands were were lifted.
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The UFW declared May 10th International Grape Boycott Day. Throughout the year, shipments of California table grapes were stopped in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal and Toronto. In England, British dockworkers refused to unload California grapes.
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Past away in his sleep.
