Historical Figure: Cezar Chavez

Cezar Chavez
 Cezar Chavez

Cezar Chavez was a very famous man for many reasons. He was a Mexican-American

and he always strived for greatness. He was born on March 31, 1927 and unfortunately died on

April 23, 1993 in San Luis, Arizona. So he lived for a great 66 years. He was born with the name

Cesario Estrada Chavez. His birthplace was around Yuma, Arizona. Chavez was a dedicated

union leader, and he also a labor organizer. In his work he made a large number of supporters and

even friends including Jesse Jackson and Robert Kennedy.

His past job as a migrant worker made him tough and taught him about hard work. He

was dedicated to hard work and founded the NFWA, also known as the National Farm Workers

Association. He founded the NFWA in the year 1962. Soon after his union joined the AWOC, or

more commonly called the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in its very first protest

against grape growers in California in the year 1965. After the protest the two organizations

decided to merge together and become the UFW, or also known as the United Farm Workers, this

happened in the year 1972.

As they did before they decided to merge together, they both highly pushed on non-

violent protesting methods. They were always a non-violent protesting group, and they wanted to

keep it that way for as long as they can. Chavez got his point across by organizing many

boycotts, lead in the front of marches, and even put together multiple hunger strikes. The

organization had many opposing forces such as different laws, the Teamsters Union, and even

sometimes the growers themselves. Sometimes they actually even had their non-violent protests

shut down. They had dedication and perseverance, they got thru the hard times such as teamsters

and even legal barriers placed by the state. Thru hard work, dedication, perseverance, and the

support of others, he finally reached his two goals with the entire protest.
 These goals were to secure raises and to also dramatically improve working conditions

for the employes throughout many states, such as California, Texas, Arizona, and even Florida.

As he worked hard, day and night, he ended up signing many contracts with grape growers and

many other businesses that employed a large variety of people from many different cultures.

Chavez brought a national awareness to using pesticides on crops and the awareness to workers

health. Today, we as a nation owe Cesar Chavez for the great things he has done for us, the many

workers, and the health of others in this great nation thru his perseverance and dedication to

changing the path and pointing this nation into a better future.

Citations

www.history.com/topics/cesar-chavez

www.biography.com/people/cesar-chavez-9245781