Cesar Chavez: Hero of Mexican American workers
Photo: Joel Levine Creative Commons
Labor Day is a time to reflect on those who have advanced the cause of working men and women in the United States. No person has done more, and at great personal risk, than Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers. Earlier organizers in the 1920s and ‘30s encountered daily abuses and faced serious repercussions when they protested on behalf of fellow workers. Often they were beaten by local sheriffs and growers’ hired thugs; some were found dead in irrigation ditches, victims of “anonymous” violence for which no one was held accountable. Chavez changed that, and how he did so is remarkable.
Although famous for his work in California, Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona, to a middle-class family. During the Great Depression, his parents lost the family business and home, and were forced to move. They joined the thousands of Mexicans who moved to California to harvest crops. At the age of 19, Cesar joined the Navy. Afterward, he worked as a lumber handler and farm laborer in California, where he was outspoken about workers’ rights. His big break came when he befriended a social justice organizer and a Catholic priest. Both were impressed by Chavez’s concern for his fellow workers, his deep Catholic faith and his belief that Christ’s command to help the poor was to be taken literally.
Shortly thereafter, he headed up the Community Service Organization, which promoted fair wages, social justice and the election of liberal representatives and officials to state and federal offices. He also became the target of FBI investigations for “possible Communist leanings.” It was 1957 and the Red Scare and McCarthyism were in full swing. Undeterred, Chavez enlisted the support of Mexican American field workers and by 1960, with the election of JFK, his efforts became part of the civil rights movement, officially organized as the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).
Among his supporters were Bobby Kennedy and a host of Christian leaders and civil rights activists. In 1966, the UFW marched 300 miles from Delano, California, to the capitol building in Sacramento. The group carried banners displaying the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as well as the cross, symbolizing not only their Mexican heritage but their commitment to a Christian ethical call to action. While the contemporary media downplay this aspect, to make Chavez less sectarian, it is important to remember the farm labor movement’s true roots.
In August 1967, Chavez announced the first of several boycotts of grapes in the United States, which would be followed by boycotts on lettuce and other produce. Multiple forces fought against Chavez and his movement: growers and their attorneys, local police, the Teamsters union and then-governor of California, Ronald Reagan. Chavez received death threats and his family was harassed. Worried that his followers would respond with violence, he reaffirmed his commitment to nonviolence and the philosophy of Gandhi by staging a hunger strike. That same year, Bobby Kennedy decided to run for president and persuaded Chavez to be his delegate in the California primary. Kennedy won that state with Chavez’s help. Shortly thereafter, Kennedy was assassinated. Two months later, Martin Luther King would also be assassinated. It was a dangerous time for civil rights advocates.
But Chavez continued his work, and many of his demands for better conditions, fair wages and legal protection for farm workers would be realized. He would be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and his legacy would inspire thousands of young people, not just Mexican Americans, to take up a life of service, to fight poverty and injustice in their communities and, for some, to choose a spiritual path in life. When Barack Obama ran for president, he used a Chavez quote as his rallying call: ¡Si se puede! (“Yes, you can”). It is a timely reminder of what one person can do, even when circumstances are bleak. It is a call to action for us all.