Cesar Chavez: Voice of the Fields

Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Arizona, on a small family farm. When he was ten years old, the Great Depression forced his family to lose their farm. They became migrant farmworkers, traveling across California harvesting crops—lettuce, grapes, cotton, and more. Chavez saw firsthand how farmworkers were treated: they earned very low wages, lived in terrible conditions, and had no legal protections.

After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Chavez returned to California and began working as a community organizer. He helped register Latino voters and fight discrimination. In 1962, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Dolores Huerta. The organization would eventually become the United Farm Workers (UFW)—the first successful farmworkers' union in American history.

In 1965, Filipino American farmworkers at a grape ranch in Delano, California, went on strike to demand better wages. Chavez and the UFW joined them. The Delano Grape Strike lasted five years. To support the strikers, Chavez organized a nationwide boycott of California table grapes. He asked Americans across the country to stop buying grapes until growers agreed to fair contracts. By 1970, millions of Americans were participating in the boycott, and the major grape growers signed contracts with the UFW.

Chavez was inspired by the nonviolent methods of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He used hunger strikes, marches, and peaceful demonstrations to draw attention to the farmworkers' cause. In 1968, he fasted for twenty-five days to renew the commitment to nonviolence within his own movement. Robert F. Kennedy came to be with him when he broke his fast, calling him one of America's greatest figures.

Chavez devoted his entire life to the cause of farmworkers. He never earned a high salary—he lived simply and gave everything to the movement. He died on April 23, 1993, at the age of sixty-six. The following year, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. His motto, 'Si, se puede'—meaning 'Yes, we can'—became one of the most powerful phrases in American social justice history and continues to inspire activists worldwide.

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