Early Life
Cesar's entire family worked on their 100 acre family farm. When Cesar was 10, he and his family lost their farm due to the great depression. Poor, hopeless, and struggling to survive, the Chaves family left Arizona, fleeing the great depression and widespread droughts in the Southwest. They moved to California in 1939 and became migrant workers. They worked for different Farm owners picking fruits and vegetables.
The Struggle
At the time, migrant workers were not allowed to own permanent homes. Families carried their few belongings in their trucks and sometimes lived in them while others lived in crowned public houses without running water, electricity, or bathrooms.
As far as education, Cesar Chaves attended 65 different elementary schools because of the amount of times his family had to move in order to find work. Spanish speaking students were often physically punished by teachers for speaking Spanish at school. Despite this, Cesar managed to graduate the 8th grade.
CSO
In 1952, Cesar Chaves joined the Community Service Organization. This group helped to inform farm workers of their rights. Cesar strived to help migrant workers gain individual rights, just like regular american citizens. He influenced Mexican workers to vote during the nights. Cesar joined CSO full time and motivated many workers in California to stand up in a non-violent manner for their rights.
Farm Union
Cesar Chaves decided to leave the CSO and organize his own farm union. In 6 months, he had 300 members joined in the United Farm Workers of America. Chaves lead these members to a revolt against farm owners. Farm owners ignored their request for better wages and working conditions which lead to a 5-year strike and a nation wide grape boycott.
Strike Results
Strikers were extremely beaten and abused. Many suffered jail time. Cesar and his union members fasted and marched many miles to stand up against racist farm owners and citizens. As the grape boycott spread across the country, grape growers lost millions of dollars. Lawmakers became overwhelmed by the movement and were soon forced to change laws and improve working conditions.