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by Sonja Jacobs '00 "I am convinced that the truest act of courage... is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice." -César Chávez César Chávez (1927-1993) was a leader of the Chicano movement in the1960s and the co-founder (with Dolores Huerta) of the United Farm Workers of America, a union for migrant laborers based in California. He was a strong believer in non-violence and simple living, and some consider him to be an American Gandhi. Chávez was a migrant worker his whole life, mostly in California.Growing up in California, he faced extreme discrimination because of his Mexican heritage and extreme poverty. In 1965, the Delano grape boycott was initiated. In response to unequal wage policies by grape growers (Mexican braceros were paid $1.40, Filipino workers $1.25, and Mexican-Americans $1.10 for the same work), the AWOC (Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee) staged a strike. Soon, Chávez's NFWU (National Farm Workers Union) became the backbone of the strike. Workers picketed outside grape farms within a 400-square mile area around Delano, California. Within months, thanks to Chávez's speaking tours around the state of California, the strike received national attention. NBC broadcasts about the plight of migrant workers aired, and the farm worker movement dovetailed with the civil rights movement. A boycott of the largest grape producers in Delano was launched. In 1969, that boycott was expanded to cover all California table-grape growers. Although pressure from the grape growers strongly influenced Richard Nixon and California governor Ronald Reagan, in 1970 a contract was signed, ending the boycott. Farm workers were given a wage of $1.80 per hour, and 85 percent of all table-grape growers in California were under a union contract. This victory was unprecedented in the history of U.S. agriculture. Simultaneously, Chávez began fighting for La Causa, the Chicano pride movement. Although Chávez was always more committed to a multi-ethnic agricultural workers movement, his work inevitable empowered Chicano workers and enhanced Chicano pride and community. In the 1970s and1980s, Chávez continued to work for migrant worker rights using nonviolent, Gandhian techniques. He made many hunger strikes, including one in 1972 that lasted one month. His campaigns were always multi-faceted; for example in 1972 he began a movement to recall Arizona Governor Jack Williams. Although the campaign was unsuccessful, many Arizonans were registered to vote while volunteers were collecting recall signatures. This helped elect Navajo and Hispanic legislators in Arizona, including the state's first Mexican-American governor. Chávez died on 23 April, 1993 unexpectedly, while testifying in Arizona at a labor rights dispute trial. His funeral was attended by more than 35,000 people in Delano, California, including fellow activist and Chicano leader Dolores Huerta and Representative Joseph Kennedy. Source: César Chávez: A Triumph of Spirit. Richard Griswold del Castillo and Richard A. Garcia. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman and London, 1995.
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