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Many people (especially those who don’t live in or near the agricultural “promised lands” of California) just don’t understand what terrible living and working conditions immigrant farm-workers suffered under for so many years. Many of these laborers didn’t know there was an alternative. Many were happy to get this work, even at such a low wage as thirty-five cents an hour, and paid housing; a tent. That is until a man named Cesar Chavez came along. Chavez, by many, is considered the “Moses” of the West Coast migrant farm-workers. At the risk of personal safety, as well that of his family, Mr. Chavez fought “the boss”, as farm owners and supervisors--mostly white were known, and organized these suppressed workers under one name, the United Farm Worker’s Union; possibly the most well known union story of the twentieth century. So, how did it evolve? First, let’s show the history of Cesar Chavez.
Chavez, a product of a depression era migrant childhood, knew what suffering was all about. He grew up in primarily in Arizona. His grandparents escaped the “feudal hacienda system” in Mexico; basically an indentured servant system, where the “peons” who were at the lowest rung of the co
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The actual “fight” led by Cesar Chavez the farm workers endured mostly ends in 1974; Cesar Chavez stayed actively involved up to his death in 1993. The Navy even afforded him his first visit to a real doctor! His first, of many, brush with the law was after his discharge from the Navy, he went to a “segregated” movie theater and decided to sit in the “white” section; he was taken to jail but since they didn’t know what to charge him with, he was sternly lectured and released. He decided he was more needed by the farm-workers he and his siblings had grown up with that were still being treated like animals and paid ridiculously low wages. The last twenty years of his life were spent mostly fighting legal battles defending farm workers’ rights, including the rights of workers handling produce sprayed with pesticides and insecticides. In 1967 and in 1970, the Teamsters Union members made themselves available for employment during critical strike times by the UFW, despite non-raiding agreements between the two; this damaged some progress made by Chavez and his group, but not for long. However, Cesar felt this was all necessary to set the groundwork for future dealings with the farm owners, they needed to believe that the workers wouldn’t tolerate such ill-treatment any longer and that they were now organized and united. untry’s economic system and toiled all their lives for the “lords” of the large farms. For ten years Cesar worked to make the CSO power to be dealt with all over California, and it was; the FBI had Cesar on its “watch” list, and interviewed him several times for “subversion” and accusing him of being communist. Little did he know that this was his “opening shot” of what he considered his own personal battle for a Mexican-American civil rights movement. In Delano, there was a major strike; wanting the normal things--better pay living conditions, medical care, etc. Migrant workers, during these times, were treated some of the worst in the history of this country. His grandfather was able to get work in the mines in Arizona and saved enough money to buy a parcel of land. In 1964, the United Auto Workers (UAW) were donating funds to help the newly established UFW thrive; even Senator Robert Kennedy was making donations. He envisioned this as a social movement rather than a traditional union--a crusade that would inspire farm workers.
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