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Cesar Estrada Chavez Biography

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Cesar Estrada Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona, United States as a son of poor Mexican immigrants. While growing up during the Great Depression, the small farm his family owned was foreclosed when he was ten, and the family had no other choice than to join the hordes of migrant workers who followed the harvests in California in search of work. In California, Cesar’s parents worked long, tiring hours in the farm field, but barely had enough money to supply for him and his siblings— the Chavez children did not receive a proper education. Cesar went to about 35 different segregated schools (Contemporary Hispanic Biography) until the seventh grade to work and help support his parents. While working in the farm field, Cesar gained understanding of the exploitation migrant workers were facing for years due to poverty, ignorance, and racism. This influenced Cesar’s cause to fight for the rights and freedoms of farm workers’ wages and working conditions through efforts in joining grassroots unions and using boycotts as a nonviolent weapon against crop growers.

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His leadership and commitment to social justice had inspired the whole nation and changed how Americans thought about farm workers. Cesar even gained recognition from Martin Luther King, Jr. who sent him a telegram saying, "Our separate struggles are really one. A struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity "(Tavaana). After Cesar’s death in 1993 in San Luis, Arizona, Cesar was granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton (The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives). Cesar Chávez became a legend in our nation’s history being responsible for many of the labor rights we see today as well as worker’s protection, benefits and the basic rights to

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Cesar Chavez Washington DC Monument Proposal: Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 as a first-generation citizen in Yuma, Arizona, US from latino-born parents. His parents owned a piece of farmland, but they lost it during the great depression. Not long after, after finishing middle school, Cesar was forced to labour in farms to help provide for his family. As the years passed by, he realized that not only were the conditions for farmers disgustingly ugly, but the payment they were receiving was close to nothing, and it kept all the workers well under the poverty line. During his twenties, he joined the US Navy and served in the West Pacific in the World War II aftermath.

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These promises that Cesar made were short lived as grower opposition and a series of governors that undercut the laws and never used them effectively. After 1976 Cesar led his union through a reorganization intended to improve efficiency and the connection to the public. In 1984 in response of the grape industries refusal use of chemicals on its crops, so Cesar started a an international boycott of table grapes. As a result of failure of the proposition 14 Cesar thought that the UFW had suffered greatly from from poor motivation and lack of communication, so he decided to turn is union into a movement. He got his inspiration from the Synonom community in California that used to be a drug rehabilitation center that turned into a new age religious organization.

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Cesar Chavez, a first-generation American, latino farm worker born in Yuma, Arizona, is a true American hero. At the age of 10, his family lost everything they owned due to the Great Depression. From the age of ten, Chavez migrated throughout the southwest working in the fields, where he was exposed to the hard work of a farm worker. Getting paid very low wages, while working in an extremely uncomfortable environment he got little sleep. Growing up in a hectic environment, he always had a true passion of helping others earn what they deserve.

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Years back, migrant farm workers worked the fields of California in horrible conditions such as no breaks and pesticide exposure. Years before that, poor children had to work in factories and mills, losing fingers from accidents as they live off of stale bread and coffee. But two people were able to help these people from the unfair treatment they were up against, Cesar Chavez and Mother Jones. Both were able to give their people a better life to their people, later on or during their lifetime. “About Cesar” is a biography by the Cesar Chavez Foundation (CCF) about the life of Cesar Chavez when he learned the difficulties of migrant farm workers and later on creates a union, helping those farm workers stand up and fight for themselves and

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Cesar’s religious and spiritual perspective enabled him to unite people to reform the farm workers’ lifestyle. He created his own myths in order to gain millions of support from people who are either inside the struggle or outside of it. Cesar’s myth of nonviolence swayed the mass that money, weapons, and power are not needed to invoke change, but only commitment and patience are needed. His “militant nonviolence” style led many farm workers into believing and seeing Cesar’s vision that the struggle is possible to achieve. Through nonviolence comes self-sacrifice.

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Cesar Chavez, a Hispanic Labor Leader boycotted grapes to fight for the rights of Hispanic Farmers. In his speech “Commonwealth Club Address” he illustrates how the farmers are treated horribly and reflected on his life and how he fought for Hispanics' rights. In his speech, section one is the most moving and memorable. Chavez’s purpose was to make sure that farm workers got their rights and to convince the American Public to boycott not only once, but a second time.

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He insists on the fact that inhumane vengeance will lead to injury and death, as well as “demoralization”. This argument is greatly supported by the death of Dr. King Jr; his view of nonviolence helped to grow and mature the farm worker’s movement. Civil workers are guilted into supporting their fallen hero in order to fulfill his dying wish. Chavez instructs them to “overcome… [their] frustrations” and support their causes through methods of peaceful protests. Chavez, appealing to their sense of emotion, manages to persuade a disconnected society by desperately wanting to avenge Dr. King’s untimely

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If Cesar would not have created the union then there would be no support for farm workers to have rights. During this time period many reporters became skeptical about this because many people in the past had tried this before but failed. Cesar had some supporters who believed that he could do it his

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Cesar made everyone feel special, especially farm workers, feel the jobs they were doing in the movement were very important. It did not matter if they were lawyers working in the courtrooms or cooks in the kitchen feeding the people involved with the strike, he showed the farm workers that they could win against great odds. He gave people the faith to believe in themselves, even if they were poor and unable to receive the best education. Cesar succeeded where so many others failed for 100 years to organize farm workers. He was able to do the impossible by challenging and overcoming the power of one of the country’s richest industries in California.”

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The most challenging factor in this strike was keeping all the other farm workers fighting for their right as Mexican American farm workers. Some of the supporting men on the strike were starting to resort to the same violence they received from their employers. Cesar devoted this thought from his head as well as the men who came up with it, because he believed that nonviolent actions forced you to be more creative, in other words, it lets you keep control of the offensive, which is highly important in winning any contest, or in this case protest,

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In the contracted included rest periods, insurance, bathrooms, protective clothing against pesticides, banning discrimination, and prohibiting pesticide spraying while workers are in the field (Cesar Chavez Foundation, 2012). The way the workers are treated changed because the effort that Cesar Chavez made. He made people see that the farm works were valuable and they shouldn't be treated otherwise. Chavez’s hard work was recognized for

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Cesar Chavez lead many boycotts against grape growers. Cesar boycott was also termed as “The Delano Grape Strike and Boycott”. Chavez's ultimate goal was to overthrow farm labors system in the nation, which treated farm workers as if they were not important human beings. In 1965, Cesar and the grape workers went on strike damping better payment.

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On November 9, 1984, many people gathered with Cesar Chavez in San Francisco, California as he addressed the Commonwealth Club of California. The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit organization and the nation’s oldest public affairs forum that puts together events dealing with politics, culture, society, and the economy. Cesar Chavez was a remarkable union leader, labor organizer, and civil rights advocate who was known for dedicating his life to helping others, particularly farm workers. Chavez’s main concern in addressing the Commonwealth Club of California was the treatment of farm workers. He spoke against the injustices they endured related to labor and living conditions.

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1331 Words | 6 Pages

Mexican-American Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) is known as an American farm worker, a prominent union leader, labor organizer, and a civil rights activist. By having much experience since he was a migrant worker when he was very young, Chavez with another co-founder created The National Farm Workers Association in 1962 that later became United Farm Workers. As a union leader, his union and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee made their first strike against grape growers in California. Having been through many hardships as a migrant farm worker, the Latino American civil rights activist led marches, called for boycotts, and made strikes to raise and recover conditions for farm workers. His contributions led to numerous improvements for

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In addition, referencing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the text further established Cesar Chavez’s ethos. King was someone who was revered by proponents of civil rights. Associating an audience with a prominent figure such as Dr. King adds to the credibility in the rhetor. Chavez uses the main persona of a human

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