Cesar Chavez and the union sought recognition of the importance and dignity of all farm workers. It was the beginning of La Causa a cause that was supported by organized labor, religious groups, minorities, and students.
Cesar Chavez had the foresight to train his union workers and then to send many of them into the cities where they were to use the boycott and picket as their weapon. Cesar was willing to sacrifice his own life so that the union would continue and that violence was not used. Cesar fasted many times. In Cesar went on a water only, 25 day fast.
He repeated the fast in for 24 days, and again in , this time for 36 days. What motivated him to do this? He said, Farm workers everywhere are angry and worried that we cannot win without violence. We have proved it before through persistence, hard work, faith and willingness to sacrifice. We can win and keep our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the spirit of all people if we do it through a rededication and recommitment to the struggle for justice through nonviolence.
Many events precipitated the fast, especially the terrible suffering of the farm workers and their children, the crushing of farm worker rights, the dangers of pesticides, and the denial of fair and free elections. It is a fast for the purification of my own body, mind, and soul. The fast is also a heartfelt prayer for purification and strengthening for all those who work beside me in the farm worker movement.
The fast is alsoan act of penance for those in positions of moral authority and for all men and women activists who know what is right and just, who know that they could and should do more. The fast is finally a declaration of non-cooperation with supermarkets who promote and sell and profit fromCalifornia table grapes. This solution to this deadly crisis will not be found in the arrogance of the powerful, but in solidarity with the weak and helpless. I pray to God that this fast will be a preparation for a multitude of simple deeds for justice.
Carried out by men and women whose hearts are focused on the suffering of the poor and who yearn, with us, for a better world. Together, all things are possible. Cesar Chavez completed his day Fast for Life on August 21, The Reverend Jesse Jackson took up where Cesar left off, fasting on water for three days before passing on the fast to celebrities and leaders. The fast was passed to Martin Sheen, actor; the Reverend J.
Cesar Estrada Chavez died peacefully in his sleep on April 23, near Yuma, Arizona, a short distance from the small family farm in the Gila River Valley where he was born more than 66 years before. He died standing up for their First Amendment right to speak out for themselves. I know because I was there at his last fast in Delano, Calif. Details are fuzzy of that chaotic day three decades ago when he ended his fast. I had recently arrived from Mexico and was doing work for a local Spanish-language newscast in northern California.
The media's euphoria over the frail-looking Chavez was undeniable. By then, he was an internationally known activist, a hero to farmworkers and a skillful public figure. Chavez was media savvy, combining his grassroots organizing skills with a genuine message of social justice and a profound understanding of symbolism. No wonderr he blazed a path to public notoriety.
God help us be men. In , he went on a second hunger strike to protest an Arizona law banning farm workers from organizing and protesting. In , at the age of 61, he underwent his third hunger strike, which lasted for 36 days. Chavez died in his sleep on April 23, , at the age of Bloomsbury Publishing, California Hall of Fame: Cesar Chavez.
California Museum. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. In the late s, grapes grabbed national attention—and not in a good way. Newly organized farm workers, fronted by Mexican-American civil-rights activist Cesar Chavez, asked Americans to boycott the popular California fruit because of the paltry pay and poor work conditions And, bringing with them traditions and culture from Mexico, Spain, Chavez traveled to not only churches to request donations and support, but also to university campuses.
Liberal student activists and civil rights volunteers from the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee joined the movement. A struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity. Organized labor provided essential support to the movement, as unions both inside and outside the United States were able to add leverage to the boycott and help stop grape shipments.
The movement drew political support from Senator Robert Kennedy, who helped lead Senate hearings on the strike and even demonstrated his support by joining a picket line.
These diverse sources of support were an essential element of the movement's victory. Despite later setbacks, such as an unsuccessful lettuce boycott and a failed grape boycott aimed at ending the use of pesticides in the fields, Chavez continued to fight for farmworkers' rights with a steadfast commitment to nonviolence until his death in For his tireless efforts for farmworkers' rights, Chavez's birthday became a celebrated state holiday in California, and he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.
His work still resonates today; as Chavez said, "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.
You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. And you cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. Cesar E. Chavez Foundation website. The Farmworker Movement Documentation Project. Si Se Puede Press. Ferriss, Susan and Ricardo Sandoval.
Ganz, Marshall. New York: Oxford University Press, Levy, Jacques E. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. New York: Norton, Orosco, Jose-Antonio. Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, Pawel, Miriam.
New York: Bloomsbury Press, Shaw, Randy.
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