Folk singer Woody Guthrie’s “Pastures of Plenty” opened the eyes of many Americans to the plight of the migrant farm workers who toiled for paltry wages under pitiful conditions, but it was labor organizer César Chávez who won those workers a modicum of economic justice.
Chávez’s birthday – he was born March 31, 1927 – is an official state holiday in California (and an optional one in Colorado and Denver) that honors the founder of the United Farm Workers union. California was the epicenter of the Huelga – or “strike” against grape growers that began in 1965 and included a national boycott of table grapes that members of other labor unions supported in sympathy with the farm workers.
Striking farm workers endured threats and violence from the growers who opposed such demands as decent wages (they were paid about $1 an hour if the growers or their agents didn’t stiff them their pay), adequate housing, safe drinking water, and field toilets.
It’s worth noting that farm workers were asking for a piece of the pie long after members of other labor unions had secured a generous portion of the American dream.
Taking a clue from the civil rights movement, Chávez organized high-profile events like the march of 250 strikers from the small farm community of Delano to the state capitol in Sacramento – just the sort of footage that no TV station can resist. There was no quick agreement, but after five years, the growers settled.
Chávez, who was born in Yuma, Ariz., drew his inspiration from Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi and employed non-violent means to achieve the UFW’s goals. His formal education ended in the eighth grade, after which he went to work in the fields. But he was a voracious reader. He joined the Navy during World War II and returned to California, where he found nothing had changed and farm workers still working in miserable conditions.
Chávez became an activist, working with the Community Service Organization to help farm workers with every-day problems and urging them to register to vote or become U.S. citizens. He later formed the National Farm Workers Association, the organization that eventually became the United Farm Workers.
Chávez, who died in 1993, always used peaceful means to make his point. The late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy had called him “one of the heroic figures of our time.” And so he was, an inspiration to farm workers and migrant laborers and those of us who depend upon the fruits of their labor.
