Organic Food

Ms. Knapp

English 1A

23 May 2011

Cesar Chavez: The Man Who Fought for the Farm Workers of America.

Cesar Chavez led by his desire to secure a better quality of life for migrant farm workers, he helped found the United Farm Workers of America, the first effective farm workers’ union in the United States. Under his leadership of nonviolent protest, Chavez was one of the first pioneers defending the rights of the migrant farm workers. Chavez through the marches wanted state government to pass laws, which would permit farm workers to organize into a union and allow collective bargaining agreements. He tried to make people aware of the struggles of farm workers for better pay and treatment. The picketing, boycotts, and strikes worked against the grape growers and this led to the grape growers sign contracts with the union. The result of the farm labor movement gave farmers the money and dignity that everyone should receive and ensured that the farmers of America will always be treated fairly. Cesar Chavez became a labor leader who used non-violent methods to fight for the rights of migrant farm workers because he saw the need to increase wages, improve living conditions and safety of farm workers.

Cesar Chavez was born March 31, 1927 in a small farm in Yuma, Arizona, that his paternal grandfather homesteaded during the 1880s. At age ten, life began as a migrant farm worker when his father lost a grocery store and a ranch during the Great Depression. Together with thousands of other displaced families, the Chavez family migrated to Arizona, California, and started working on crop fields and vineyards. These were bitterly poor years for Cesar Chavez, his parents, brothers, and sisters. All the years that Chavez family spent following the crops were difficult: they had to sleep by the side of the road, moving from farm to farm, from harvest to harvest. They were so poor that sometimes after all the workers had left the field and the grower had turned off the...