Cesar Chavez: A Great Organizer and Leader

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Labor unions have been instrumental in the lives of workers throughout American history, and have led to important advances in the American workforce. Throughout history there have been patterns of exploitation of immigrant workers by businesses in order to increase profits; the Mexican migrant workers of southern California are the most recent historical group to fall into this pattern of exploitation mostly from their lack of organization. Cesar E. Chavez was a great organizer and leader of the United Farm Workers labor union. Robert Kennedy referred to him as “one of the heroic figures of our time.”

Chavez used his life experiences in order to better the lives of many migrant workers in America. Key points in Chavez’s life that had profound effects on the Mexican American workers include things such as: his first taste of leading political organizations in 1952; the foundation of the United Farm Workers of America in 1962; and the use of nonviolent approaches such as boycotts, strikes, and fasts, as seen in the grape and lettuce strikes. Throughout his career his selfless exploits made him the hero that he is now seen to be. When these key portions of Chavez’s life are examined, it can be seen that he had a very large role in gaining and defending civil rights, wage increases, and worker benefits for migrant farmers (Chavez Foundation).

In 1952 Chavez would begin his career as a community leader and political organizer through the Community Service Organization or CSO, which was already established as a prominent Mexican American civil rights organization in southern California. The CSO worked mostly with voter registration and everyday problems that Mexican Americans would encounter, and this served as a valuable learni...

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... understood what was right, and he sought to fill the need that had been left by government and the private sector.

Works Cited

Chavezfoundation. “Cesar E. Chavez> American Hero.” http://www.chavezfoundation.org/_page.php?code=001001000000000&page_ttl=American+Hero&kind=1.

Griswold Del Castillo, Richard, and Richard A. Garcia. César Chavez: A Triumph of Spirit. The Oklahoma western biographies, v. 2. Norman, Okla: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995

Martin, Philip. “Labor Relations in California Agriculture: 1975-2000”. September 20, 2000. http://migration.ucdavis.edu/cf/more.php?id=44_0_2_0.

Moore, Joan W., Cuellar, Alfredo. Mexican America. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc 1970.

Tejada-Flores, Rick. “Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle”. 2004. http://www.pbs.org/itvs/fightfields/cesarchavez.html.

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