Cesar Chavez
by Alex Love

In an age when discrimination ruled North America and race riots were breaking out in the streets, a peace hero was born. In a place where your race and culture determined your salary, a union leader was born. In a life with all odds against him, a man beat the odds, became inspirational, and made a difference. This man is Cesar Chavez.

Cesar Chavez was brought into this world on March 31, 1927 in the Gila Valley where his family owned a ranch and a store. Because his family all spoke Spanish, Cesar had a difficult time in school and preferred to learn from his uncles and mother. His schooling was cut short in 1937 when his father lost the store as a result of the Great Depression and later lost the ranch to a drought. The family moved to California where they became part of a migrant community. Since they moved from migrant camp to migrant camp, Chavez sporadically attended over 30 elementary schools where he constantly experienced racial discrimination. Finally, in eighth grade Cesar quit school to work full time to help support his family. During this period his mother taught him the importance of selflessness and peace and taught him to love those who refused to love him. These lessons shaped him into the man he would be in his adult life.

After a poor childhood full of discrimination, Chavez finished his duty in the military during World War II before returning to migrant work in Delano, California with his new bride, Helen Fabela. Shortly after joining the work force, the workers went on strike to protest poor working conditions and low wages. Unfortunately, after only a few days the workers were forced to return to work.

Then the turning point in Cesar’s life occurred. He met Fred Ross, part of the Community Service Organization. Chavez joined the organization, began pushing Mexican-Americans to register and vote, gave speeches all over California on workers’ rights and finally became general director of the CSO. However, this was not enough for Chavez. He was determined to make a real difference for minorities. In 1962 he resigned from the CSO and formed his own organization called the National Farm Workers Association (now known as the United Farm Workers). Through this organization he led a strike of all grape-pickers in California to protest low wages, bad working conditions, and long hours. He also beseeched Americans to boycott grapes to show their support. The strike lasted five years and even attracted national attention, including the attention of Robert Kennedy. This national attention helped win the battle over teamsters and finally the NFWA (UFW) was given the exclusive right to organize field workers. In the 1970s and 1980s Chavez grew famous for his protests against toxic pesticides, boycotts, and strikes which all generally ended with successful bargain agreements. At one point he even fasted to draw attention to the needs of lettuce growers. On April 23, 1993 after a highly successful life of aiding others peacefully, creating equal employment conditions for Mexican-American workers, and drawing national attention to the problems of discrimination Cesar Chavez passed away.

Cesar Chavez should be considered a great peace hero of the 20th century because he did the right thing in a time when others had given up on equality and peace and either resorted to violence or believed that peaceful equality was only a dream. Because many minorities had given up the idea of peaceful change race riots broke out all over the country. Cesar had as much, if not more, reason for hating those discriminating against him, and could have reasoned that this violence was necessary. His family was held down by unfair wages, poor working conditions, discrimination in school, and even a lack of proper teaching resources (no English as a Second Language classes) just because he was a Mexican-American. In a time when he should have been full of rage at the unfairness of discrimination, he decided that he would not give up on peace and fought his entire life, peacefully, to be considered equal. Later in his life when he had achieved a well paying job as head of the CSO, but still he wouldn’t give up on his dream of a “peacefully obtained” equality. He made farming in California what it is today, made the public aware of the inequalities in this, all men are equal society, and gave selflessly to others without gain, all for a dream of peacefully reaching equality. Cesar Chavez was a man who looked bigotry in the face and said that he would not raise his fist to win, but instead he would peacefully and lawfully become recognized as equal. He is a true hero of peace.