Cesar Chavez
A true American hero, Cesar was a civil rights, Latino and farm labor leader; a genuinely religious and spiritual figure; a community organizer and social entrepreneur; a champion of militant nonviolent social change; and a crusader for the environment and consumer rights.
A first-generation American, he was born on March 31, 1927, near his family's small homestead in the North Gila River Valley outside Yuma, Arizona. At age 11, his family lost the farm during the Great Depression and became migrant farm workers. Throughout his youth and into adulthood, Cesar traveled the migrant streams throughout California laboring in the fields, orchards and vineyards, where he was exposed to the hardships and injustices of farm worker life.
After attending numerous schools as the family migrated, Cesar finished his formal education after the eighth grade and worked the fields full-time to help support his family. Although his formal education ended then, he later satisfied an insatiable intellectual curiosity and was self-taught on an eclectic range of subjects through reading during the rest of his life.
Cesar joined the U.S. Navy in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II, and served in the Western Pacific. He returned from the service in 1948 to marry Helen Fabela, whom he met while working in fields and vineyards around Delano. The Chavez family soon settled in the poor East San Jose barrio of Sal Si Puedes (Get Out if You Can), and eventually had eight children and 31 grandchildren.
The significance of Cesar's life transcends any one cause or struggle. He was a unique and humble leader as well as a great humanitarian and communicator who influenced and inspired millions of Americans from all walks of life to social and political activism, especially for the poor and disenfranchised in our society. Cesar forged a national and extraordinarily diverse coalition for farm worker boycotts that included students, middle class consumers, trade unionists, religious activists and minorities.
Cesar passed away peacefully in his sleep on April 23, 1993, in the small farm worker town of San Luis, Arizona, not far from where he was born 66 years earlier on the family homestead. More than 50,000 people attended his funeral services in Delano, the same community in which he had planted the seeds of social justice decades before.
Cesar's motto "Si se puede!" ("Yes, it can be done!"), coined during his 1972 fast in Arizona's mbodies the uncommon legacy he left for people around the world. Since his death, hundreds of communities across the nation have named schools, parks, streets, libraries, and other public facilities as well as awards and scholarships in his honor. His birthday, March 31, is an official holiday in 10 states. In 1994, President Clinton posthumously awarded Cesar the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at the White House.
He liked to say his job as an organizer was helping ordinary people do extraordinary things. Cesar made everyone, especially the farm workers, feel the jobs they were doing in the movement were important. It didn't matter if they were lawyers working in the courtroom or cooking to feed the people in the strike kitchen.
He showed the farm workers they could win against great odds, even if they were poor and weren't able to go to school. By giving people faith helping them believe in themselves Cesar succeeded where so many others failed for 100 years to organize farm workers. That is why he was able to do the impossible by challenging, and overcoming, the awesome power of one of California's richest industries.
Cesar Chavez's common man with an uncommon vision stood for equality, justice, and dignity for all Americans. His universal principles remain as relevant and inspiring today for all people as they were when he was alive.
“There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.”
“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart.”
“Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.”
“Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.”
“Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak... Non-violence is hard work.”
“We know we cannot be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them -- exploiting animals in the name of science, exploiting animals in the name of sport, exploiting animals in the name of fashion, and yes, exploiting animals in the name of food.”
“We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves.”
“I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry and unhappy like we do. I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings.”
“Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.”
“Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people. ”
“You are never strong enough that you don't need help.”
“When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines the kind of men we are.”
“Our lives are all that really belong to us, so it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are”
“When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering, and caring for his own family, the whole community of man is sick.”
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.Cesar ChavezAddress to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Nov. 9, 1984 ”
“Since I had the inclinatation and the training, helping people came naturally. I wasn't thinking in terms of organizing members, but just a duty that I had to do. That goes back to my mother's training. It was not until later that I realized that this was a good organizing tool, although maybe unconsciously, I was already beggining to understand. But I was used by people for a long time until I wised up. It wasn't that they wanted to do it, but that I was not prepared or able to tell them what to do in return. My work was just another war on poverty gimick, which is what happens when people are given everything and don't give anything in return. you can't mold them into any action. Well, one night it just hit me. Once you helped people, most became very loyal. The people who helped us back when we wanted volunteers were the people we had helped. So I began to get a group of those people around me. Once I realized helping people was an organizing technique, I increased that work. I was willing to work all day and night and go to hell and back for people- provided they also did something for the CSO in return. I never felt bad asking for that. It didn't contradict my parents' teachings, because I wasn't asking for something for myself. For a long time we didn't know how to put that work together into an organization. But we learned after a while- we learned how to help people by making them responsible. Today it's the same principle with the Union. And it works. We don't get everybody, but we get enough to get that nucleus. I think solving problems for people is the only way to build solid groups.”
“The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.”