When
he was ten years old, Cesar Chavez's family lost their farm in Arizona, and they
became migrant farm workers, traveling across California and the American Southwest.
When Cesar Chavez finished the eighth grade, his father was injured, so he dropped
out of school to support the family as a full-time migrant worker. At an early
age, he saw the discrimination and difficult conditions for very little pay that
migrant workers faced. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Cesar Chavez
returned to working in the fields and began to help organize farm workers to speak
out for their rights. In 1962 he helped found the National Farmworkers Association,
which later became the United Farm Workers union (UFW). Using nonviolent methods
such as pickets, strikes and national boycotts as well as fasting to gain national
attention, Cesar Chavez and the UFW were able to help change labor laws giving
more rights to farm workers. The year after he died, he was posthumously awarded
the highest American civilian award - the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
Bill Clinton who stated, "The farm workers who labored in the fields and yearned
for respect and self sufficiency pinned their hopes on this remarkable man who,
with faith and discipline, soft spoken humility and amazing inner strength, led
a very courageous life." Cesar Chavez's life is a heroic example for all who work
nonviolently for social change.
