Cesar Chavez
Chavez: A journey of nonviolence as inspired by Mohandas Gandhi
Part 1- Chavez Biography
Cesar Chávez was a civil rights activist who used many gandhian methods such as non-violence in order to promote labor unions for migrant farm workers in California. Cesar Estrada Chávez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona. Chávez was born in an adobe home, where he was raised. Chaves was one of five children born to Librado Chávez and Juana Estrada Chávez.
Chávez learned about injustice early in his life. Cesar's father, Librado Chávez agreed to clear eighty acres of land and in exchange he would receive the deed to forty acres of land next their home. The agreement was broken and the land was sold to someone else. Librado Chávez went to a lawyer who advised him to borrow money and buy the land. Librado Chávez could not pay the interest on the loan after a while and the lawyer bought back the land and sold it to the original owner.
Duncan West speaking with Cesar Chavez. The Delano...
Cesar Chavez at the Delano UFW rally.
Figure 1After their home and land was taken, the Chávez family moved to California to become migrant farm workers. The Chávez family faced many hardships in California, including, sleeping by the side of the road and moving from farm to farm in order to work the next harvest. The Chavez family worked in the fields of California from Brawley to Oxnard, Atascadero, Gonzales, King City, Salinas, McFarland, Delano, Wasco, Selma, Kingsburg, and Mendota. The family would pick peas and lettuce in the winter, cherries and beans in the spring, corn and grapes in the summer and cotton in the fall.
Chavez attended school 38 different schools because of the family's constant moving. Chavez did not like school as a child. The teachers were mostly Anglo and only spoke English. Spanish was...