Cesar Estrada Chavez was born near Yuma, Arizona on March 31, 1927. Since he was born during the Great Depression his parents could not afford to pay the taxes on their land and became migrant farm workers. As a result, he attended more than 30 different schools and only finished 8 th grade. At the age of 17 he joined the Navy to fight in WWII, and served for two years. After his military service he moved to California, and married Helen Fabela in 1948.
In 1952, Cesar Chavez joined the Community Service Organization (CSO) and became a community organizer. He tried to help fellow farm workers, and encouraged them to vote and become U.S. citizens. Later, he resigned his position and took his life savings of $1,200 and co-founded the National Farm Workers Association.
Cesar Chavez spent most of his life fighting for the rights of farm workers, and is considered one of the greatest civil rights leaders alongside of Martin Luther King Jr. He died on April 23, 1993. Over 50,000 mourners came to pay their respects to the humble man, who Robert F. Kennedy called “One of the heroic figures of our time”. |
