During the great depression the Chavez family struggled to hold on to their home. Along with the droughts, in 1937 the family lost their farm and moved all around the southwest to find work in the fields and in 1938 moved to California to become migrant workers. Being migrant workers the family moved from farm to farm which made getting an education difficult for Cesar Chavez growing up and his parents had very low wages and poor housing in migrant worker camps.In their first year of working his parents earned $300 dollars and were living in places that had no running water, electricity, or bathrooms raising their five children
At the age of 15 Cesar Chavez's father was injured in a car accident and not wanting his mother to start working he decided to leave school and earn money for his family along with his siblings full time. It was during his work as a migrant worker that he saw first hand how his people were being exploited by the owners and contractors and voiced his opinions and demanded higher wages and better working conditions on their behalf. The other workers fearing they may lose their jobs if they joined him stayed quiet. In 1944 he joined the navy and served as a deck hand in the western pacific and was discharged in 1946.
16-year-old Cesar Chavez in the navy ca.1946
In 1947 Cesar joined the National Agricultural Workers Union which was a group of workers joining together to seek fair treatment and better pay. In 1948 he married Helen Fabela who shared his social concerns. Together they helped teach migrant workers to read and write to pass their test and achieve US citizenship. Helen did have to through many obstacles herself when she first married Cesar Chavez and then later on when her husband was becoming known nationwide. When she first married she wasn't able to cook as she had spent her entire life working in the fields to help her family but did learn as time went on. In the Chavez household, even after her husband achieved fame, Helen’s personality created an atmosphere anchored by humility and a regular home life. She endured bomb threats, around-the-clock security at her home, harassment of her children in the schools and the scarcities that came from Cesar’s voluntary poverty.
Helen alongside Robert Kennedy and Cesar Chavez ca.1968
http://www.imahero.com/is/bios/cesarchavez.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez
http://www.history.com/topics/cesar-chavez
This is a very interesting post. I enjoyed reading about Chavez's life because we don't see his background in class. It is also interesting to note that he had gained experiences in his life of how the people were treated like and it helped him understand the people better and therefore appealed to them better.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing summary of who Cesar Chaves is. Many people know who he is and what he believed in, however they do not know the struggles him and his family went through. Cesar Chavez and his wife are very admirable because although they were threatened, harassed, and took many risks, they stood for what they believed was important and gave others hope.
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