Happy Belated Birthday Cesar Chavez!
May your struggle for quality and justice be reignited.
César Estrada Chávez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona, in a Mexican-American family of six children. He was named after his grandfather, Cesario. Chávez grew up in a small adobe home, the same home in which he was born. His family owned a grocery store and a ranch, but their land was lost during the Great Depression. Chávez experienced injustice early in life; his home was taken away after his father had agreed to clear eighty acres of land in exchange for the deed to the house, an agreement which was subsequently broken. Later when Cesar's father attempted to purchase the house, he could not pay the interest on the loan and the house was sold to its original owner. His family then moved to California to become migrant farm workers.
The Chávez family faced many hardships in California. 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. Working conditions for migrant workers were poor and often unsafe, and their wages were low. Cesar's family frequently lacked access to such basic needs as clean water or toilets. Because a large number of migrant workers were Mexican-American, they also often faced prejudice, and their children had to skip school to earn wages to help support the family. When César was a teenager, he and his older sister Rita would help other farm workers and neighbors by driving those unable to drive to the hospital to see a doctor.
Although he was a bright student, Chávez faced difficulty in school due to prejudice. His family spoke only Spanish at home, and his teachers forbade him from speaking the language at school. At one time, Chávez was hit on the knuckles with a ruler for violating this rule. Also at school, he constantly faced hearing racial slurs. In 1942, he graduated from eighth grade. He did not want his mother to have to work in the fields, so he never attended high school, instead dropping out to become a full-time migrant farm worker. In 1944 he joined the United States Navy at the age of seventeen and served for two years. Later, Chávez described his experience in the military as “the two worst years of my life.” When Chávez returned home from his service in the military, he married his high school sweetheart, Helen Favela. The couple moved to San Jose, California, where they would have seven children: Fernando, Linda, Paul, Eloise, Sylvia and Anthony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Ch%C3%A1vez
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
