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Cesar Estrada Chavez Biography

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Cesar Estrada Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona, United States as a son of poor Mexican immigrants. While growing up during the Great Depression, the small farm his family owned was foreclosed when he was ten, and the family had no other choice than to join the hordes of migrant workers who followed the harvests in California in search of work. In California, Cesar’s parents worked long, tiring hours in the farm field, but barely had enough money to supply for him and his siblings— the Chavez children did not receive a proper education. Cesar went to about 35 different segregated schools (Contemporary Hispanic Biography) until the seventh grade to work and help support his parents. While working in the farm field, Cesar gained understanding of the exploitation migrant workers were facing for years due to poverty, ignorance, and racism. This influenced Cesar’s cause to fight for the rights and freedoms of farm workers’ wages and working conditions through efforts in joining grassroots unions and using boycotts as a nonviolent weapon against crop growers.

Even though Cesar …show more content…

His leadership and commitment to social justice had inspired the whole nation and changed how Americans thought about farm workers. Cesar even gained recognition from Martin Luther King, Jr. who sent him a telegram saying, "Our separate struggles are really one. A struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity "(Tavaana). After Cesar’s death in 1993 in San Luis, Arizona, Cesar was granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton (The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives). Cesar Chávez became a legend in our nation’s history being responsible for many of the labor rights we see today as well as worker’s protection, benefits and the basic rights to

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