Moral Courage and Cesar Chavez Today in 2018 California’s minimum salary wage for migrant workers is about $5-6 an hour. In the 1930’s they were paid from $0.60- 1.00 per hundred pounds offered by growers. Leaving his job in Arizona Cesar Chavez moved to California to dedicate his life to improving the treatment, pay and working conditions. By examining cesar chavez’s moral courage, how he relates to Elie Wiesel, and how and why he impacted me it is clear that Cesar Chavez was an important man. Moral Courage, the courage to take action for moral reasons in spite of the risk of unfavorable consequences. And that is exactly what Chavez had while helping migrant workers. He risked his life going on hunger strikes and fasting. “It is believed that Chavez’s hunger strike contributed to his death” (Cesar Chavez Biography, A&E Television Networks, 2017). Cesar said about the fast, “A fast is first and foremost personal, it is a fast for the purification of my own body, mind, and soul. The fast is also a heartfelt for purification and strengthening for all those who work beside me in the farm work movement (The Story of Cesar Chavez, Union Farm Workers, 2018). He was a strong, brave man who lead non violent strikes, and lead marches . Their first national boycott was against california grape growers in 1968 (Cesar Chavez Biography, A&E Television Network, 2017). “Even in the face of threats and actual violence, be it from police or other unions, such as the Teamsters,
Featured by his nonviolent actions (boycotts, pickets, and strikes), Chavez accomplished his last fight in 1988, in a 36-day fast. Risking his life, he inspired people who supported to believe in a world of equality. Furthermore, Chavez accomplishments brought a new community and environment to Mexican
Cesar Chavez had a great pride towards everything he stood for, whether it was his catholic beliefs or protecting his fellow man from the oppressor. Growing up in America, Cesar Chavez witnessed discrimination from being Mexican first hand. By growing up in a family oriented catholic home, he was raised to care about the well being of others and to approach life in a nonviolent manner. Having a father who was a farmer, he witnessed the poor living conditions and wages that were given to him and knew that something had to be done. Cesar Chavez’s fight for improving working conditions for farmers helped him gather a large following of Mexican Americans.
Cesar Chavez was a great role model and activist for farmers with bad working conditions. He stood up to large fruit-growing organizations who would not provide well-paying jobs to local citizens. For his actions, he was given numerous awards. Cesar was born near Yuma, Arizona in 1927. He was the second of five children.
Cesar’s religious and spiritual perspective enabled him to unite people to reform the farm workers’ lifestyle. He created his own myths in order to gain millions of support from people who are either inside the struggle or outside of it. Cesar’s myth of nonviolence swayed the mass that money, weapons, and power are not needed to invoke change, but only commitment and patience are needed. His “militant nonviolence” style led many farm workers into believing and seeing Cesar’s vision that the struggle is possible to achieve. Through nonviolence comes self-sacrifice.
He never gave up and made sure they would win no matter the cost. In the end i think it's pretty clear why cesar chavez was a successful leader he possessed all the leading qualities and knew what to do in a time like that. He was a brave courageous guy with a goal to better the world for other people. He put others above himself and that's what made him such a great
The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. devastated a large majority of people around the world. His works of nonviolent acts against racism motivated many, including civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, to solve matters without resorting to inhumane behaviors. Inspired by Dr. King Jr.’s work, Chavez and his union of labor workers devoted themselves to helping those in need through peaceful protests. Similar methods are proven to be successful; Mahatma Gandhi, for instance, gained a great deal of supporters because of his pacifism and tranquil methods of boycotting against British domination. Despite brutal and savage methods of persuasion slowly gaining support, Chavez proves that nonviolent actions are superior; he does so by using ethos in order to uphold moral standards, logos (in reference to the past), and pathos to appeal to the emotions of his audience.
One of Chavez’s most well-known protests is the Delano Grape Strike. Chavez is well known for this individual strike because he was specifically asked from the Filipinos, who were the peoples that were affected so they started the strike because of bad pay (90 cents an hour) and horrible working conditions. Cesar accepted the invitation from the Filipinos because he felt as though this strike could have been helpful towards his protesting causes. This strike focused on the pay, working conditions, and the land owner’s violent actions towards the farm workers. Cesar new the fight for these rights was not going to end anytime soon.
Cesar went on a 25 hunger strike to encourage others in his movement against grape growers.. In Document C there is a photograph of Robert Kennedy sitting next to Cesar, the reason for this was having his support would give Chavez more attention about what he was doing. Chavez was willing to sacrifice and die of starvation to prove his point across the world. He began to boycott against California table grapes. In Document D it shows that Cesar “signed a contract with 26 major grape growers in the area, an act that meant some 75 per cent of the state’s growers have now been organized by the UFW.”
In the text his main purpose was to persuade farm workers not to use violence to get their (farm workers) demands met, and boycott grape farms. In doing so the farmers would have to give in to demands of labor leaders. However, due to the struggles of others Throughout his speech there is a determined and insistent tone.
The audience that Chavez is addressing is very familiar with Dr. King, and the troubles he went through so it is not hard at all to relate to the audience with ideas of Martin Luther King. “ Nonviolence provides the opportunity to stay on the offensive, and that is a crucial importance to win any contest.” With subject of violent an nonviolent means is so important to almost everyone that it makes almost everyone stand on their toes. With the subject Chavez does a good job of stating “we” instead of “I” because of
Years back, migrant farm workers worked the fields of California in horrible conditions such as no breaks and pesticide exposure. Years before that, poor children had to work in factories and mills, losing fingers from accidents as they live off of stale bread and coffee. But two people were able to help these people from the unfair treatment they were up against, Cesar Chavez and Mother Jones. Both were able to give their people a better life to their people, later on or during their lifetime. “About Cesar” is a biography by the Cesar Chavez Foundation (CCF) about the life of Cesar Chavez when he learned the difficulties of migrant farm workers and later on creates a union, helping those farm workers stand up and fight for themselves and
On November 9, 1984, many people gathered with Cesar Chavez in San Francisco, California as he addressed the Commonwealth Club of California. The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit organization and the nation’s oldest public affairs forum that puts together events dealing with politics, culture, society, and the economy. Cesar Chavez was a remarkable union leader, labor organizer, and civil rights advocate who was known for dedicating his life to helping others, particularly farm workers. Chavez’s main concern in addressing the Commonwealth Club of California was the treatment of farm workers. He spoke against the injustices they endured related to labor and living conditions.
Mexican-American Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) is known as an American farm worker, a prominent union leader, labor organizer, and a civil rights activist. By having much experience since he was a migrant worker when he was very young, Chavez with another co-founder created The National Farm Workers Association in 1962 that later became United Farm Workers. As a union leader, his union and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee made their first strike against grape growers in California. Having been through many hardships as a migrant farm worker, the Latino American civil rights activist led marches, called for boycotts, and made strikes to raise and recover conditions for farm workers. His contributions led to numerous improvements for
It contains a series of interviews conducted by Bob Fitch with Cesar Chavez. It focuses on the grape boycott of California and the tactics Chavez used. Bob Fitch visited Cesar Chavez and the farm workers and explained their plight. The words of the workers were important in supporting the thesis of this research. This article focuses on why Chavez did what he did, why he took matters into his own hands, and risked everything he had to help the migrant farm workers.
“Si, Se Puede” or “Yes, You Can” helped Cesar stand up for human rights by believing anything is possible. Nelson Mandela did all he could to stop segregation in South Africa. Cesar Chavez did all he could to help farm workers have better rights. Both Cesar and Nelson did all they could to help their community and never gave up. They impacted the world with their big efforts.