Cesar Chavez

1
Cesar Chavez
2
Early Life

• Born in Arizona
• His grandfather immigrated from Mexico in order
  to escape slavery
• His parents owned a farm and a store. They lost
  the store during the Great Depression and became
  migrant farm workers.
• His family traveled from place to place
  harvesting the vegetables.
• He started working full time in the fields after
  he finished the 8th grade.

3
Contributions

• While working in the fields, he also worked to
  provide safety rules and more pay for the
  workers.
• As director for the Community Service
  Organization (CSO), he worked to get workers to
  register to vote.
• He left the CSO to organize a farm union, United
  Farm Workers of America (UFW)
• Members of the farm union organized strikes and
  boycotts when their requests for more pay and
  better safety rules were ignored. Eventually laws
  were changed to provide better conditions and
  more pay for the workers.
• Cesar Chavez received the Presidential US Medal
  of Freedom for his achievements for workers
  rights.

4
Social Barriers/Restrictions/Obstacles

• Cesar Chavez did not give up even though he had
  to travel from place to place and had attended 65
  different schools by the time he was in 8th
  grade.

5
Travels

• Born in Arizona
• Left the southwest region to find work along the
  Pacific coast in California

6
Character Traits/Timeline

• Cesar Chavez showed diligence and leadership.
• Cesar Chavezs belief in justice led him to work
  to help bring change for farm workers.

7

• 1927 Chavez Born
• 1938 Became migrant farm worker
• 1946 Enlists in Navy
• 1948 Gets Married
• 1952 Joins CSO
• 1962 Founded NFWA
• 1966 UFW Formed
• 1968 Chavez leads grape boycott
• 1972 24 day fast
• 1988 36 day fast against pesticides
• 1993 Chavez dies
• 1994 Chavezs wife accepts Medal of Freedom