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Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th to October 15 every year. We are honoring Hispanic contributions through the legacy of Cesar Chavez, an important leader in the worker’s movement.
Cesar Chavez was born in 1927 on a small farm outside of Yuma, Arizona. When he was 11, Cesar’s family lost their farm during the Great Depression, and they became migrant farm workers.
In 1952, Chavez began training under Fred Ross, a legendary community leader who was creating the Community Service Organization (the CSO), the largest Hispanic civil rights group of the era. For 10 years, Chavez worked on ‘get-out-the-vote’ campaigns against racial and economic discrimination while creating new chapters for CSO across California. However, Chavez’ dream was to organize farm workers — and give back to the community from which he came, despite the failures of countless experts in political organizing to unite farm workers for over a century.
On his birthday on March 31, 1962, Chavez resigned from the CSO and with $1,200 in savings he founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with 10 members. Their chant, “Si Se Puede” (Yes, We Can) would become famous and continue Chavez’s legacy for generations to come, even being used in Democratic Presidential Campaigns. The NFWA would later become the United Farm Workers of America. With Chavez as its leader, the UFWA would grow tremendously, establishing the first successful farm workers union in American history. Chavez himself turned down more lucrative opportunities to live a life of self-imposed poverty.
Because of Chavez’s dedication to the welfare of migrant workers, in September of 1965, the NFWA was able to launch strikes alongside the Agricultural Works Organizing Committee (AWOC), a Filipino-American labor group, against California grape growers. The strike lasted 5 years and created a national boycott against California grapes. Chavez’s influence was instrumental in creating support for this campaign, leading a 340-mile march in 1966 and a 25-day hunger-strike in 1968, both of which were highly publicized.
Since Chavez’s death in 1993, hundreds of public schools, parks, libraries, and streets have been named after him. In 1994, President Clinton posthumously awarded Cesar Chavez the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil honor in the nation. This year, on March 28, 2024, President Biden declared March 31 Cesar Chavez Day.
But what did he do to help Hispanic heritage month
Roberto,
Thank you for your comment. Hispanic Heritage Month celebration began in 1968 under president Lyndon Johnson. At the time, Cesar Chavez was a huge figure in the Hispanic community promoting worker strikes for better pay and conditions (1960s), and worked against the Republican push for voter suppression (1950s). His work alone was quite famous then and it help promote the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month. He was celebrated and continues to be celebrated. Although there isn’t much research on what sort of activities he led for Hispanic Heritage Month specifically, his activism was a year round endeavor – spanning decades.