Cesar Chavez
Si Se Puede
24 x 30 inches • oil on wood panel • artist Steve Simon
Biography
About the Painting
Selected Quote
Overview
Cesar Chavez was born March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona. In 1939, the Chavez family lost their home and traveled to California in search of farm work. Chavez would eventually rise up as a labor leader for exploited farm workers. Together with Dolores Huerta, they founded the National Farm Workers Association (later UFW). Like many activists, Chavez was inspired by Gandhi. Chavez used nonviolent civil disobedience including boycotts, strikes, marches, and hunger strikes to advance his efforts. In a move similar to Gandhi’s March to the Sea, Chavez and the UFW marched from Delano to Sacramento in what became a successful drive for higher wages for farm workers. His efforts helped improve the lives of tens of thousands of workers.
Cesar Chavez Biography
Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona into a Mexican American family. He and his five siblings grew up in the years following the Great Depression. Like hundreds of thousands of others at the time, the Chavez family led an itinerant existence, chasing farm work that left them vulnerable to exploitation.
The miserable working and living conditions Cesar Chavez endured led him to action. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Works Association, which would later become the United Farm Workers Union. La Causa, or The Cause, that Chavez was dedicated to was more than just labor rights. It was about humanity and his deep and humble connection with his fellow man. In addition to fighting for living wages and better working conditions, he also warned of the dangers of pesticides and advocated for greater access to education, housing, and healthcare. His efforts often caused the powerful agribusiness interests to react violently against him and his associates.
Chavez confronted an array of bewildering legal barriers in his path. Agricultural workers were omitted from the protection of two important labor laws. First, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, which forbade employers from firing a worker for joining, organizing, or supporting a labor union did not apply to farm workers. Secondly, The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which guaranteed a minimum wage and overtime pay for American workers, also did not apply to farm workers.
Chavez and Huerta fought tirelessly against these injustices. They would eventually become successful in improving pay and working conditions for farmworkers in California, Florida, Texas, and Arizona. Tragically, however, farmworkers are still largely excluded from the federal protections laid down by the NLRA and FLSA.
Cesar Chavez Memorial, sculpted by Ignacio Gomez, San Fernando, CA
photo credit: Chris English
The hallmark of the movement was the ethic of nonviolence. Chavez, like Martin Luther King, Jr., found great inspiration in Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent social change. Like Gandhi, Chavez was very effective in drawing attention to his causes with marches, boycotts, and hunger strikes.
In 1988, at the age of 61, Chavez endured the last of his many fasts. This “Fast for Life,” lasting thirty-six days, was meant to bring public attention to the harmful effects of pesticides on farmworkers and their children. Sadly, the fast took a toll as his health began to decline in the months and years following.
Chavez died on April 23, 1993, in San Luis, Arizona, not far from his birthplace. His funeral services were held in Delano, California—the city from which he had launched a historic nonviolent march in the name of La Causa. In excess of 50,000 people attended to pay tribute to this uncommon, common man. He is buried at the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, California.
About the Painting
In the late 1930s, Frank Ross (left) was placed in charge of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Migratory Labor Camp in Arvin, California. It is the same camp John Steinbeck wrote about in The Grapes of Wrath. The bleak, poverty-stricken conditions at Arvin and 25 other such camps that Ross eventually oversaw left a deep impact on him. The experience motivated him to become a community organizer for the plight of exploited workers.
It was Ross who recruited Dolores Huerta (center) and Cesar Chavez (right) to organize farmworkers. Clearly, Ross had an eye for talent. Huerta—a woman in a misogynist environment, and Chavez—a dark-skinned, poorly educated Chicano were extremely unlikely candidates to take on the powerful agricultural industry that freely used violence to smash attempts to organize its workers.
Through training received from Ross and through his belief in Gandhi’s theories of nonviolent social change, Chavez provided unique leadership for the United Farm Workers (UFW) he and Huerta organized. A deeply spiritual man, Chavez imbued many La Causa initiatives with a kind of pilgrimage quality that resonated with his Mexican brethren.
The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a recognized symbol of Catholic Mexicans and a unifying Mexican national symbol, was present at many of the UFW events. On March 17, 1966, Cesar Chavez led 77 grape workers on a march from Delano to Sacramento in protest of years of poor pay and inhumane working conditions. A banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe integrated with the UFW logo led the way. Crowds of marchers joined en route. By the time, the procession arrived in Sacramento, the group numbered 10,000 strong.
The march was part of what would become a sustained, five-year effort of various nonviolent tactics. The debacle concluded with the UFW gaining the first contract between the agricultural industry and farmworkers in U.S. history.
Selected Cesar Chavez Quote
“It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life.”
