Cesar Chavez was an American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union. He was born in Yuma, Arizona to a Mexican-American family and began his working life as a manual laborer before spending two years in the United States Navy. After relocating to California, he got involved in the Community Service Organization (CSO), through which he helped laborers register to vote. In 1959, he became the CSOs national director, a position based in Los Angeles.
Chavez emphasized direct nonviolent tactics, including pickets and boycotts, to pressure farm owners to improve working conditions and wages for farm workers. He founded the National Farm Workers Association with 10 members, which later became the United Farm Workers of America. Chavez and the union sought recognition of the importance and dignity of all farm workers, and he trained his union workers and then sent many of them into the cities where they were to use the boycott and picket as their weapon. He also organized strikes and nationwide boycotts of agricultural products in order to help workers.
Chavez dedicated his life to making the world a better place and to serving others. He continued to work to bring respect, dignity, justice, and fair treatment to the poor, to farm workers, and to people everywhere. He died on April 23, 1993, at the age of sixty-six, and is remembered as a man of courage.
