We moved to California and it's, hey, you've got to go and hustle for your life, otherwise you don't survive. So it was hard, I mean it was very hard at the beginning. They were called fruit tramps, mostly minorities.
They flooded the fields in desperate search of work. The Chavez family was not prepared for the humiliation and poverty of migrant life. We lived under a tent.
We were lucky, if not, we lived under a tree. And we just put her under a tree there, you know, that's where we lived. Because the growers didn't have houses for the people that worked.
Caesar watched as his father... was turned away from stores and restaurants that would not serve Mexican Americans. He saw his mother grow old in the fields and while the family harvested the food that fed others, they often went hungry.
He talked about growing up being a young man without any skills and not and really without much hope for the future and he talked about that feeling of uselessness you know What am I going to be? At 17, he joined the Navy and served. in the South Pacific.
After the war, Caesar returned to California and discovered something far more interesting to follow than the crops, the big bands. He sported a zoot suit, took up smoking, and gained a reputation as a ladies' man until he met Helen Fabella. My mother was from Delano.
She was working at a gas station, a people's market, which is still there in Delano. And my dad came in for gas, and that's when they first started meeting. now for From there, you know, there's variations of the story. My father swears that my mother used to give him free gas so that he would take her out, but she denies it to this day.
Helen and Cesar were married in 1948 and moved to a rough neighborhood on the east side of San Jose. With no other possibilities, Cesar went back to work in the fields. He found himself in the same bleak conditions he had hoped to leave behind.
Cesar and I used to talk about this, that something had to be done about the situation of the Mexican-Americans. and that, you know, that we were in bad shape. We had no political power and we had no voice, in other words.
And somebody had to do something about this. Caesar knew something had to be done, but he didn't know where to begin until he met Fred Ross. We were a little skeptical about him, you know, because any time that a white person came to us is because he wanted to sell us something, insurance or family portrait or a saint, you know, statue of a saint or something like that, you know.
Fred Ross was to change Caesar's life forever. He was working for the Community Service Organization, or CSO, and was in search of new leaders in the Mexican-American community. The night Fred Ross met Caesar Chavez, he wrote in his journal, I think I've found the guy I've been looking for.
He was impressed with him right away. He didn't have a whole lot of formal education, but he had a very hungry mind and a very quick mind. With Fred as his mentor, Caesar spent the next ten years learning how to become a grassroots organizer.
He registered voters, gave citizenship classes, and found his calling as a community leader. Fred was a great teacher, and he and Caesar together were the most incredible team. It was like magic.
After a decade of work, Cesar decided to apply what he had learned in the CSO and take it to the fields. He wanted to improve conditions for farm workers like himself. Cesar counted on help from other Mexican-American leaders, among them, DeLonghi. Loris Huerta, who would work with him for the rest of his life. Because Caesar's dream, which is his dream until he died, is that the farm workers would have their own union, with their own indigenous leadership, and it would be directed by farm workers.
At 35, with no money and eight children to support, he quit his job with the CSO and moved to Delano, California, to begin the National Farm Workers Association. We're fighting for recognition for Chintzina, the real Getser. And so... I heard about this little Mexican guy who was going around doing something called organizing under the National Farm Workers Association. What a futile effort.
You know, it was really... I mean, you had to do it. admire the guy, but how unrealistic. Everybody had tried to organize farm labor.
In 1965, few people in the small town of Delano had heard the word huelga, or strike in Spanish. Over the years, farm Farm workers had made several attempts to fight for their rights, to get decent wages and working conditions. But those efforts had always been undermined by the growers, who controlled the industry and depended on cheap labor.
And they got the crap beat out of them. You know, these were really violent, violent reactions, the vigilante kind of things. They burned the camps out, they shot, they killed people. And so here's a guy named Cesar Chavez who's going to change this?
all by himself, working out of his garage in Kensington Street. That was naive. We didn't know. Organizing farm workers was a difficult task.
When Caesar led his first protest, he got little support. You walk out of the fields, you're going to lose your job. What is there else is there? And those little battles went on in every family. I mean, who is this guy Cesar Chavez?
I mean, is he going to put, is he going to buy shoes for our kids? Is he going to put bread on the table? You're going to get fired, you know, this is not a simple thing.
It was Filipino in breakwater. who initiated the first effective strike in Delano. They walked off the fields protesting low wages, and Caesar's Association gladly joined them on the picket lines.
Come on! Hey, comrade! Growers initially dismissed the protest as a minor incident that would soon pass. But it became evident that this time the farm workers were more determined and better organized than ever before.
Come on up, brothers! We are waiting for you! You are earning more money today because the workers here were not on strike on September the 9th, and they are still not on strike.
We shall not be moved just like a tree that's standing by the water. We are not... Caesar's leadership was taking hold. And now workers were saying, we want to be negotiated with as equals, and that was tough.
And race was certainly a part of it. I mean, gosh. Sit down across the table with these, you know, farm workers? These, you know, these Mexicans?
These inferiors? There's these, like, you know, give me a... break not in my lifetime when you were exploited so much you begin to accept the exploitation it's awful it's awful it defeats you your self-esteem is crushed that's why the first time I heard Caesar speak it made me feel like we're important people too they love Caesar not because he was a great speaker because he wasn't Not because he was some kind of a saint, because he wasn't that either.
They loved him because he pulled the best from them and put it to work. We're very happy to be here today, and we feel that what we have brought to Mr. Chavez is little less compared to what we will take back, the spirit of your people. Thank you very much. Caesar's message essentially was that the victims have power.
The victims have responsibility to use their power to end their victim status. It is a way of saying that slave masters don't retire. The slaves have to change their minds. A real strike began to materialize.
Growers felt threatened. Those associated with Chavez were fired. A lady was fired this morning. 24 years.
And they were told they didn't know. If they didn't sign, they were going to be fired. Scab workers were bussed in.
For the first time, growers were questioned about migrant working conditions. What do you think of the idea of a union for farm workers? I think it's a... ridiculous.
Do you think that without a union the farm workers can improve their condition? It has been done right here, quite a bit. Is this camp evidence of that? This camp is greatly improved than the last year, since I have been here.
Would you want to live in this camp? I wouldn't live here. You know, you're being very impudent with I want to live here. This is, I call, an impudent question. We'll be rich off of you poor people.
Oh my God, they'll, they'll bundle about that chicken. Counter protests were organized. Caesar was accused... of being an outside agitator, a troublemaker, and a communist. Mothers Against Chavez took to the streets.
Local authorities banned the word huelga in the town of Delano. The strikers were taken to jail, only to be immediately released. The tactics used to sustain the strike had never been seen before. Caesar gave the workers an identity. His association began printing a weekly newspaper, formed a food co-op to help migrant families, and carried a flag.
as a symbol of its defiance, its strength, and its unity. Caesar was innovative, daring, and he attracted others with a similar spirit. And you'd be surprised, you'd be surprised at the number of things that can happen. Luis Valdez, who, like Caesar, had spent his youth in the fields, joined the strike and created the Farm Workers' Theater, or Teatro Campesino. Caesar made it very clear to me when I first discussed the Teatro Campesino with him that there were no acts.
and delay. No, there was no money, there was no theater, no place to rehearse, no nothing. And I said, that's okay.
You know, we can get very angry. We can get very angry about this. You know, how can they do this?
There are laws against this, but there's a way to get back at them, and that's to make fun of them. We still claim that there are reds and agitators. Now, now, hold on.
Hold on. Among you Mexicans. the idea that you could satirize the growers was actually a very important part of the liberation. You know, when you can laugh at something, you're no longer afraid of it, or at least you can deal with it. I know what's good for you.
I know what's good for all of you people. That's why I want to tell you right now that there is no strike. No! Look, I love you all, Mexican people.
I love you. I love it. Viva the United States of America! Viva! Viva Mexico!
Viva! Viva Cesar Chavez! Viva!
With the strike, Delano joined Samoa in the March for Social Justice. Church leaders, students, and civil rights workers flocked to the San Joaquin Valley from across the nation, bringing food, manpower, and spiritual support. On the 100th day of the strike, the farm workers received the first sign of union solidarity. Walter Ruther, president of the United Auto Workers, joined the strike and led farm workers in a march through the middle of Delano.
We can no longer keep silent. With the drama of the strike gathering national attention, Congress held hearings throughout California on the status and conditions of migratory farm labor. Caesar testified, and it was at these hearings...
is that he found his most powerful political supporter, Senator Robert F. Kennedy. They had all sides brought in, and they all got up and were giving the usual, it was a dog and pony show, the way you started out. But Bobby Kennedy started asking, some questions.
And then you go out and arrest them? Absolutely. And charge them?
Charge them. What do you charge them with? Violating unlawful assembly. I think that that's the most interesting.
Who told you that they're going to riot? I, the men right out in the field that they were talking to said if you don't get them out of here, we're going to cut their hearts out. So rather than let them get cut, you remove the cause.
This is not. So in Alabama, this is... Senator, could I finish just my question here? I mean, this is the most interesting concept, I think, that you suddenly hear or talk about the fact that somebody makes a report about somebody's going to get out of order, perhaps violate the law.
and you go in and arrest them, they haven't done anything wrong. How can you go arrest somebody if they haven't violated the law? They're ready to violate the law. In other words... Could I suggest in the interim period of time, in the luncheon period of time, that the sheriff and the district attorney read the Constitution of the United States?
He went to the union hall at that point and again a large crowd of farm workers and he declared himself as a supporter of the strike of the farm workers union. We're going to try to improve not just your lives, but more importantly... importantly, the lives of your children.
The day after the Congressional hearings in Delano, Caesar began a march to Sacramento, a 300-mile march. pilgrimage, a religious procession that started with 75 people and lasted for 29 days. Farm workers, men, women, and children would march for a day or two to show their support.
The numbers grew. It was a unique and powerful sight. By the time the march reached Sacramento, more than 10,000 farm workers and supporters had gathered to meet the California government.
Governor Pat Brown never showed up, but the march had vividly dramatized the plight of the farm workers. What had begun as a small picket line had been transformed into a movement. Cesar Chavez had formed what many now called La Causa, or The Cause. I don't see the answer to our problem in riots. So my slogan is not burn, baby, burn.
My slogan is build, baby, build. Organize, baby, organize. Learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.
Way not slow. The 60s were a time of great social and political unrest. Despite the best efforts of civil rights leaders, things were becoming increasingly violent. After three years on strike with little visible progress, many in the farm workers' movement were swayed in that direction.
Everything that the system was doing was encouraging Chicanos to react the way the system was reacting to youth. There were some macho types floating around the union that thought non-violence was for sissies. Caesar didn't like violence from two points of view.
He thought it was morally wrong, and he also thought it was incredibly stupid. Because somebody with a cap gun isn't going to beat somebody that's... It's well armed. Escalating incidents of violence were a direct challenge to Caesar's belief in nonviolence and to his leadership.
In an act of personal courage and strength, he fought violence with the strongest weapon at his disposal. He began a long fast that would weaken him physically, but would greatly strengthen the movement. It just taught all of us the true meaning of commitment and what Caesar really believed in and the idea that sacrifice, one needed to sacrifice in order to really bring about change in people's lives and that you had to be willing to demonstrate your own. own sacrifice so that other people would get strength from that.
During Caesar's fast, thousands of farm workers came to pray in one of the largest vigils California had ever seen. Across the state, the violence stopped. On the 25th day, Bobby Kennedy returned to Delano to celebrate Mass with Caesar Chavez.
Over 20,000 prayed together as Caesar took control. communion and broke his fast. It was the largest gathering of farm workers in history. It was a marvelous experience in that it set a very strong tone, a very strong message.
message and it was going out beyond the San Joaquin Valley. I mean there's a momentum here that reaches around the country. With his newfound notoriety Cesar Chavez introduced the country to his most ambitious, daring and ultimately most effective strategy.
We as farm workers have for many generations produced the food that they eat at very cheap wages and very bad working condition very patiently. Now we're saying that as we have said fed them, we want them to in turn feed us by not eating grapes. With the grape boycott, Chavez put pressure where the growers could feel it most, their pocketbooks. Cesar Chavez took all these farm workers, all they'd ever done is farm work. He put them on buses and cars, sent them out throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada.
He told us, you can do the impossible. Your job is to get the grapes off. We're going to give you no money, but you're going to have this great vision of justice.
It was an ambitious and defiant strategy. Chavez had taken the battle from the fields to America's cities, towns, and homes. Do you ever think about the men, women, and children who harvest the fruits and vegetables from America's fields?
We think we're developing the beginning of a very effective consumer boycott. We're pressuring the stores not to sell the grapes. The state of California was the largest producer of table grapes in the world.
Growers represented a powerful industry, and they invested millions and dollars and influence to fight Chavez and his union. Pardon me, sir. Can you help the farm workers today by not shopping at Safeway?
We're picketing here to support the strike of the workers. Appreciate if you could go to another store. Okay. Okay? Thank you very much, sir.
How are the grapes moving? Has there been any activity by these kooks? I know it's vicious.
What's your view of the strike or boycott in the grape industry? Oh, the grape boycott. Well, I've classified that in the past in a number of public accounts. occasions as immoral, and I think it is. Despite the growers' best efforts, grapes had become America's forbidden fruit.
By 1969, 17 million people had stopped buying grapes. Sales were down over 30%. The image of exploited farm workers had crept into America's consciousness, along with Cesar Chavez. All the cooperatives!
In 1970, the growers finally recognized the United Farm Workers and capitulated to demands for decent wages and safer working conditions. It was a major victory for Caesar and the Union. It was the time was right. the place was right, the players were in place, and there's this marvelous guy, Cesar Chavez, who puts it together.
You know, and so the growers had to sit down. They had to sign. It was that or go broke.
And that's what unions are about. The boycott, the strike has been a costly thing, not only to us, but also to the employers. We'll turn around the boycott machinery all over the world to try and make the grapes, all the grapes, sweet grapes again. Have a new relationship.
We're not going to be looking to the past, we're looking to the future. It had been an epic struggle. For the first time in history, the farm workers had power.