An American hero, César Chávez was a civil rights, Latino and farm labor leader who changed the lives of farm workers and inspired millions of others. He was born on the small family farm his grandfather homesteaded near Yuma, Arizona, but his family became migrant farm workers across California after losing the farm during the Great Depression. César was later a community organizer and then began what became the United Farm Workers in 1962. With other co-founders including Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong, for 31 years César led strikes, marches, boycotts, organizing drives and political campaigns, and conducted long public fasts for nonviolence and against dangerous pesticide. Also in the 1960s, he helped found what today is the César Chávez Foundation to remedy the crippling dilemmas farm workers, poor Latinos and working families faced in their communities. He also championed environmental, women’s and animal rights and LGBTQ causes. He is buried at Keene, Calif. in what today is the César E. Chávez National Monument, part of the National Park Service. His lessons about nonviolence, self-sacrifice and service to others remain relevant today.
