Cesar
Chavez Chronology
"One of the heroic figures of our time." -- Robert F.
Kennedy
1927,
March 31--Cesario Estrada Chavez is born on the small farm near
Yuma, Ariz. that his grandfather homesteaded in the 1880s.
1937--After Cesar's father, Librado, is forced from his farm,
the Chavez family becomes migrant workers in California.
1942--Cesar quits school after the eighth grade and works in the
fields full time to help support his family.
1944--He joins the U.S. Navy during World War II and serves in
the western Pacific. Just before shipping out to the Pacific, Cesar is
arrested in a segregated Delano, Calif. movie theater for sitting in
the "whites only"
section.
1948--Cesar marries Helen Fabela. They eventually have eight
children.
Late 1940s--He begins studying the social teachings of the
Catholic Church.
1952--Community organizer Fred Ross discovers the young farm
worker laboring in apricot orchards outside San Jose, Calif., and
recruits him into the Community Service Organization (CSO).
1952-1962--Together with Fred Ross, Cesar organizers 22 CSO
chapters across California in the 1950s. Under Cesar's leadership, CSO
becomes the most militant and effective Latino civil rights group of
its day. It helps Latinos become citizens, registers them to vote,
battles police brutality and presses for paved streets and other barrio
improvements.
1962, March 31--On his birthday, Cesar resigns from CSO, moves
his wife and eight small children to Delano and dedicates himself
full-time to organizing farm workers.
1962, Sept. 30--The first convention of Cesar's National Farm
Workers Association (NFWA) is convened in Fresno, Calif.
1962-1965--Often baby-sitting his youngest children as he drives
to dozens of farm worker towns, Cesar painstakingly builds up the
membership of his infant union.
1965, Sept. 16--On Mexican Independence Day, Cesar's NFWA, with
1,200-member families, votes to join a strike against Delano-area grape
growers already begun that month by the mostly Filipino American
members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO
(AWOC). Thus begins the five-year Delano Grape Strike.
March-April 1966--Cesar and a band of strikers embark upon a
340-mile Peregrinacion (or Pilgrimage) from Delano to the steps of the
state Capitol in Sacramento to draw national attention to the suffering
of farm workers. During the march and after a four-month boycott,
Schenley Vineyards negotiates an agreement with NFWA--the first genuine
union contract between a grower and farm workers' union in U.S. history.
Spring-summer 1966--A boycott of the struck DiGiorgio Fruit
Corp. forces the giant grape grower to agree to an election among its
workers. The company brings in the Teamsters Union to oppose Cesar's
NFWA. The NFWA and the Filipino American AWOC merge to form the United
Farm Workers and the union affiliates with the AFL-CIO, the national
labor federation. DiGiorgio workers vote for the UFW.
1967--The UFW strikes the Giumarra Vineyards Corp., California's
largest table grape grower. In response to a UFW boycott, other grape
growers allow Giumarra to use their labels. So the UFW begins a boycott
of all California table grapes. Meanwhile, strikes continue against
grape growers in the state.
1967-1970--Hundreds of grape strikers fan out across North
America to organize an international grape boycott. Millions of
Americans rally to La Causa, the farm workers' cause.
February-March 1968--Cesar fasts for 25 days to rededicate his
movement to nonviolence. U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy joins 8,000 farm
workers and supporters at a mass where Cesar breaks his fast, calling
the weakened farm labor leader "one of the heroic figures of our time."
Spring-summer 1970--As the boycott continues picking up steam,
most California table grape growers sign UFW contracts.
Summer 1970--To keep the UFW out of California lettuce and
vegetable fields, most Salinas Valley growers sign contracts with the
Teamsters Union. Some 10,000 Central Coast farm workers respond by
walking out on strike. Cesar calls for a nationwide boycott of lettuce.
1970, Dec. 10-24--Cesar is jailed Salinas, Calif. for refusing
to obey a court order to stop the boycott against Bud Antle lettuce.
Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ethel
Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, visit Cesar in jail.
1971--The UFW moves from Delano to its new headquarters at La
Paz in Keene, Calif., southeast of Bakersfield. With table and wine
grape contracts, and some agreements covering vegetable workers, UFW
membership grows to around 80,000.
1972--The UFW is chartered as an independent affiliate by the
AFLĀCIO; it becomes the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO
(UFW).
1972, May 11-June 4--Cesar fasts for 25 days in Phoenix over a
just-passed Arizona law banning the right of farm workers to strike or
boycott.
Spring-summer 1973--When the UFW's three-year table grape
contracts come up for renewal, instead sign contracts with the
Teamsters without an election or any representation procedure. That
sparks a bitter three-month strike by grape workers in California's
Coachella and San Joaquin valleys. Thousands of strikers are arrested
for violating anti-picketing injunctions, hundreds are beaten, dozens
are shot and two are murdered. In response to the violence, Cesar calls
off the strike and begins a second grape boycott.
1973-1975--According to a nationwide 1975 Louis Harris poll, 17
million Americans are boycotting grapes. Many are also boycotting
lettuce and Gallo wine after winery workers strike the mammoth Modesto,
Calif.-based producer.
June 1975--After Jerry Brown becomes governor, the boycott
convinces growers to agree to a state law guaranteeing California farm
workers the right to organize and bargain with their employers. Cesar
gets the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act through the state
Legislature.
September 1975-January 1976--Hundreds of elections are held. The
UFW wins the majority of the elections in which it participates. The
Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), which enforces the law,
briefly shuts down after running out of money and pro-grower lawmakers
refuse to approve an emergency appropriation.
Mid-to-late 1970s--The UFW continues winning elections and
signing contracts with growers. In 1977, the Teamsters Union signs a
"jurisdictional" agreement with the UFW and agrees to leave the fields.
In 1978, the UFW calls off its boycotts of grapes, lettuce and Gallo
wine.
January-October 1979--In a bid to win decent wages and benefits,
the UFW strikes several major lettuce and vegetable growers up and down
the state. Rufino Contreras, 27-year old striker, is shot to death in
an Imperial
Valley lettuce field by grower foremen.
September 1979--After a strike and boycott, the UFW wins its
demands for a significant pay raise and other contract improvements
from SunHarvest, the nation's largest lettuce producer. Other growers
also soon settle.
Early 1980s--With election victories and contract negotiations,
the number of farm workers protected by UFW contracts grows to about
45,000.
1982--Republican George Deukmejian is elected California
governor with $1 million in grower campaign contributions.
1983-1990--Deukmejian begins shutting down enforcement of the
state's historic farm labor law. Thousands of farm workers lose their
UFW contracts. Many are fired and blacklisted. Fresno-area dairy worker
Rene Lopez, 19, is shot to death by grower agents after voting in a
1983 union election. Cesar declares a third grape boycott in 1984.
1986--Cesar
kicks off the "Wrath of Grapes" campaign to draw public attention to
the pesticide poisoning of grape workers and their children.
July-August 1988--At age 61, Chavez conducts his last--and
longest--public fast for 36 days in Delano to call attention to farm
workers and their children stricken by pesticides.
Late 1980s-early 1990s--After recovering from his fast, Cesar
continues pressing the grape boycott and aiding farm workers who wish
to organize.
Spring-summer 1992--Working with UFW First Vice President Arturo
Rodriguez, Cesar leads vineyard walkouts in the Coachella and San
Joaquin valleys. As a result, grape workers win their first
industry-wide pay hike in eight years.
1993, April 23--Cesar Chavez dies peacefully in his sleep at the
modest home of a retired San Luis, Ariz. farm worker while defending
the UFW against a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought against the
union by a large vegetable grower.
1993, April 29--40,000 mourners march behind Cesar's plain pine
casket during funeral services in Delano.
May 1993--Veteran UFW organizer Arturo Rodriguez succeeds Cesar
as union president.
March-April 1994--On the first anniversary of Cesar's passing,
Arturo Rodriguez leads a 343-mile march retracing Cesar's historic 1966
trek from Delano to Sacramento. Some 17,000 farm workers and supporters
gather on the state Capitol steps to help kick off a new UFW field
organizing and contract negotiating campaign.
1994, August 8--President Bill Clinton posthumously presents the
Medal of Freedom--America's highest civilian honor--to Cesar Chavez.
His widow, Helen, receives the medal during a White House ceremony.
1994-2000--Since the new UFW organizing drive began in 1994,
farm workers vote for the UFW in 18 straight union elections and the
UFW signs 24 new--or first-time--agreements with growers. UFW
membership rises from around 20,000 in 1993 to more than 27,000. The
Cesar Chavez-founded union organizes and bargains on behalf of major
rose, mushroom, strawberry, wine grape and lettuce and vegetable
workers in California, Florida and Washington state.
(Updated: April 2000)