‘Huelga!’ Strike. In the 1960s, these words rang from the fields of the Central Valley, California. Even though they were banned, they were shouted from the lips of thousands, and they inspired a nation. Cesar Chavez was the man who led the way. And his story of struggle is more i mportant today than ever. [MUSIC] United States, early 1960s. Farmworkers have no rights. Yet they pick the food that’s shipped to supermarket shelves And ends on our dinner plates. It’s backbreaking labor. Precarious. Under the hot sun all day. Exposed to the pesticides and the chemicals in the fields. On some farms, the managers don’t even provide water to drink And those working the fields are paid poverty wages. Just $2 a day. The average farmworker in 1960s America lives to be only 49 years old. Many are immigrants from Mexico or the Philippines. Or the sons and daughters of those who came. Many are undocumented. Treated liked cattle Like they’re not even human. And their poverty and precarious lives are invisible to the eyes of most of America. But that is going to change… [MUSIC] Cesar Chavez was born in 1927 to parents who came from Mexico as children.  As a young boy, he also worked in the fields. Picking avocados, peas, and other produce. But he also studied, he graduated from middle school and joined the Navy. And when he got out, he went back to the fields. He picked cotton and apricots.  But he also learned to organize. He joined the National Farm Labor Union And then the Community Service Organization. As an organizer, he worked to register Mexican-Americans to vote. And he climbed the ranks, organizing, inspired by the non-violent struggles of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi. Cesar Chavez’s passion was in the fields. And the plight of those who toiled there, day after day, under the relentless sun Just to barely survive. [MUSIC] 1962, he moved his family to Delano, California In the Southern San Juaquin Valley, And together with organizer Dolores Huerta, founded the United Farm Workers of America. In 1965, when Filipino-American farmworkers went on strike to demand higher wages for grape pickers Cesar Chavez’s UFW joined them. These were grapes shipped to supermarket shelves across the country Grapes that were turned into wine. The farmworkers struck. They picketed.  They marched.  And they were attacked by the security details of the growers And by the local police. But they continued to strike. They organized a grape boycott across the country, First against one company, and then another…  They marched 300 miles to the state capital, Sacramento. At each stop, they spoke to crowds… “Across the San Joaquin Valley, across California, across the entire Southwest of the United States, wherever there are Mexican people, wherever there are farm workers, our movement is spreading like flames across [a] dry plain,” they said. “Our PILGRIMAGE is the MATCH that will light our cause for all farm workers to see what is happening here, so that they may do as we have done. The time has come for the liberation of the poor farm worker. History is on our side. MAY THE STRUGGLE CONTINUE! VIVA LA CAUSA!” U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy backed their cause. [KENNEDY INTERVIEW] So did other unions, including the United Auto Workers. Cesar Chavez was a steadfast believer in non-violent activism. When it seemed members of his movement were turning to violence to fight back, He launched a hunger strike that would last for 25 days. It was the first of three that he could carry out throughout his life.  On July 4, 1969, at the pinnacle of the California grape boycott campaign, Cesar Chavez was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. One year later, growers finally caved. They signed contracts with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. They agreed to raise wages, start a healthcare plan for workers, and implement safety measures over the use of pesticides in the fields. It was a huge victory after a 5-year-long strike. “¡Si se puede!” Yes, we can! Cesar Chavez would continue to organize for farmworkers for the next two decades, until he passed at the age of 66, in 1993. His deep legacy lives on.  Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927. In 2014, then-US president Barack Obama declared March 31st Cesar Chavez Day—a US federal holiday.  Today, March 31, is Cesar Chavez Day, a holiday celebrating the birth and life of the great US farmworker labor leader. In 1962, Cesar Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers, alongside Dolores Huerta.  The organization would go on to wage strikes and boycotts, winning tremendous victories for workers picking the crops in the fields of California and elsewhere in the United States. In 1969, he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. In 1970, Chavez and the UFW won higher wages for grape pickers after a 5-year-long California grape strike. Chavez’s legacy lives on today. But that legacy is also complicated. Cesar Chavez and the UFW fought for immigration reform, but also fought undocumented immigration (and pushed for deportations), under the pretext that undocumented migrants were used to drive down wages and break UFW strikes.  This is our special Cesar Chavez Day bonus episode of Stories of Resistance — a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times. Written and produced by Michael Fox. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review. You can also follow Michael’s reporting, and support at www.patreon.com/mfox. ...read more read less