The
setting is Delano California, A small town in the san Joaquin valley some
250 miles south of sacramento, the state capital,
Delano was founded in 1873 by the Southern Pacific Railroad. For many
years, it was a small town in an arid valley with little to distinguish it.
Today, it's a fertile region, the home of wealthy grape growers. Most of
them came from Southern Europe in the 1920s. Many of these immigrants were
poor with their knowledge of the grape. They're only skill.
These yugoslavian and Sicilian farmers carved thousands of acres of
vineyards from the central California desert.
They irrigated the land, created an oasis and they made fantastic fortunes.
The farm workers came with the planting of the vineyards and many of them
were mexican americans. Now, many farmworkers are traditionally migratory.
They follow the crops from place to place, But because of the nature of
the grapes, the workers of delanoe constituted a relatively stable labor
force for grapes are a crop which requires attention for about 10 months
out of the year. True, many workers still come to Delano only during the
season's peak, but many of the families who tended the grapes remain
throughout the year. They built a life for themselves in Delano,
a permanent mexican american community grew in Delano across the highway
from the main part of town,
but working conditions and the vineyards were disgraceful and the housing
provided by the grower for migrant workers was often appallingly
substandard.
The average worker in 1963 received a dollar and 20 cents an hour plus 10
cents a lug of grapes, extremely low wages for work that requires a great
deal of skill as well as immense physical strength
into this setting step. The chief actor in the unfolding drama, the
catalyst,
Cesar Chavez, an articulate, soft spoken man, a farmworker himself
and the story of welder is the story of this man.
Born in Yuma Arizona, Cesar Chavez spent most of his childhood following
the crops Like the Children of these migrant families, he attended at
least 19 different schools, most of them for only short periods of time.
Thus he is largely self educated. Mhm 1952, Cesar Chavez had settled in
san Jose California and there he joined the community service organization
the Cso. As chairman of a Cso voter registration drive Chavez registered
4000 mexican american voters in a two month period And during the next
eight years he helped 30,000 people gain their US citizenship.
Cesar Chavez helped organize many CSO programs both in the san Jose area
and in the san Joaquin valley programs which are still active today. He
helped people get medical treatment, welfare, legal protection driver's
licenses And in 1958 Chavez became national director of the community
service organizations.
During the next four years Cesar Chavez developed a dream, he began to
dream of a union for mexican american farm workers, he became increasingly
concerned over the plight of the farm workers. So concerned that in 1962
he resigned from his cso position. When his proposal for organizing a farm
union was rejected, Chavez moved to delay. No, his wife Helen's hometown
and with his own savings of $1200 he began creating the nucleus for his
union, the National Farm Workers Association or N. F. W. A.
Gradually the union movement caught on. In Delano 1965, Chavez had
enrolled 1700 families in his n. f.w. And he'd used its growing strength
to win small pay raises for the workers.
Chavez knew that within a few years his wa would have to strike, but the
strike was to come earlier than he expected or wanted a full three years
before he believed the union would be ready.
Mm hmm. The fuse was lighted in the spring of 1965. When filipino grape
pickers in the Coachella Valley south of Delanoe went on strike, they were
joined by several 100 mexican american workers. The strikers demanded wage
increases to a $1.40 an hour, And within 10 days the growers had
capitulated. The demands were met.
But when these same workers moved north to delay. No, they found the old
pay scale. The filipino workers represented by a W. O. C. The agricultural
workers organizing committee of the Af of L. C. I. O. Went out on strike
and Chavez reluctantly committed his National farm Workers Association to
the cause. The strike was underway, but well go was to become more than
just a strike. It was to become a cause for mexican americans everywhere.
A new and vital form of protest
and cesar Chavez was to make of the delay. No situation a moral issue. An
issue of national concern, Chavez realized that the strike could not
succeed unless it had outside help. He sought the support of the churches.
The first to answer his call was the California migrant ministry, a
protestant organization which sends its ministers among the farm workers.
The local catholic clergy tried to remain neutral. Their financial
support came from the anglo community support they reportedly would lose
if they allied themselves with the N F W A mm. After a long delay,
California's seven catholic bishops led by Bishop You Donohoe offered some
support to the strikers by stating that farm workers should indeed be
brought under the National Labor Relations Act. Chavez sought support from
others adopting the methods of the black protest movement. He called for
civil rights Volunteers, College students, civil rights leaders poured
into Delanoe picket lines were organized and the strike assumed the
character of a non violent protest. Not all the growers in the delay, No
area were picketed at the same time, Chavez wisely chose to leave some
alone. Thus striking N F. W. A. Members had farms they could go to for
work. A number of workers would be drawn off the picket line and sent to
work in the fields for a few days. Even so, the N. F. W. A suffered from
lack of funds for the union paid all the expenses of picket families, the
rent, the food, the gasoline bills as well as its own administrative costs.
The union was aided by contributions from individuals from organizations,
but funds were still short a condition which eventually led cesar Chavez
to merge his N. F. W. With the naval C. I. O. Unions. Mm. As the strike
dragged on, new tactics were needed to focus national attention on Delanoe.
During the next years, three steps were taken to achieve this.
The first tactic was the economic boycott. The strike reason Chavez should
affect not only the delay, no farms but all the products. The larger
growers produced in some cases, the growers were part of gigantic
corporations, most of whose incomes came from products other than grapes.
Mm hmm. And so the cause of weld a spread outward from Delano Volunteers
led the boycott effort in major cities throughout the nation. The tactic
worked. Eventually, the big corporations were forced to settle with the
union, but still more publicity was needed to keep up the enthusiasm of
the strikers. The second tactic was a pilgrimage. A march of the striking
farmworkers to sacramento.
The workers marched 250 miles to hold a rally at the State Capitol.
The third tactic was a fast by cesar Chavez. This fast was undertaken to
reaffirm the principles of Nonviolence which motivated the strike, non
violence, which was sorely tried by the growers and their supporters.
At the end of his fast, cesar Chavez was joined in. Delanoe by senator
robert Kennedy. The two men attended a special mass together and shared
the first meal Chavez had eaten in 25 days, Kennedy hailed this leader of
la raza as one of the heroic figures of our time
now. Well, God has one much for the farm workers of delay, no wage
increases, improved working and living conditions have been forced from
the growers of the san Joaquin valley. But more important the case of
Delanoe has set an example for farm workers everywhere. Well go has spread
from Delano to other parts of the country to areas where farm workers were
paid as little as 40 cents an hour and it's made people as far away as new
york and boston aware of mexican americans perhaps for the first time
then to weld a has provided inspiration for Mexican americans in areas
other than farm labor. It's the latest step in the great awakening And
even when the strike is one in one area, it's still a symbol for thousands.
For the principles apply in other areas. It's a cause which has united
thousands of mexican americans, students, professional
people. Mexican americans in every walk of life
and it's the future that will determine the effects of Well, gah the
future that will determine the outcome of the great awakening. No mm mhm
curry did a lock pick and
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screaming rco.
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I lost Italiano
mientras. El mariachi camba.
Mhm.
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conversation all
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eagerly
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congress global somewhere or you are elia the march was for speech therapy
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get a bird and I love we're moving young
Hells. Yes. Barrantes a bottle Campesino into chopping board and well
other than social media
they learn all they learned. A cool new mercies.
Yeah.Mhm