Welcome to Bedtime History!
Hello, this is Breck!
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Cesar Chavez was not born rich or powerful.
He was born in a small house in Arizona in 1927.
His family lived on a farm.
They grew their own food and lived a simple life.
But when Cesar was only 10 years old, everything changed.
The Great Depression hurt many families in America.
Caesar's family lost their farm.
They had no money and no home.
They packed everything they had into their old car and drove to California.
They hoped to find work in the farm fields there.
They became migrant workers.
Life as a migrant worker was hard. The family picked crops like grapes, lettuce, and cotton.
They moved from farm to farm following the harvest. They lived in small, crowded houses.
Sometimes they had to sleep outside.
The pay was low and the work was long and painful.
Caesar worked in the fields too, even as a young boy.
School was difficult for Caesar.
He went to many different schools because his family moved so much. Some teachers were kind, but others were not.
Caesar spoke Spanish at home.
At school, he was not allowed to speak Spanish.
If he did, teachers would punish him.
Some kids made fun of him.
It made him feel sad and angry.
After eighth grade, Cesar dropped out of school.
He wanted to keep studying, but he had to help his family.
He worked full -time in the fields, he picked grapes, howed weeds, and carried heavy boxes.
He saw how badly the farmworkers were treated.
They worked hard, but they were not treated with respect.
Many lived in dirty homes, they had no clean water.
If they got sick or hurt, they could lose their job." Caesar wanted to change that.
He believed farm workers should be treated fairly.
He believed they had rights, just like everyone else.
In 1946, Caesar joined the Navy for two years.
After that, he went back to work in the fields.
In his 20s, he started learning more about helping people.
He worked with a group that helped poor communities.
He taught people how to vote and how to speak up.
He listened to their problems and tried to help.
In 1962, Caesar started a group called the National Farm Workers Association.
Later, it became the United Farm Workers, or UFW.
He started this group with only a few people, including his wife Helen and a woman named Dolores Huerta.
They had no money, but they had a big dream.
Caesar and the farm workers decided to use peaceful ways to fight for change.
They used boycotts, marches, and strikes.
A boycott means asking people not to buy something.
A strike means stopping work to make a point.
These were not easy choices.
When the workers went on strike, they had no money.
But they believed it was the right thing to do.
One of their most famous boycotts was the great boycott.
In 1965, great pickers in Delano, California went on strike.
Caesar helped lead the strike.
He asked people across the country not to buy grapes.
He marched over 300 miles to the state capital to bring attention to the cause.
People started to listen.
Churches, students, and other groups joined the boycott.
Some stores stopped selling grapes.
Some families stopped buying them.
It took 5 years, but in 1970, some grape growers signed contracts with the workers.
These gave workers better pay and safer conditions.
Caesar did not use violence.
He believed in peaceful protest, just like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.
Even when people yelled at him or tried to hurt him, he stayed peaceful.
When the fight was hard, he would sometimes stop eating for many days.
These were called fasts.
He did it to show how serious the problem was.
In 1968, he fasted for 25 days.
He became very weak, but he showed how strong his spirit was.
Many people came to support him.
They knew he was doing it for justice.
Because of Cesar Chavez, life changed for many farm workers.
He helped them win better pay, bathrooms in the fields, clean drinking water, and the right to take breaks.
He showed them that they had power when they stood together.
Even after the great victory, Cesar kept fighting.
He wanted to stop harmful chemicals from being sprayed on crops.
These chemicals made workers sick.
He also worked for better homes and schools for farm worker families.
Cesar never became rich. He lived in a simple house and wore simple clothes.
He believed in helping others.
His life was about fighting for what was right.
Cesar Chavez died in 1993, but his work lives on.
Schools, streets, and parks are named after him.
His birthday, March 31st is a holiday in some states.
People remember him for his courage, his kindness, and his strong belief in justice.
Caesar once said, si se puede, which means, yes it can be done.
That phrase became a motto for the farmworkers.
It reminded them never to give up.
