Cesar Estrada Chavez was born March 31, 1927, on the small farm near Yuma, Arizona that his grandfather homesteaded during the 1880's. At age 10, life began as a migrant farm worker when his father lost the land during the Depression. These were bitterly poor years for Cesar, his parents, brothers and sisters. Together with thousands of other displaced families, the Chavez family migrated throughout the Southwest, laboring in fields and vineyards. Cesar left school after the eighth grade to help support his family.
Cesar served as CSO national director in the late 1950's and early 1960's. But his dream was to create an organization to help farm workers whose suffering he had shared. In 1962, after failing to convince the CSO to commit itself to farm worker organizing, he resigned his paid CSO job, the first regular paying job he had. He moved to Delano, California where he founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).
In September 1965, Cesar's NFWA, with 1200 member......
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