Cesar Chavez

While reading about Cesar Chavez, it made me think more and more of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, etc. Like these great leaders, Chavez took the problems into his own hands, and tried to fix them. Migrant Workers played a big roll in America’s agriculture, however they were greatly unappreciated. Even though they were so unappreciated, it was extremely hard for them to strike for two reasons: “The workers did not have enough money to outlast the growers, and the growers could easily replace the striking workers with imported Mexican farm workers,” (Cesar Chavez). These migrant workers were very desperate for a job, and that’s why they got paid so little, and because there were so many people that were desperate for a job, if anyone left, the owners could easily find someone to replace them. When Chavez started his national boycott of all California table grapes, he made the same comments as all the other leaders mentioned before. He thought that the farm workers, mainly Hispanic, should make just as much as the factory workers, mainly whites. “Well, if farm workers are equal, they deserve the same protection of the law that other men enjoy,” (Cesar Chavez). He is making a very logical claim, that if they work just as hard, if not harder as the factory workers, then they should be treated just as equally. Chavez ended up winning the settlement for the table grape growers, which shows that by taking a problem into one’s own hands, can go great lengths.

"César Chávez." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .