An Italian nobleman who lived in the 12th and 13th centuries, Francis of Assisi renounced his wealth after a period of captivity during war and illness. And he drew inspiration from the social teachings of the Catholic Church and from the life of St. employing strikes, boycotts, marches and fasts - to draw attention to La Causa.

'Without a union, the people are always cheated, and they are so innocent,' Chavez told The New Yorker's Peter Mathiessen in 1968.Īround the Nation In South Texas, Fair Wages Elude Farmworkers, 50 Years After Historic StrikeĬhavez modeled his methods on the nonviolent civil disobedience of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Their cause - La Causa - was his.īorn into a Mexican-American family of migrant farm laborers and a life of grinding poverty, Chavez dedicated his life's work to improving conditions for the legions of farmworkers who kept fresh food on the tables across America - while they often went hungry, living and laboring in abysmal conditions and being paid unlivable wages. The life of Cesar Chavez mirrored that of the people he was trying to help. It was a deep and abiding understanding of the challenges of the farmworker's life that drove his commitment to labor rights.

Their march, which started from the punishing melon fields of South Texas, was his march, too. Half a century ago this summer, labor activist Cesar Chavez joined thousands of striking farmworkers in Texas as they converged on Austin, the state capital, to demand fair wages and humane working conditions. Chavez's efforts in California culminated in landmark legislation that protected the rights of the state's farmworkers and created the ALRB. Cesar Chavez, the head of the United Farm Workers Union, calls for the resignation of Walter Kintz, the first legal counsel for the state Agriculture Labor Relations Board, in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept.

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