WEBVTT - How Did Cesar Chavez Change the Labor Movement?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Louren Bogelbaum. Here, the fight for human rights is never

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<v Speaker 1>done alone. It's borne by a multitude of visionary leaders,

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<v Speaker 1>carried on by armies of believers in a better future,

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<v Speaker 1>and waged in a variety of ways. One such leader

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<v Speaker 1>was Caesar Estrata Chavez, whose humility and resolute certaintude in

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<v Speaker 1>La Casa made him a hero to millions. For the

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<v Speaker 1>article this episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke

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<v Speaker 1>with Mark Grossman. Chavez is speechwriter and a spokeperson for

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<v Speaker 1>the Caesar Chavez Foundation. He said, why were they drawn

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<v Speaker 1>to him? Because he had great faith in them. He

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<v Speaker 1>had faith they could do great things. Chavez is known

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<v Speaker 1>as an American union builder and a relentless advocate for

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<v Speaker 1>the rights of abused farm workers during the furious nineteen sixties.

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<v Speaker 1>He was also a devout Catholic who believed in the

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<v Speaker 1>goodness of his fellow humans and the power of nonviolent resistance,

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<v Speaker 1>and to this day, Caesar Chaves remains a darling of

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<v Speaker 1>America's counterculture, a soft spoken, sly smiling, immovable object standing

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<v Speaker 1>in the path of the country's rich and powerful the

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<v Speaker 1>child of Mexican American parents, Chavez was born in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>twenty seven in Yuma, Arizona, into a migrant farm family

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<v Speaker 1>in the southwestern United States. He and many others commonly

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<v Speaker 1>worked ten to twelve hour days, often bent over a

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<v Speaker 1>short handled hoe, for wages that would barely keep them alive.

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<v Speaker 1>He estimated that he attended sixty five different schools as

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<v Speaker 1>a kid. He never got past the eighth grade. Chavez

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<v Speaker 1>enlisted in the US Navy shortly before the end of

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<v Speaker 1>World War Two, but soon returned to California, where he

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<v Speaker 1>started a family of his own with his high school

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<v Speaker 1>sweetheart Helen. By the early nineteen fifties, he was introduced

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<v Speaker 1>to organizers in the Community Services Organization, a Mexican American

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<v Speaker 1>civil rights organization. By the early nineteen fifties, he was

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<v Speaker 1>introduced to organizers in the Community Services Organisms, which dealt

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<v Speaker 1>with Mexican American civil rights, and by the late fifties

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<v Speaker 1>he had become its national president. By the early sixties,

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<v Speaker 1>Chavas was already in full dispute with the moneyed farm owners,

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<v Speaker 1>who saw him and his swelling group of followers as

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<v Speaker 1>a threat to their financial well being. He traveled the

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<v Speaker 1>fields of California, signing up workers to join his fledgling

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<v Speaker 1>National farm Workers Association, later to become the United farm Workers.

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<v Speaker 1>Though Chavez lacked a full formal education, he was a

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<v Speaker 1>voracious reader. He followed Mahama Gandhi and Martin Uther King

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<v Speaker 1>Junior and took from them lessons of non violence. He

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<v Speaker 1>also read the works of union organizers like Eugene V. Debs.

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<v Speaker 1>His belief in the workers and their worth pushed him,

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<v Speaker 1>and their belief in him sustained his work. A grossman, said,

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<v Speaker 1>many people, for one hundred years before Caesar Chavas tried

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<v Speaker 1>and failed to organize farm workers, people who had a

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<v Speaker 1>lot more resources and money and had much better education,

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<v Speaker 1>tried and failed, and he succeeded. I think because he

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<v Speaker 1>was one of them. It was not an academic pursuit

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<v Speaker 1>for him. Chavez endured government investigations and death threats from

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<v Speaker 1>the rich and powerful. He often traveled with two fierce

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<v Speaker 1>looking German shepherds named Boycott and Weelga meaning Strike, who

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<v Speaker 1>were both friends to Javas and deterrence to those who

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<v Speaker 1>might wish him harm. He also credited those dogs with

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<v Speaker 1>his decision to become vegetarian, and he became an animal

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<v Speaker 1>rights activist later in his life. As he had done

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<v Speaker 1>in the fields as a young man, Chavez put in long,

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<v Speaker 1>hard hours organizing workers, traveling from town to town, pushing

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<v Speaker 1>for better wages, improved working conditions, and access to insurance.

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<v Speaker 1>He employed boycotts and strikes to try to better the

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<v Speaker 1>lives of those he represented. In nineteen sixty five, Chavez

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<v Speaker 1>and the National farm Workers Association joined forces of the

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<v Speaker 1>group of Filipino grape workers in the Delano, California grape strike.

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<v Speaker 1>It lasted five years and included a boycott of table

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<v Speaker 1>grapes that spread throughout the nation. A Chavas insisted, with

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<v Speaker 1>an acute awareness of the violence that royaled the country

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<v Speaker 1>that decade with other protests and civil rights movements, that

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<v Speaker 1>the protest remained nonviolent, but as it wore on, many

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<v Speaker 1>workers grew impatient. To focus strikers on staying strong without

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<v Speaker 1>using violence, and to show those throughout the country their resolve,

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<v Speaker 1>the Javas went on a twenty five day fast. Thousands

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<v Speaker 1>streamed into the tiny windowless room near Delano to see him.

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<v Speaker 1>During his fast, he lost thirty five pounds that's about

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen kilos during those twenty five days. In a statement,

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<v Speaker 1>Javes said, to be a man is to suffer for others.

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<v Speaker 1>God help us to be men. It took more time,

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<v Speaker 1>but in nineteen seventy grape growers signed their first union

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<v Speaker 1>contracts with the farm owners, providing workers better pay and benefits.

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<v Speaker 1>The Delano Fast was not the only one that Javes

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<v Speaker 1>would undertake over his long career. He went for thirty

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<v Speaker 1>six days out food in nineteen eighty eight to protest

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<v Speaker 1>the threat that pesticides post of farm workers and their children.

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<v Speaker 1>He continued to work and organize for the United farm

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<v Speaker 1>Workers throughout his life. He was in Arizona in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>ninety three helping to defend a union in a lawsuit.

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<v Speaker 1>When he died peacefully at the home of a longtime friend,

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<v Speaker 1>and he was sixty six years old, Some forty five

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<v Speaker 1>thousand people attended his funeral in Deleno, California. He's now

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<v Speaker 1>buried in Keene, California, where he lived and labored for

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<v Speaker 1>the last quarter century of his life, and where the

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<v Speaker 1>Caesar E. Chavas National Monument is now located. Throughout his life,

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<v Speaker 1>Chaves fought for farm workers, but he stepped outside union

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<v Speaker 1>activism too. He came out strongly against the Vietnam War

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<v Speaker 1>in the nineteen sixties, and in the seventies was active

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<v Speaker 1>in the struggle for gay rights. In nineteen eighty four,

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<v Speaker 1>in a carefully crafted speech in front of the Commonwealth

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<v Speaker 1>Club in San Francisco, his first time speaking from a script,

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<v Speaker 1>Java's laid out his vision. That's an excerpt. Once social

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<v Speaker 1>change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the

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<v Speaker 1>person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the

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<v Speaker 1>person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who

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<v Speaker 1>are not afraid anymore. Our opponents must understand that it's

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<v Speaker 1>not just a union. We have built unions like other

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<v Speaker 1>institutions can come and go, but we are more than

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<v Speaker 1>an institution. For nearly twenty years, our union has been

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<v Speaker 1>on the cutting edge of a people's cause, and you

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<v Speaker 1>cannot do away with an entire people. You cannot stamp

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<v Speaker 1>out a people's cause. Regardless of what the future holds

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<v Speaker 1>for farm workers, our accomplishments cannot be undone a la cassa.

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<v Speaker 1>Our cause doesn't have to be experienced twice Today, the

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<v Speaker 1>University of California, Berkeley has a student center named after Chavez.

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<v Speaker 1>High schools, elementary schools, streets and parks bear his name,

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<v Speaker 1>so does a Navy ship. In two thousand and three,

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<v Speaker 1>the US Postal Service issued a stamp with his likeness.

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<v Speaker 1>In twenty twelve, President Barack Obama christian the National Monument

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<v Speaker 1>where Chavez is now buried even more in his honor.

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<v Speaker 1>The people he inspired continued to carry on his work.

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<v Speaker 1>A Grossman cited a couple of examples off the top

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<v Speaker 1>of his head. A young teachers ad in California who's

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<v Speaker 1>now a school district superintendent. A young paralegal who's now

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<v Speaker 1>a superior court judge in the state. A Grossman said,

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<v Speaker 1>he saw the greater good of helping people fulfill their dreams,

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<v Speaker 1>and some of them were dreams that many of them

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<v Speaker 1>didn't even know they had. He really instilled hope and

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<v Speaker 1>confidence in people who never had them before. In August

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<v Speaker 1>of nineteen ninety four, a little more than a year

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<v Speaker 1>after his death, Chavez was awarded the Presidential Medal of

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<v Speaker 1>Freedom by President Bill Clinton in a ceremony at the

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<v Speaker 1>White House. Helen, an activist herself, received it in his place.

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<v Speaker 1>Clinton said during the ceremony, the farm workers who labored

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<v Speaker 1>in the fields and yearned for respect and self sufficiency

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<v Speaker 1>pinned their hopes on this remarkable man, who, with faith

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<v Speaker 1>and discipline, with soft spoken humility and amazing inner strength,

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<v Speaker 1>led a very courageous life, and in so doing brought

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<v Speaker 1>dignity to the lives of so many others, and provided

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<v Speaker 1>us for inspiration for the rest of our nation's history.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article how Caesar Chavez

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<v Speaker 1>united thousands of farm workers and became a civil rights

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<v Speaker 1>icon on how stuffworks dot Com, written by John Donovan.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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<v Speaker 1>Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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