Cesar+Chavez

C e s a r C h a v e z

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César Estrada Chávez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona, in a Mexican-American family of six children. His family owned a grocery store and a ranch, but their land was lost during the Great Depression. Chávez experienced injustice early in life; his home was taken away after his father had agreed to clear eighty acres of land in exchange for the deed to the house, and agreement which was subsequently broken. Later when Cesar's father attempted to purchase the house, he could not pay the interest on the loan and the house was sold to its original owner. His family then moved to California to become migrant farm workers.  The Chávez family faced many hardships in California. The family would pick peas and lettuce in the winter, cherries and beans in the spring, corn and grapes in the summer, and cotton in the fall. Working conditions for migrant workers were poor and often unsafe, and wages were low. Cesar's family frequently did not have access to basic needs such as clean water or toilets. Because a large number of migrant workers were Mexican-American, they also often faced prejudice, and their children had to skip school to earn wages to help support the family. Although he was a bright student, Chávez faced difficulty in school due to prejudice. His family spoke only Spanish at home, and his teachers forbade him from speaking the language at school. At one time, Chávez was hit on the knuckles with a ruler for violating this rule. In school, he was also faced with constantly hearing racial slurs. In 1942, he graduated from eighth grade. He did not want his mother to have to work in the fields, so he never attended high school, instead dropping out to become a full-time migrant farm worker. In 1944 he joined the United States Navy at the age of seventeen and served for two years.