Cesar Chavez Civil Rights Movement

From 1954 to 1968, African Americans fought to end segregation in the southern United States through nonviolent protests. As a major leader of the movement, Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged this approach. Ten years after MLK’s assassination, American civil rights activist Cesar Chavez published an article to commemorate the great leader and what he stood for. In his magazine article, Cesar Chavez utilizes logos, pathos, and ethos to convey the importance of nonviolence.

In the excerpt, Cesar Chavez, labor union organizers and civil rights leader, discusses how nonviolent resistance to problems in society easily resolves a situation better than violent protest. Throughout his speech, he uses many rhetorical strategies to argue his view on nonviolent resistance. Chavez’ use of ethos, logos, and pathos, creates his passionate attitude towards nonviolent resistance.

Cesar Chavez, a civil rights leader fighting for improving pay and working conditions of farmers, employs the use of nonviolence resistance in his role as a leader of the United Farm Workers. As a child, Chavez and his family worked as farmers on a field as migrant workers who were most likely treated in an unjust manner and thus, he dedicated his life to improving the conditions for all farmers. To honor Martin Luther King Jr. on the 10th anniversary of his death, Chavez wrote to a religious magazine that helps people in need about the benefits of nonviolent resistance. Throughout his letter, Chavez applies rhetorical devices such as pathos, diction, and juxtaposition to persuade and inform people about how powerful and effective nonviolence techniques can be for civil rights.

“Letter from Delano”, by Cesar Chavez, the writer is attempting to perform this impossible feat on E.L. Barr Jr., the president of the California Grape and Tree Fruit League. Throughout his life, 1927 to 1993, Chavez was a prominent civil rights activist who fought for the rights of farm workers. He performed nonviolent protests including marches, boycotts, and hunger strikes. One famous boycott was the Grape Strike, in which Cesar urged Americans to buy grapes from foreign places in order to bring attention to the plight of field workers. By 1969, when the letter was written, Chavez had already co-founded the National Farm Workers Association. His goal was to fight for better treatment, increased pay, and improved working conditions. His nonviolent methods were extremely similar to the protests of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968, over the rights of African Americans. In the letter, Cesar Chavez is specifically addressing claims, made by the California Grape and Tree Fruit League, of a violent protest performed by the farm workers. Throughout the letter, Chavez confronts the shocking accusations, explains his use of nonviolent methods, and emphasizes the purpose of his protests. He strives to make the president understand the plight of the workers and view their protests as a product of the worker’s determination for change, not as violent and personal attacks that

Cesar Chavez, a labor leader and civil rights activist, wrote an article that discusses his strong stand on how using nonviolent resistance is the better way to go rather than using violent acts. Inspired by the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Chavez writes an article about his argument on nonviolent resistance; he accomplishes that by using rhetorical choice like allusions, pathos, and tone.

Cesar Chavez once explained the horrors of society when he said, “When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering and caring for is family, the whole community of man is sick.” (ufw.org) That means that the whole of humanity is sick and cruel when the man who works the fields all day long to feed the all of the citizens of the entire world can’t even provide for himself. It was not a small amount of people it affected, it was millions, and millions of citizens across the world. Chavez was a large factor in beginning to abolish racism, or also called the Civil Rights Movement.

Cesar Chavez championed for unionization of grape farm workers. Chavez employed strikes, fasts, and boycotts to raise awareness for their cause. Violent retaliation was needless to Chavez so much he believed that the most audacious thing to do was to “sacrifice” one’s self “for others” in the name of justice (Alarcon). Cesar Chavez and his associates were targets of increasing acts of violence. By not meeting violence with violence, their cause fell on listening ears. Cesar and the farm worker’s retaliation consisted of increased dedication and more strikes. Drawing from peaceful protest historical figures such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez was successful with many labor strikes. Chavez could have raised awareness much more rapidly by using violence. However, he “fasted for twenty-five days” for the unerring choice of peaceful protest (Cesar Chavez Gains Grounds for Farmers). Belief in their cause fueled each protester. A single violent outburst from the workers would ripple outward and cause them to lose ground. The farm workers did not make gains without facing hardships. Cesar Chavez’s fast was the result of “increasing advocacy” calling for “violence” among fellow strikers (History.com Staff). As a leader, one must take responsibility for the actions of their supporters. The strikes were beginning to strain. Careful steps were to be taken in order to preserve the strikers’ reason and renew support. Cesar had to challenge their oppressors

The company was aware of what Chavez was doing, but they didn’t pay that much attention until they started to lose money. The boss of the company was started to get concerned and started sending his people to stop the strikes. The strikes of Chavez were nonviolence so he didn’t care if the police or somebody came to stop it because it’s against the law. However, the boss sends his people over to Chavez and told him that if they don’t stop the strike they will open fire to all the people. The people of Chavez were getting scared, but Chavez was motivating them by saying “si so Puede” until the police shot fire and took Chavez to jail. Cesar kept fighting until he got out of jail and proceed his work he had left. Cesar was losing hope because people were not following him because if they do they will get shot. Cesar stopped eating for a week to see if the people were still caring to change the way they were getting threaten and the people got the message and started doing strikes again without fear. The company was in rage, but they couldn’t do anything and the people were getting hopped. People from other countries were joining them too. People were with Chavez and when the company had no choice but to surrender. Chavez at the end stood up and started to eat again and he does justice for his people and for all the people around the world saying the famous phrase, “Si se Puede”.

He, with the United Farm Workers were “able to use its political muscle to defeat California Proposition 22 that would have taken away much of the political power that the UFW...fought so hard to win” ("César E. Chávez Middle Level Biography"). This shows that César was able to protect the organization he created and how he cared for his people. Chávez, the farmers, and all of the supporters “under...Gov. Jerry Brown California passed the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, the nation's first, and still the only, law guaranteeing farm workers the right to organize, choose their own union representative and negotiate with their employers" ("Historic Victories for Union"). César put in hard work with his supporters and was able to have a governor pass a law allowing improved rights for the farm workers. No matter the cost or effort that would be needed, “Cesar Chavez's tireless leadership and nonviolent tactics...included the Delano grape strike, his fasts that focused national attention on farm workers problems, and the 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966” ("The Story of Cesar Chavez"). He was able to rally up people to defend the rights of others through marches and strikes. César Chávez proved to have a driving force in his cause in order to have the workers he helped have a better

With the increase in salary many Mexicans would feel the money made would be enough to support their family, and live a more comfortable life. The growth of immigrants sparked around the 1970’s, and continued to grow as decades passed. According to the pewhispanic.org the immigrant population had a seventeen fold increase from the decades before. (seven hundred sixty thousand immigrants were currently in the United States in the nineteen seventies.) Even with the increase in salary Mexican americans were still unsatisfied, and believed they deserved more money, more respect, and less racial segregation. The leader of the United Farm Workers movement Cesar Chavez helped organize boycotts and strikes against the farm owners, and got others to stop buying grapes; this severely hurt the grape growing business. Not only did the increase in salary encourage others to immigrate to the United States, but better working conditions did as well. With more immigrants entering the United States, many Mexicans would find themselves to be illegally in the US. Chavez was strongly against those who were in the US illegally and would refuse to help them. Though these people were not receiving the UFW benefits, it encouraged them to apply for citizenship.

Cesar Chavez stood to corporate leaders lion-heartedly. On such an instance in Delano, California, Chavez and farm workers went against city officials: “police, judges, and politicians”, in a strike (Fighting for Farm Workers' Rights: Cesar Chavez, the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott). Powerful city figures blocked workers from their rights. Officials pressured them to give in. Farm hands on strike were spattered” with pesticides, threatened with dogs, verbally assaulted, and physically attacked” by corporate leader associates (Fighting for Farm Workers' Rights: Cesar Chavez, the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott). The workers endured adversities to attain congruent liberties as pickers. The barrages increased in scale as workers refused to return to work. Peaceful protests are seldom met with peer peace. In the same Delano grape strike where Chavez fasted for twenty-five days, the event became a boycott that lasted a grand five years in total. Across Canada and America, “millions” of consumers “stopped eating grapes” to support the farm workers on strike (Kim). The tactics used by the United Farm Workers of America brought national and international attention to their cause. Major grape growers were obligated to sign contracts providing farm workers with better working conditions and a standard pay. Through strikes, fasts, and boycotts, Cesar Chavez helped

On September 16, 1965, Mexican Independence Day, Chavez union joined Filipino workers walkouts. “In response to the grape industries refusal to control the use of pesticides on its crops, Chavez inaugurated an international boycott of table grapes (history.com).” In 1966, Cesar led a 300-mile march from Deleno to Sacramento, California. In the winter of 1967 -68, many strikers became impatient but Cesar kept going. Cesar never

While often forgotten in historical documentaries about the man, Chavez’s views on illegal immigration was very critical. To quote Cesar Chavez, “There is no way to defend against strike breaking when they bring in… wetback, illegals” (Chavez, 2013). Chavez viewed undocumented workers as a detriment to his union, and by his unwillingness to work with such peoples this became a self fulfilling prophecy. “The United States… (has only) made it more and more difficult for people to immigrate and settle as legal permanent residents” (Rodriguez, 2010), meaning that there was an increase in undocumented

In the end Chavez won the fight he did so by having protests. They were not just any kind of protests, but they were peaceful. The protest group was called The United Farm Works. Later on he discovered that harmful pesticides were being sprayed in the fields. That were affecting the health of the workers. Still throughout it all he kept calm, never raising a hand showing great civil disobedience.

Within months Chavez and his union became nationally known. Chavez’s copied the civil rights movement, his insistence on nonviolence, his reliance on volunteers from urban universities and religious organizations, his alliance with organized labor, and his use of mass techniques such as a famous march on Sacramento in 1966 brought the grape strike and consumer boycott into the national consciousness. The boycott in particular was responsible for pressuring the growers to recognize the United Farm Workers.The first contracts were signed in 1966, but were followed by more years of strife. In 1968 Chavez went on a fast for twenty-five days to protest the increasing advocacy of violence within the union. Victory came finally on July 29, 1970, when twenty-six Delano growers formally signed contracts recognizing the ufw and bringing peace to the