Who Was Cesar Chavez?

By Dana Meachen Rau, Who HQ and Ted Hammond

Learn more about Cesar Chavez, the famous Latino American civil rights activist.

When he was young, Cesar and his Mexican American family toiled in the fields as migrant farm workers. He knew all too well the hardships farm workers faced. His public-relations approach to unionism and aggressive but nonviolent tactics made the farm workers' struggle a moral cause with nationwide support. Along with Dolores Huerta, he cofounded the National Farmworkers Association. His dedication to his work earned him numerous friends and supporters, including Robert Kennedy and Jesse Jackson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Release date: Feb 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781101995617

Dana Meachen Rau

Dana Meachen Rau is an author, editor, and illustrator of children’s books. She has written more than 100 books for children, many of them nonfiction in subjects including astronomy, history, and geography, as well as numerous biographies. She lives in Burlington, Connecticut, with her husband and two children.

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For teachers everywhere—DMR

For Mom—TH

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Text copyright © 2017 by Dana Meachen Rau. Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Published by Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. PENGUIN and PENGUIN WORKSHOP are trademarks of Penguin Books Ltd. WHO HQ & Design is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017935682

ISBN 9781101995600 (paperback)

ISBN 9780451533623 (library binding)

ISBN 9781101995617 (ebook)

Version_2

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Copyright

Who Was Cesar Chavez?

The Arizona Ranch

Hard Work for Little Pay

Growing as a Leader

The NFWA

Refusing to Be Ignored

Ending the Great Grape Strike

Protests and Peace

Timelines

Bibliography

Who Was Cesar Chavez?

The old theater in Fresno, California, was buzzing with people. A crowd of farmworkers and their families had gathered there for the first meeting of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). Cesar Chavez stood on the stage. He was shy, and not a strong public speaker. But his warm smile and friendly manner drew people in to listen. He had started this union—a group organized to protect workers’ rights—to help thousands of farmworkers, including many Mexican Americans, who lived in poverty and were treated unfairly in their jobs.

This day, September 30, 1962, marked the beginning of more than just the farmworkers’ union. It was the start of a movement—a group of people working together to share an idea and bring about change. Cesar had once worked in the fields himself. He had watched his own family, and many others, suffer to earn enough money to survive. He had a vision for a brighter future for all farmworkers.

Many things were decided at the NFWA’s first large meeting. Officers were elected and future plans were discussed. Union members unveiled their flag—a black eagle in a white circle on a red background. The colors had meaning: black for the hard life of the workers, red