Many people (especially those who don't live in or near the agricultural "promised lands" of California) just don't understand what terrible living and working conditions immigrant farm-workers suffered under for so many years. Many of these laborers didn't know there was an alternative. Many were happy to get this work, even at such a low wage as thirty-five cents an hour, and paid housing; a tent. That is until a man named Cesar Chavez came along. Chavez, by many, is considered the "Moses" of the West Coast migrant farm-workers. At the risk of personal safety, as well that of his family, Mr. Chavez fought "the boss", as farm owners and supervisors--mostly white were known, and organized these suppressed workers under one name, the United Farm Worker's Union; possibly the most well known union story of the twentieth century. So, how did it evolve? First, let's show the history of Cesar Chavez.

Chavez, a product of a depression era migrant childhood, knew what suffering was all about. He grew up in primarily in Arizona. His grandparents escaped the "feudal hacienda system" in Mexico; basically an indentured servant system, where the "peons" who were at the lowest rung of the co

untry's economic system and toiled all their lives for the "lords" of the large farms. In the late 1880's they fled this system and crossed the Rio Grande. His grandfather was able to get work in the mines in Arizona and saved enough money to buy a parcel of land. His father, Librado, was one of the Chavez's that stayed in Yuma, Arizona to raise his own family and take care of the family farm. The Chavez family prospered until the Great Crash of the stock market in 1929, and because Librado owed money on land that he bought, the land was bought out from under him by another farmer, who just also happened to own the bank where Librado's loan was from. The destruction of the family farm left an indelible mark on Cesar Chavez, this seems to have brought out his "rebellious" side. The family packed up what they had left and went to California, like many other migrants; to pick tomatoes, plums, melons, berries, grapes, cotton or whatever they could get paid pennies to pick. Everyone was needed to work to put food on the table; the children would catch bits of school in between the traveling. In the winter of 1939, Cesar and his family lived in a soggy tent, working to pick peas for pennies an hour. Migrant workers, during these times, were treated some of the worst in the history of this country. John Steinbeck, the author, branded the California elite as "heartless" saying "No one complains at the necessity of feeding a horse when it is not working. But we complain about feeding the men and women who work our lands." I can go on for pages about how ill-treated these migrant farm workers were treated and some of the atrocities committed. However, I will now time-travel forward to Ces

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Approximate Word count = 1146
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)