The history of agriculture in the United States is one of hardship for the men and women who have worked the land From an agricultural economy based on slavery in the pre Civil War South to the millions of migrant workers who toil in fields today farm labor in the United States has rarely been kind to its workers In the 1960s one person became the voice of a movement that worked to create better conditions for farm laborers That man was Cesar Chavez As a boy from a family of migrant workers and later one himself Chavez knew firsthand the injustices farm laborers faced His tireless activism brought national attention to the dangers of farmwork His dedication and message of nonviolence earned the support of millions This is his story 4 A Voice for Millions MORE TO KNOW Cesar Chavez was committed to standing up to injustice He said (cid:29)ere has to be someone who is willing to do it who is willing to take whatever risks are required
Cesar Chavez a Mexican American is considered to be one of the most important Latino leaders in history What Is a Primary Source This book uses primary sources to tell Cesar Chavez’s story Primary sources are documents or objects that were created during a time of history They include speeches letters interviews artwork objects and more Primary sources are important because they give us a powerful sense of history allowing us to study it through the eyes of people who lived it By understanding Cesar Chavez’s own words we can better know the man behind the movement that changed history 5
What Was the Great Depression The Great Depression was a time of great economic suffering around the world In October 1929 the US stock market crashed Banks and businesses lost millions of dollars By 1933 over 16 million Americans were unemployed With no work and no money they were unable to buy food for their families Millions of families like Cesar’s lost their homes and their businesses The terrible suffering forced many people to move in search of work which meant leaving behind everything they knew Cesar Chavez was born March 31 1927 near Yuma Arizona He was named after his grandfather who immigrated to Arizona from Mexico in the 1880s Cesar was the second-oldest child in a family with six children His parents owned a ranch and ran a small store When Cesar was young his family had enough money to live comfortably However his father was cheated by an Anglo or white landowner which hurt the Chavez family financially At the same time the Great Depression had taken hold in the United States Chavez remembered The Great Depression meant nothing to me then but was a condition that would deeply scar (cid:127) 6 Growing Up During the Great Depression
our lives despite my father’s hard work Cesar’s family didn’t have money to pay the taxes on their land and business They lost them both (cid:127) States in the western and central part of the United States were hit with severe droughts or long periods of no rain during the 1930s The land dried up and became unworkable Farmers were already suffering because of the Depression and were often forced to leave their land 7 MORE TO KNOW When Cesar’s relatives lost their jobs during the Great Depression his father gave them credit from his store even though they couldn’t pay it back Eventually the loss of goods and lack of money forced his father to lose his store
