Early Life of Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona in March 31, 1927 to immigrant parents that were strict and taught him the importance of hard work, education, and respect. They also taught Cesar Chavez and his brothers and sisters to help others. His grandmothers also taught him the importance of religious faith and to have a strong belief in God. As a young boy Cesar Chavez worked on his family farm feeding the animals and bringing water to the house. Cesar Chavez’s parents thought that school was important, but Cesar Chavez found school was hard because he only knew Spanish and the teacher only spoke in English. It was forbidden for student to speak Spanish in school and for that Cesar Chavez was punished with a ruler to his knuckles. But later on he did learn to read English and write it in school. In 1938, when Cesar Chavez was 10 ,he and his family moved to California and lived in La Colonial Barrio in Oxnard because they did not have enough money to pay for their home. They only stayed there for an short period of time and then return back to Arizona .But they moved back in 1939 and they travel up and down the state working in the fields , picking fruits and vegetables from farm to farm just like other family. Cesar Chavez went to 38 schools before he gave up after finishing the 8 grade. While working in the farms they lived in small, overcrowded, dirty, one room shacks or tents. Working in the farms was hard work, there weren’t that many bathrooms and they had little clean water to drink. Farm workers weren't treated with respect and they were often cheated by their employers. Children also had to work in the farms. Cesar Chavez's family earned about 300 dollars the first year they worked in farms. In 1940, Cesar Chavez's family settled in Delano, a small farm town in the California’s San Joaquin valley. Cesar and Rita would help the immigrant farm workers by driving them to the hospital. The immigrant farm worker would often offer him money for gas and for his help, but he would never take any of it. In 1942, his father, Librado, had an accident and was not eligible to work. Cesar didn't want to his mother, Juana, to work in the fields so he gave up school in the 8 grade and started to work in the fields. In 1946 when Cesar Chavez was 17,he enlisted in the Navy for 2 years .When he was discharged in 1948, he moved to Delano and married Helen Favela. Later on they moved to San Jose, where their first child, Fernando was born. Later on they had 7 children – Fernando, Linda, Paul, Eloise, Sylvia and Anthony. While in San Jose ,Cesar met with a local activist Catholic priest, Donald McDonnell, who influenced him and introduced him to the writing of Gandhi and St.Francis.In 1953,another person that was a big influence to Cesar Chavez arrived to San Jose. That person name was Fred Ross and he was an organizer with the Community Service Organization, who recruited Cesar Chavez to join and helped its members with immigration and tax problems, and taught them how to organize to deal with problems like police violence and discrimination immigration and tax problems, and taught them how to organize to deal with problems like police violence and discrimination.