Si Se Puede

        Migrant Labor was very well known during the years of 1930's when droughts, the depression, and the increased of mechanization of farming was present in the states of the Midwest of the United States and further. Migrant Labor was in charge of traveling from place to place harvesting crops that had to be picked by the time they started to ripen. Many of the conditions were very poor and unsanitary so efforts to enforce these conditions as well as preventing child labor and protecting the workers from exploitation were a success in the mid 1960s. An organization of migrant workers began to developed in the west under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. He was a mexican-american labor leader who wanted better conditions for the migrant farm workers in the grape fields of California. In order for this to happen he took action and formed the National Farm Workers Association which used strikes, fasts, and marches and was able to obtain contracts from a number of major farm growers. In the year of 1966 his organization merged with Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee of the AFL-CIO to form the United Farm Workers, which Caesar Chavez then became the president of this committee and a member union of the AFL-CIO. In order to expand his efforts to other states and to see the conditions that these workers would work in led to lettuce boycotting and extended his organizational efforts to Florida citrus workers. During his efforts of marching many college students, preachers, and lots of Filipino farm workers as well joined the march which started in Delano, California and marched all the way to the state capitol Sacramento. During his march to Sacramento he encourage all Americans to boycott table grapes which lasted five years and in 1966 the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare's subcommittee on Migratory Labor held hearings in California during the strikes. At this time one of the subcommittee member Robert F. Kennedy expressed his support for the strike and causes that Cesar was encouraging. Throughout this entire movement and effort of trying to get better conditions and health rights for migrant farm workers, Cesar believed in nonviolence so no violence was being used or initiated. He believed in Gandhi's beliefs/ movement of nonviolence while striving for India's independence. Lots of people who watched as Cesar marched towards Sacramento acted and supported by also joining the march and boycotting grapes from California to achieve and win victory.   



    

"Cesar Estrada Chavez." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2011): 1. Literary

            Reference Center. Web. 18 Apr. 2012