{"id":272,"date":"2014-01-03T00:35:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T05:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/?p=272"},"modified":"2017-05-25T13:15:23","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T17:15:23","slug":"exemplar-of-forgiving-prisoner-cesar-e-chavez-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/2014\/01\/03\/exemplar-of-forgiving-prisoner-cesar-e-chavez-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cesar E. Chavez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chevez\"<\/a>Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American labor leader and the founder of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).\u00a0 The NFWA was the first union of farm workers in America. Chavez said, <\/em>\u201cFrom the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.\u201d[1]<\/a> <\/em>At the age of 15, Cesar realized that farm owners and contractors exploited migrant farm workers and he spoke out on behalf of the workers for higher wages and better working conditions, even as some of the workers did not share his views because they did not want to lose their jobs.[2]<\/a> However, in 1970, Chavez was imprisoned for about 20 days at the Monterey County Jail for refusing to end lettuce boycotts against Salinas Valley.[3] <\/a>\u00a0Chavez and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) had embarked on a strike in support of better working conditions for lettuce migrant workers.<\/p>\n

The Monterey County Jail was a three-story building which held male prisoners. Chavez’s imprisonment attracted sympathy from a lot of his followers and he was visited in prison by the wives of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy: Coretta Scott King and Ethel Kennedy.\u00a0 Many celebrities stopped coming to Salinas after Chavez was released, and by 1980 the Monterey County Jail was no longer used to hold and imprison inmates. According to Chavez,\u201cYou cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride.\u00a0 And you cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore\u201d.[4] \u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Chavez was credited as the first leader to speak out for justice for farm workers who had been neglected for a very long time. [5]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0Robert Kennedy described Cesar as “one of the heroic figures of out time.”[6<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Chavez had a turbulent upbringing, but because of his vision and foresight thousands of migrant farm workers\u2019 lives were improved and their communities were made safer.[7<\/a>] \u00a0\u00a0The Chavez family was a poor migrant farm-worker family; they did not have permanent homes because they traveled often picking seasonal fruits and vegetables.\u00a0 Migrant workers’ wages were low, they worked under very difficult conditions, and they did not have bathrooms, electricity and running water.\u00a0 It was acknowledged that the migrant nature of Cesar\u2019s parents affected his early education because the family was always moving.\u00a0 Cesar attended 30 different elementary schools and he left school at the age of 15 to become a migrant farm worker, so that he could help to support his family after his father was injured in a car accident.\u00a0\u00a0 For the young generation, Chavez said \u201cStudents must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves and be free.\u201d<\/em> [8<\/a>] \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Chavez was motivated by the work of St. Francis of Assisi and Mohandas K. Gandhi. He devoted himself to helping the poor through non-violence.\u00a0 He emulated the non-violence approach; he used strikes, boycotts, pickets, fasts, and marches to lead farm workers through years of struggle to win better working conditions for farm workers.\u00a0 Chavez maintained that \u201cin some cases non-violence requires more militancy than violence.\u201d[9<\/a>] \u00a0\u00a0He also added that our lives are all that really belong to us and it is how we use our lives that determine what kind of men we are. Cesar in his lifetime did not own a car or a house; he dedicated his life and struggle to fighting for the poor migrant farm workers.[10<\/a>] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Martin Luther King Jr., in a letter in support of Cesar\u2019s struggle, said “Our separate struggles are really one. A struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity.”[11<\/a>] \u00a0\u00a0Cesar was honored with the Aztec Eagle, Mexico\u2019s highest civilian award given to people of Mexican heritage who make major contributions outside of Mexico.\u00a0 Cesar also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was the second Mexican to receive the award from an American president. The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation has also been set up to promote the civil rights ideals of Cesar E. Chavez.<\/p>\n

[1] <\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u201cOn Charity As a Form of Protest – Moderate Majority,\u201d accessed December 30, 2013, http:\/\/www.moderatemajorityusa.org\/on_charity_as_a_form_of_protest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> <\/em>\u00a0\u201cIMA Hero: Cesar E. Chavez Biography,\u201d accessed December 22, 2013, http:\/\/www.imahero.com\/is\/bios\/cesarchavez.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[3] <\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u201cCesar Chavez a Forgotten Memory?,\u201d accessed December 22, 2013, http:\/\/cesarchavez93.wordpress.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[4] <\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u201cMarxist education:Education by Freire,\u201d accessed December 30, 2013, http:\/\/tx.cpusa.org\/school\/classics\/freire.htm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[5] <\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u201cHonoring C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez .. Could Be an Opportunity for Reparation. S\u00ed Se Puede \u2018Yes, We Can\u2019 | The Culture Zone,\u201d accessed December 22, 2013, http:\/\/www.theculturezone.com\/faith\/honoring-cesar-chavez-could-be-an-opportunity-for-reparation-si-se-puede-yes-we-can<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[6<\/a>] <\/em>\u00a0\u201cHonoring C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez .. Could Be an Opportunity for Reparation. S\u00ed Se Puede \u2018Yes, We Can\u2019 | The Culture Zone,\u201d accessed December 22, 2013, http:\/\/www.theculturezone.com\/faith\/honoring-cesar-chavez-could-be-an-opportunity-for-reparation-si-se-puede-yes-we-can<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[7<\/a>] <\/em>\u00a0I\u201cHonoring C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez .. Could Be an Opportunity for Reparation. S\u00ed Se Puede \u2018Yes, We Can\u2019 | The Culture Zone,\u201d accessed December 22, 2013, http:\/\/www.theculturezone.com\/faith\/honoring-cesar-chavez-could-be-an-opportunity-for-reparation-si-se-puede-yes-we-can<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[8<\/a>] <\/em>\u00a0I\u201cHonoring C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez .. Could Be an Opportunity for Reparation. S\u00ed Se Puede \u2018Yes, We Can\u2019 | The Culture Zone,\u201d accessed December 22, 2013, http:\/\/www.theculturezone.com\/faith\/honoring-cesar-chavez-could-be-an-opportunity-for-reparation-si-se-puede-yes-we-can<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[9<\/a>] <\/em>\u00a0\u201cIn Some Cases Non-Violence … by Cesar Chavez, an American Activist | GoodQuotes.com,\u201d accessed December 30, 2013, http:\/\/www.goodquotes.com\/quote\/cesar-chavez\/in-some-cases-non-violence-requires-mo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[10<\/a>] <\/em>\u00a0\u201cIMA Hero: Cesar E. Chavez Biography,\u201d accessed December 22, 2013, http:\/\/www.imahero.com\/is\/bios\/cesarchavez.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[11<\/a>] <\/em>\u00a0\u201cDr. Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s Legacy: Human Dignity and Respect for All,\u201d accessed December 30, 2013, http:\/\/www.seiu.org\/2013\/04\/dr-martin-luther-kings-legacy-human-dignity-and-re.php<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American labor leader and the founder of the NFWA, the first union of farm workers in America.\u00a0\u00a0 Chavez said,\u201cFrom the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1816,"featured_media":826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forgiving-prisoners-profiles","category-slideshow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacyresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}