Cesar Chavez Foundation history

Cesar’s career in community organizing began in 1952 when he was recruited and trained by Fred Ross, a legendary community organizer who was forming the San Jose chapter of the Community Service Organization, the most prominent Latino civil rights group of its time.

On his birthday, March 31, in 1962, Cesar resigned from the CSO, leaving the first decent-paying job he had ever had with the security of a regular paycheck.

These early efforts quickly grew, and the National Farm Workers Service Center was introduced in 1966 to build affordable housing for the elderly and displaced Filipino-American farmworkers.

In 1968, Cesar’s insistence on nonviolence drew dissent from some union staff and young male strikers who were frustrated by slow progress during the grape strike and anxious to retaliate against abusive growers.

Cesar had his second 25-day fast in 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona, over the enactment of the state’s punitive law making it impossible for farm workers to organize.

The UFW opposed penalizing employers for hiring undocumented workers and championed immigration reform as early as 1973.

The enduring legacies of César E. Chávez and the farm worker movement include passage of California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, the first law in the United States that recognized farm workers' collective bargaining rights.