Welcome to Horace Mann Middle School's site on:

César Chávez

Chavez was born in 1927 and he died in 1993 at the age of 66. Cesar Chavez is known as the nation's foremost (most famous, most important) Latino civil rights leader. He organized a nationwide grape boycott to improve working conditions for farm workers during the 1960s, and led 70 members on a 340-mile march from rural (in the farmland area, not in an urban or city area) town of Delano to the steps of the state Capitol in 1966. By the time it reached Sacramento, the contingent (group) had swelled to 10,000 people.

Cesar Chavez worked hard to change the poor conditions of the farm workers in the United States, and he emphasized non-violence. He helped organize the United Farm Workers Union which continues today.

California became the first state to commemorate (recognize and celebrate) his birthday with a holiday on the Monday or Friday that falls closest to March 31, his birthday.

Above mural "Si Se Puede," © 1995 World Rights Reserved By Susan Kelk Cervantes. Cesar Chavez Elementary School, Folsom and 23rd Streets, San Francisco, CA

 

A WebQuest for Middle School Students

 

A. About Cesar Chavez

1. Biography: When was he born and when did he die? How old was he when he died? When is his birthday? [The answers are in the introduction.]

[The answers for questions 2 - 7 are found at this site.]

2. What happened to Cesar's family's house and farmland when he was ten years old? What did his family have to do in 1938 as a result? [The answers are in the 4th and 5th paragraphs.]

3. What were some of the problems he faced while doing farm work?

4. In 1944, what did he do? What work did he do right after that?

5. Cesar was successful registering [signing up] more than 2,000 workers in just two months. But as a result, what happened to his day job? [The answer is in the 10th paragraph.]

6. By 1962 he devoted his time to organizing farm workers. What did his wife do to support their children?

7. By 1973, what two crops were boycotted by the new United Farm Workers of America Union? [The answers are in the second from the last paragraph.]

8. What did Mahatma Gandhi (a leader in India), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez have in common? (The answer about Gandhi is in the title, and more is near the bottom of this site, third statement from the end.The answer about Dr. King is the 9th paragraph down from the top.)

Answer: They all believed in ___________________________ .

B. Problems of Farm workers Today - There is still much to be done!

1. Children are still working in the fields. What are their biggest problems? (Human Rights Watch)

2. Go to the "Impact on Education" section of AFOP Children in the Fields Fact Sheet. What problems do young farm workers have in schools? Back up your information by citing at least three statistics. For example: [1] The dropout rate for migrants is _____%. For the rest of America, the rate is ____%. [2] One in _______ completes the 12th grade. [3] The average level of education for a farmworker is ___________ grade.

3. Go to the "Impact on Health" section of AFOC Children in the Fields Fact Sheet. What problems do young farm workers have in health? Back up your information by citing at least three of these statistics. For example: [1] The life expectancy for the migrant worker is 49 years, compared to 73 years for the general US population. [2] The infant _____________ rate for migrants is ____% higher than the national average. [3] Children in agriculture are exposed to a range of ___________________ each year. A report in 1990 of migrant children in New York found that more than _______percent had been sprayed and another ______% had worked in the fields while the fields were still wet.

4. How many child farm workers are laboring under dangerous and grueling conditions in the United States?

  • How much do some of them make an hour?
  • How many hours do they often work in a day? (Human Rights Watch)

5. Can young children work as farm workers? How old does someone have to be to work in the fields (full time and part-time)?

6. Low pay for long hours of work. (Human Rights Watch) Agricultural workers aged fourteen through seventeen earned just over $........ an hour, on average. Younger ones could earn even less. Income: The average annual [yearly] income [money earned] for a farm worker family is less than $.................. per year compared to more than $28,000 for the average American family. [Center for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics]

7. Why are farm workers so poor? How are children kept in poverty for the rest of their lives? List at least three reasons given.

8. What is the federal minimum wage now per hour? There are proposals to raise it in both houses (U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives) over three years to $1 more per hour.

9. Which ethnic group has the most people earning minimum wage?

  • 59% of workers on minimum wage are women.
  • 15.1% of workers on minimum wage are African-American.
  • 17.4% of workers on minimum wage are Hispanic (Latino).
  • More than 10% of the entire U.S. work force lives on minimum wage, that is 11.8 million workers.

10. Does having a minimum wage law guarantee that young farm workers will receive that amount of money? [See exemptions and sub-minimum wage for employees under 20 years of age] ______________. Sometimes they earn as little as $___ an hour.

C. Accomplishments of César Chávez

Read this long list of accomplishments. Which two do you think were the most important? Why?

  • In carrying out his mission, Cesar Chavez developed and lived a unique blend of values, philosophy and styles, including dedication to: non-violence, volunteerism, public action, "Si Se Puede," egalitarianism , education of heart, solidarity/unity, respect for all cultures, religions and lifestyles.
  • The first collective bargaining agreement between farm workers and growers in the continental United States was signed in 1966.
  • The first union contracts requiring rest periods, clean drinking water, hand-washing facilities, protective clothing against pesticide spraying while workers are in the fields and banning [making it illegal, stopping by law] DDT and other dangerous pesticides [poisons to kill insects and other animal pests; they are also dangerous to humans].
  • The first union contracts replacing farm labor contractors with union hiring halls to guarantee farm workers seniority rights and job security.
  • Establishing the first comprehensive union health benefits for farm workers and their families through the UFW's Robert F. Kennedy Medical Plan.
  • The first union contracts - in the mid and late 1960s - restricting [limiting] use of dangerous pesticides and requiring testing of farm workers on a regular basis to monitor [to check on a regular basis] for pesticide exposure.
  • The first union contracts regulating safety and sanitary conditions in farm labor camps, banning discrimination in employment and sexual harassment of female workers.
  • Abolition [making illegal and stopping the use of] of the infamous [famous for a bad reason] short-handled hoe that crippled generations of farm workers
  • Extension of state coverage for unemployment, disability and worker's compensation benefits, as well as amnesty rights for immigrants and public assistance for farm workers.
  • Establishing in 1966 the National Farm Worker Service Center, an organization that also builds single-family homes and rental complexes for low-income farm workers and other rural residents.
  • April 23, 1990, Chavez signed IMSS agreement with Mexican government, allowing Mexican farm workers in the U.S. to provide medical benefits to their families in Mexico.

    Source: Vida en El Valle, March 25-31, 1998, as presented on SFSU site.

     

Human Rights Watch: Girl Harvesting Spinach in Texas

D. Vocabulary Challenge - Matching

 

___ 1. infamous

A. city areas, not in the country or on farms

___ 2. urban

B. areas outside the cities; farms and country land

___ 3. rural

C. poisons to kill insects, mice and other pests

___ 4. pesticide

D. famous for bad reasons; hated by many people

___ 5. to monitor

E. money made in one year

___ 6. to restrict

F. the lowest pay for an hour's work by law

___ 7. annual income

G. to limit

___ 8. to commemorate

H. to sign up; to get into membership

___ 9. minimum wage

I. to recognize and celebrate

___10. to register members

J. to check on; to be sure something is going well

E. Look at some of Cesar Chavez's quotations. Which one or two do you think are the most powerful? Can you find one or two with some effective metaphors?

 

Additional Resources for Teachers and Students

Garden Project at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Francisco

Chavez Curriculum Materials from the State of California

[ The state Board of Education adopted a model curriculum on the life and work of Cesar Chavez on Wednesday, fulfilling a key provision of the law passed in 2000 that declared a state holiday in honor of the farm labor leader.

The optional curriculum, which is available online, meets the state's academic content standards for history and social science, and provides suggestions for community service projects students can undertake to honor Chavez's memory.

In addition to detailing Chavez's life and work, the curriculum includes topics like pesticides, immigration and agriculture's role in the economy.]

Viva Cásar Chávez - Activities, news articles, interviews, speeches, biography, and photo gallery (from S.F. State University)

Si, Se Puede! Cesar Chavez and his Legacy (from University of California at Los Angeles - U.C.L.A and U.C. Riverside) includes a biography, exhibit of photos of farm workers' housing, quotations, UFW buttons, and more.

A biography of César Chávez (from the site of an elementary school named after him).

A very brief Biography of César Chávez in English and Biografía de César Chávez en español (from Oakland Public Library).

United Farm workers Home Page includes a biography: The Story of Cesar Chavez, History of the UFW and Historia en español, and more. Quicktime movies are also identified (7-minute video, download time varies, but takes up to two minutes for the full screen version on our school's T-1 line). All articles are in English and Spanish.

 

"The Fight in the Fields" is a documentary film broadcast on PBS (Channel 9) Also in Spanish: "El Combate por los Campos - Más sobre la película"

 

Human Rights Watch: What can we do about Child Labor violations? See what they suggest and read their alerts about violations that are happening today. Also see their Questions and Answers about Child Farm workers and How Can I Help? and What Can I do? (Available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and other languages.) You may also be interested in the complete report and findings: "Fingers to the Bone, U.S. Failure to Protect Farm Workers" with its findings about wages, health and safety issues, underage workers, etc.

UCLA site