名人轶事:Cesar Chavez Organized the First Successful Farm Worker

（单词翻译）

Cesar Chavez Organized the First Successful Farm Workers Union in America

Written by Robert Brumfield

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Nicole Nichols.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America.

Today we tell about one of the great labor¹ activists³, Cesar Chavez. He

organized the first successful farm workers union in American history.

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VOICE ONE:

Cesar Chavez      

Cesar Chavez was born on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona in nineteen twenty-

seven. In the late nineteenth century, Cesario Chavez, Cesar’s grandfather,

had started the Chavez family farm after escaping slavery on a Mexican farm.

Cesar Chavez spent his earliest years on this farm. When he was ten years old,

however, the economic conditions of the Great Depression forced his parents to

give up the family farm. He then became a migrant farm worker along with the

rest of his family.  

The Chavez family joined thousands of other farm workers who traveled around

the state of California to harvest crops for farm owners. They traveled from

place to place to harvest grapes, lettuce⁴, beets⁵ and many other crops. They

worked very hard and received little pay. These migrant workers had no

permanent homes. They lived in dirty, crowded camps. They had no bathrooms,

electricity or running water. Like the Chavez family, most of them came from

Mexico.

VOICE TWO:

Because his family traveled from place to place, Cesar Chavez attended more

than thirty schools as a child. He learned to read and write from his

grandmother. Mama Tella also taught him about the Catholic⁶ religion. Religion

later became an important tool for Mister Chavez. He used religion to organize

Mexican farm workers who were Catholic.

Cesar’s mother, Juana, taught him much about the importance of leading a non

-violent life. His mother was one of the greatest influences on his use of

non-violent methods to organize farm workers. His other influences were the

Indian activist² Mahatma Gandhi and American civil rights leader Martin Luther

King, Junior.

Mister Chavez said his real education began when he met the Catholic leader

Father Donald McDonnell. Cesar Chavez learned about the economics⁷ of farm

workers from the priest⁸. He also learned about Gandhi’s nonviolent political

actions as well as those of other great nonviolent leaders throughout history.

     

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen forty-eight, Mister Chavez married Helena Fabela whom he met while

working in the grape fields in central California. They settled in Sal Si

Puedes. Later, while Mister Chavez worked for little or no money to organize

farm workers, his wife harvested crops. In order to support their eight

children, she worked under the same bad conditions that Mister Chavez was

fighting against.

There were other important influences in his life. In nineteen fifty-two,

Mister Chavez met Fred Ross, an organizer with a workers’ rights group called

the Community Service Organization. Mister Chavez called Mister Ross the best

organizer he ever met. Mister Ross explained how poor people could build

power. Mister Chavez agreed to work for the Community Service Organization.

VOICE TWO: 

Mister Chavez worked for the organization for about ten years. During that

time, he helped more than five hundred thousand Latino citizens to vote. He

also gained old-age retirement⁹ money for fifty thousand Mexican immigrants. He

served as the organization’s national director.

However, in nineteen sixty-two, he left the organization. He wanted to do more

to help farm workers receive higher pay and better working conditions. He left

his well paid job to start organizing farm workers into a union.

Mister Chavez’s work affected¹⁰ many people. For example, the father of

Mexican-American musician Zack de la Rocha spent time working as an art

director for Mister Chavez. Much of the political music of de la Rocha’s

group, Rage Against the Machine, was about workers’ rights, like this song,

“Bomb Track.”  #p#副标题#e#
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VOICE ONE:

It took Mister Chavez and Delores Huerta, another former CSO organizer, three

years of hard work to build the National Farm Workers Association. Mister

Chavez traveled from town to town to bring in new members. He held small

meetings at workers’ houses to build support. The California-based

organization held its first strike in nineteen sixty-five. The National Farm

Workers Association became nationally known when it supported a strike against

grape growers. The group joined a strike organized by Filipino workers of the

Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. 

Mister Chavez knew that those who acted non-violently against violent action

would gain popular support. Mister Chavez asked that the strikers remain non-

violent even though the farm owners and their supporters sometimes used

violence.

VOICE TWO:

One month after the strike began, the group began to boycott¹¹ grapes. They

decided¹² to direct their action against one company, the Schenley Corporation.

The union followed grape trucks and demonstrated wherever the grapes were

taken. Later, union members and Filipino workers began a twenty-five day march

from Delano to Sacramento, California, to gain support for the boycott.

Schenley later signed a labor agreement with the National Farm Workers

Association. It was the first such agreement between farm workers and growers

in the United States.

VOICE ONE:

The union then began demonstrating against the Di Giorgio Corporation. It was

one of the largest grape growers in California. Di Giorgio held a vote and the

International Brotherhood¹³ of Teamsters was chosen to represent the farm

workers. But an investigation¹⁴ proved that the company and the Teamsters had

cheated in the election.

Another vote was held. Cesar Chavez agreed to combine his union with another

and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was formed. The farm workers

elected Mister Chavez’s union to represent them.  Di Giorgio soon signed a

labor agreement with the union.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Chavez often went for long periods without food to protest the

conditions under which the farm workers were forced to do their jobs. Mister

Chavez went on his first hunger strike, or fast, in nineteen sixty-eight. He

did not eat for twenty-five days. He was called a hero for taking this kind of

personal action to support the farm workers.

The union then took action against Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, the largest

producer of table grapes in the United States. It organized a boycott against

the company’s products. The boycott extended to all California table grapes.

By nineteen seventy, the company agreed to sign contracts. A number of other

growers did as well. By this time the grape strike had lasted for five years.

It was the longest strike and boycott in United States labor history. Cesar

Chavez had built a nationwide coalition¹⁵ of support among unions, church

groups, students, minorities and other Americans.

VOICE ONE:

By nineteen seventy-three, the union had changed its name to the United Farm

Workers of America. It called for another national boycott against grape

growers as relations again became tense. By nineteen seventy-five, a reported

seventeen million Americans were refusing to buy non-union grapes. The union’

s hard work helped in getting the Agricultural Labor Relations Act passed in

California, under Governor Jerry Brown. It was the first law in the nation

that protected the rights of farm workers.

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VOICE TWO: 

By the nineteen eighties, the UFW had helped tens of thousands of farm workers

gain higher pay, medical care, retirement benefits and better working and

living conditions. But relations between workers and growers in California

worsened under a new state government. Boycotts¹⁶ were again organized against

the grape industry. In nineteen eighty-eight, at the age of sixty-one, Mister

Chavez began another hunger strike. That fast lasted for thirty-six days and

almost killed him. The fast was to protest the poisoning of grape workers and

their children by the dangerous chemicals growers used to kill insects.

VOICE ONE:

Cesar Chavez died in nineteen ninety-three at the age of sixty-six. More than

fortythousand people attended his funeral. A year later, President Clinton

awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian¹⁷ honor in

the United States.

The United Farm Workers Union still fights for the rights of farm workers

throughout the United States. Many schools, streets, parks, libraries and

other public buildings have been named after Cesar Chavez. The great labor

leader always believed in the words “Si se puede.”  “It can be done.”     

       
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VOICE TWO: 

This Special English Program was written and produced by Robert Brumfield. I’

m Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE: 

And I’m Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for another People in America

Program on the Voice of America.