Work of Cesar Chavez

• Mexican Americans


  Worked & lived mostly in states bordering Mexico
• Around 80% of Mexican Americans lived in urban ghettos where they suffered from high unemployment, segregated schools, poor housing & police discrimination


  1968
• First half of the 20th century


  • Middle-class Mexican Americans established civil rights organisations- League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
• By early 1960's


  Mexican Americans won some important local victories on segregation but didn't gain great support, attention or political clout
• Many Mexican Americans were poorly educated, were not US citizens & hoped for an eventual return to Mexico, avoided organisations like LULAC and mainstream US politics
• This was particularly the case with horribly exploited Mexican farmers in California, many of whom were illegal immigrants fearful of being sent back to Mexico
• • California's- San Joaquin Valley- rich farming area where migrant Mexican-Americans farmers earned minimum wage or less for planting, harvesting the vegetables & fruits that fed America
  • Many spent whole days bent at the waist because their employers gave them short hoes
  • Their health was further jeopardised by the powerful disinfectants with which the crops had been sprayed
  • The workers had no protection from federal or state authorities- were not voters- politicians ignored them