Chavez's United Farm Workers

• 1962- Arizona-born Cesar Chavez- former migrant labourer & veteran civil rights activist formed the first union of framers set up since the Depression & the sole union controlled by Mexican Americans
• Small United Farm Worker (UFW) joined a strike started by Filipino farm workers against California's San Joaquin Valley grape growers


  1965
• Organised non-violent demonstrations

  1. Inspirational 300-mile march to the state capital

  2. Banner showing pride in Aztec & Catholic culture
• • Help of white middle-class liberals
  • Senator Robert Kennedy
  • UFW organised a national boycott of table grapes, supported at its peak by 17 million Americans


  1966
• Growers agreed to sign union contracts


  1970
• The triumph was somewhat short lived
• Grower opposition, mechanisation & rising immigration weakened the UFW
• By the late 1980's, UFW members harvested only 10% of the grapes
• • For many Chavez was a hero religiosity, encouragement of Catholic Church support, emphasis on non-violence & ability to inspire Time Magazine liken him to MLK
  • He gave ethnic Mexican workers their first positive & successful American role model
• Chavez & the UFW

  • Contributed to the eventual passage of exceptionally worker-friendly legalisation in California+
  • Helped galvanise Mexican Americans & Mexican immigrants into activism
  • Played an important part in stimulating a civil rights movement that inspired formerly quiescent Mexican Americans throughout the Southwest to a greater ethnic pride & purposefulness- led local & national GOV to pay greater attention to Mexican-American needs