Cesar Chavez. Leader, Organizer and Mexican American Hero in Labour History

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Biographies, grade: 1,3, University of Erfurt, language: English, abstract: This paper will introduce the Mexican American labour organizer Cesar Chavez to the reader. Since he was an important and inspiring person for the marginalized labour movement in the United States in the 1960s and 70s, his organization United Farm Workers Organization Committee (UFWOC), his achievements, beliefs and methods will be closely examined in this paper. His understanding of social change and shifting the power relations between workers and employers was closely linked with nonviolent action. Furthermore, the reasons for the non-violent actions will be analysed through the Ration Action Theory.

The paper consists of two parts: The first part will elaborate on the problems for foreigner field workers, how the organization and the social worker movement La Causa could be a solution to that and the meaning of Chavez persona and his methods. The second part of the paper follows the research question: Why is non-violence an adequate strategy to fight injustice on the farm fields?