Unit 11, Lesson 11: Migrants

Cesar Chavez talking to a group of grape pickers about the United Farm Workers Union.

Where we’re headed…

• Imagine moving from place to place, picking crops from early morning to night, living in tents or one-room buildings without indoor plumbing, and never making enough money to get ahead.

• That's what migrant workers and their families had to face—until one migrant worker decided to do something about it.

Objectives for this lesson:

• Describe the hardships Mexican migrant workers faced in the United States.

• Identify César Chávez and the means he used to organize farm workers.

Migrant (worker)

• A person who moves from place to place to get work, especially a farm laborer who harvests crops seasonally.

What service do most migrant workers provide?

Where do most Mexican migrant workers find work?

Why did many owners of large farms want to hire the migrant workers?

Now you’ll read a story about a migrant family. As you read, think of how you would feel if you were in their shoes.

Page 228

• Lucía and María Mendoza, 18 and 17, stumbled out of bed at 2 a.m., dressed in the dark, went into the kitchen of their adobe house, made a lunch of tacos and soda pop, and filled a thermos with hot soup. Then they woke their dad and their younger brother. Soon the four of them were heading north, toward the border between Mexico and the United States. They were on their way to pick lettuce in California. Each of them expected to make $16 that Tuesday. It wasn’t much, but it was more than they could earn at home. They would use short-handled hoes that kept them bent over all day. It was hot, dusty, backbreaking work. The Mendozas were soon part of a line of cars making for the picking fields.

Pages 228-229 • These Mexican farmworkers were entering the United States

legally. They were wanted to help harvest crops to feed people across the nation. But some of them would stay in the United States illegally. Hundreds of thousands of them had already done it. Most of those illegal immigrants had little schooling and few marketable skills. They were crowded in cities in poor districts (barrios). Their children needed to go to school. They needed job training and help. All that cost taxpayer money. Some Americans resented them.

• Many said the Mexicans took jobs from American citizens, especially from Mexican Americans. It wasn’t their fault that they took those jobs. The growers wanted them instead of Americans because they would work for less money. They could live on less. Life in Mexico was cheaper than life in the United States.

Page 229

• Once they were across the border, the Mendozas parked their car and walked to a place where workers were hired for agricultural jobs. By 3:30 a.m. they were settled just behind the driver in an old, rattletrap bus heading north toward lettuce fields. Most of the 46 passengers tried to sleep. They knew they had a long ride ahead of them, and it was still dark. Later, one passenger would remember that they had been going very fast when the driver missed a curve and the bus became airborne—crashing into the bank of a canal, bouncing off that bank to the other bank, and settling in a shallow waterway. All the seats in the old bus flew out of their sockets in a mess of arms, legs, twisted metal, and broken glass. Nineteen passengers were trapped in the bottom of the bus; they drowned in two and a half feet of water. The four Mendozas were among them.

What hardships did Mexican migrant workers face in America?

These migrant workers are picking grapes in California. One farmer said, “We need Mexicans for their labor, for the same reason you need a mule.”

Huddled in a miserable shack in California, this migrant woman and child likely moved to an equally awful hovel on another farm within weeks.

Now you’ll read about a brave migrant worker who decided he was going to make things better for himself, his family, and for other migrant workers.

Page 229

• César Chávez wept for Lucía and María and the others who lay in silent caskets. Chávez was an American of Mexican heritage. Like most of the 2,000 mourners at a special funeral mass for the victims, he was a devout Roman Catholic. Everyone knew Chávez. He was the leader of the Farm Workers Association and famous. They knew he cared about people, especially farmworkers. They wanted to hear what he had to say. Speaking in Spanish, Chávez told them:

• This tragedy happened because of the greed of the big growers who do not care about the safety of the workers and who expose them to grave dangers when they transport them in wheeled coffins to the field.

• The workers learned long ago that growers and labor contractors have too little regard for the value of any individual worker’s life. The trucks and buses are old and unsafe. The fields are sprayed with poisons. The laws that do exist are not enforced. How long will it be before we take seriously the importance of the workers who harvest the food we eat?

Page 230 • Chávez knew all about harvesting food. He had been a migrant

worker himself, traveling from bean fields to walnut groves to grape arbors, following the harvest of the seasons. That meant living in a tent or whatever room could be found. When he was a boy, it meant changing schools as often as he changed picking fields. It meant sometimes not having shoes or a bathroom to use. By the time César graduated from eighth grade he had attended 38 different schools. There was something special about Chávez, although it was hard to decide quite what it was. He had a pleasant, round face with brown skin and dark straight hair—there was nothing out of the ordinary about that. He was a gentle man, and he didn’t boast or call attention to himself. But when he had a job to do he did it carefully and well. He could be trusted; he was honest, thoroughly honest. So when people needed help, they often turned to him.

Page 230

• Fred Ross, an organizer who came to California to try to help the farmworkers, heard about César Chávez and gave him a job with the Community Service Organization, which helped poor people deal with many kinds of problems. Chávez was soon helping those people find housing, medical care, food, and, if they needed legal aid, a lawyer. He got them to register to vote, and he made them realize the power of the vote. Then he began to think about starting a labor union for farmworkers. A labor union is an organization of people, usually all doing the same kind of work, who get together to try to make life better for themselves. Factory unions are easy to organize—most of the workers are together in one place—but getting agricultural workers organized isn’t easy at all. In California, farmworkers labored on thousands of farms that stretched the length of the state. Chávez knew that many growers took advantage of workers. They paid them little, they ignored unsafe conditions, they got their children to work even though that was against the law, and sometimes they cheated them on their pay. By themselves the workers had no power, but if Chávez could organize them into a union, they could demand fair wages and safe conditions.

Page 231

• César Chávez had a wife, eight children, and that steady job with the CSO. When he told his wife he wanted to quit his job to try to start a union, what do you think she said? She knew the family might go hungry if he had no regular work. What would you say? Helen Chávez said okay. She understood that if La Causa—the cause—were successful, it would help millions of people. And, knowing César, Helen Chávez thought there was a good chance it would be successful.

• It was 1962, and César Chávez started going from farm to farm, talking to workers. Three years later, his Farm Workers Association voted to join Filipino farm workers in a strike against the grape growers. The workers refused to pick grapes until they got better pay and better working conditions. Then the growers hired other pickers. Union members marched near the grape fields with signs that said Huelga!, which means strike in Spanish. Chávez convinced some of the new pickers to stop work and strike with them.

Page 232

• Grapes began rotting because no one was picking them. The growers were furious; union members were attacked and beaten. The police helped the growers.

• César Chávez had been inspired by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and his own religious beliefs. He insisted that the farmworkers fight with peaceful marches and prayers. Nonviolence, he told them, took more courage than violence. He also believed that it achieved more. It appealed to the conscience of good people everywhere.

Page 232

• Chávez needed to draw attention to La Causa. He decided that a 300-mile march across much of California might just do it. He got university students and religious leaders to agree to march with the farmworkers. Look at a map and find someplace that is 300 miles from your home. Now imagine walking that far. Chávez’s feet became blistered and his legs swollen. He could hardly walk—but he kept going. Television cameras whirred. Suddenly everyone knew about La Causa.

• Some farm owners called César Chávez a communist (he wasn’t), but most people believed he was on the side of justice and fairness. Finally, a few growers signed contracts with the union—but most still would not. (About this time, the Farm Workers Association was renamed the United Farm Workers; it became part of a national union—the AFL-CIO.)

Page 232

• Chávez announced a boycott. He was going to ask people across the United States not to buy grapes grown in California. But boycotts work slowly, and some of his union members were impatient. They wanted to use violent methods.

• Chávez had to do something to control them and to make the growers pay fair wages. He did what Gandhi did. He went on a fast. For 25 days he ate no food. Finally, 26 growers signed contracts with the union.

• César Chávez started eating again.

What tactics did César Chávez use to win recognition of his union?

César Chávez devoted his life to helping migrant farmworkers.

César Chávez marches with migrant workers. They trusted him because he was one of them; he had lived their life and understood its hardships.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIgIaI5AVpY

Homework • Review pages 228-232 and

complete questions 1-5 on pages 210 & 211 in your Student Guide.

• Optional: Use the information in today’s reading and the Profile sheet to write a Profile of Courage for César Chavez. You can also view the websites on the next slide for additional information on him.

• Complete Unit 11, Lesson 11 Assessment.

• Read Chapter 53 & 54, pages 233-241.

What to Learn More?

America's Story: César Chávez

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/chavez/aa_chavez_subj.html

A brief biography of César Chávez.

United Farm Workers: The Story of César Chávez

http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?inc=history/07.html&menu=research

Details the story of César Chávez

American Hero: César Chávez

http://www.chavezfoundation.org/_page.php?code=001001000000000

The United Farm Workers website details the history of César Chávez