César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was an American labor organiser and civil rights leader who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association — later the United Farm Workers (UFW) — with Dolores Huerta in 1962. A migrant farmworker himself, Chávez dedicated his life to improving wages, working conditions, and legal protections for agricultural labourers, who were excluded from most New Deal-era labour legislation. His tactics were explicitly nonviolent, drawing on the examples of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr: prolonged fasts (the longest 36 days), mass strikes, and the historic Delano grape boycott (1965–70) that drew national attention and forced growers to the bargaining table. His 1966 march from Delano to Sacramento covered 340 miles and became a defining symbol of the Chicano civil rights movement. He remained a tireless advocate for farmworkers until his death in 1993, fasting for the last time in 1988 at age 61. Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1994).
- Lived: 1927 CE – 1993 CE
- Nationality: American
- Roles: labor organiser, civil rights activist, co-founder UFW
