192 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
1942 U.S. and Mexican governments reach an agreement to
allow Mexican migrant farmworkers into the United States as
temporary workers during annual harvest seasons. The Mexican
government agrees to the program as a method of safeguard-
ing the treatment of its citizens working on the U.S. farms.
1947 Labor organizer Ernesto Galarza makes an unsuccessful
attempt to organize farmworkers.
1952 César Chávez, a Mexican American born in Arizona, joins the
Community Service Organization (CSO), a grassroots political
movement founded by activist Saul Alinsky. The group’s main
focus is voter registration.
1953 The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service launches
Operation Wetback, arresting and deporting more than 3.8 mil-
lion persons of Mexican descent through 1958. Many U.S. citi-
zens are deported unfairly, including political activist Luisa
Moreno and other Mexican-American leaders.
1955 Dolores Huerta, a former elementary schoolteacher, joins the
CSO.
1958 César Chávez becomes general director of the CSO.
1962 Chávez and Huerta resign from the CSO to organize the
National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) in Delano,
California.
1964 The bracero program finally ends, in part due to pressure
from the NFWA and its supporters. That same year, President
Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The new law
prohibits racial discrimination and establishes affirmative action
programs to remove discrimination in advertising, recruitment,
hiring, job classification, promotion, wages, and conditions of
employment.
1965 On September 8, Filipino farmworkers from the Agricultural
Workers Organizing Committee strike the Di Giorgio
Corporation, a large grape grower in the San Joaquin Valley of
California, demanding recognition of their organization and
higher wages. The following week, Chávez and Huerta lead
the NFWA in a vote to join the Agricultural Workers
Organizing Committee strike. Following the vote, the National
Farm Workers Association launches a grape boycott, targeting
the Di Giorgio Corporation and Schenley Industries, another
grower. On December 15, Walter Reuther, president of the
United Auto Workers (UAW), flies to Delano, California, to sup-
port César Chávez. He divides a $5,000 strike contribution
between the National Farm Workers Association and the
Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. His presence
pressures the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest union, to support
the farm labor strike.
1966 From March 17 to April 11, César Chávez and the National
Farm Workers Association march from Delano to the California
capital in Sacramento to publicize their strike. They arrive on
Easter Sunday. On August 22, the NFWA and the Agricultural
Workers Organizing Committee unite to form the United Farm
Workers Organizing Committee (UFW). Shortly thereafter, the Di
Giorgio Cororation grants the UFW membership a contract.1968 On February 15, Chávez begins a 25-day fast at Forty Acres,
near Delano, California. He proclaims that the fast is to show
penitence for morale problems in the United Farm Workers and
to discourage threats of violence against his followers. Shortly
thereafter, he appears in court to respond to an injunction filed
by the Giumarra Corporation aimed at prohibiting picketing by
the UFW. Chávez is too weak from his hunger strike to testify,
and the incident gains national attention and sympathy. On
March 10, he breaks his fast at a Catholic mass in Delano’s pub-
lic park with 4,000 supporters at his side, including Senator
Robert Kennedy.
1970 The UFW wins a major victory when 40 growers in California’s
Coachella Valley ask to negotiate contracts with the union.
Huerta leads two months of negotiations that result in better
pay, a union hiring hall, creation of formal grievance procedures,
restrictions on the use of pesticides, rehiring of strikers, and
employer contributions to a health fund. In another victory,
grape growers in Delano sign three-year contracts with the
UFW. Meanwhile, when Chávez refuses to call off a lettuce boy-
cott, he is jailed and then released, pending an appeal to the
California Supreme Court.
1972 In August, the UFW files suit in Phoenix, Arizona, to bar the
enforcement of the Arizona Agricultural Relations Act, a law that
would have prohibited picketing during harvesttime. That same
year, the UFW helps defeat Proposition 22, a California bill that
would have restricted workers’ right to organize boycotts.
1973 In the spring, the Teamsters Union forms the Agricultural
Workers Organizing Committee to compete with the UFW. On
April 13, Chávez calls for UFW strikes after the growers sign
agreements with the Teamsters. On August 16, Juan de la Cruz,
a 60-year-old UFW member, is shot to death by a strike break-
er. The strikes last through November 1974.
1975 California governor Edmund Brown Jr., an ally of Chávez’s,
signs the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, a landmark piece of
legislation that establishes collective bargaining for the state’s
farmworkers.CÉSAR CHÁVEZ
AND THE UNITED FARM WORKERS MOVEMENT
César Chávez
(AFL-CIO)