¡Viva la Causa!

Note: The rallying cry ¡Viva la causa! is Spanish for “Long live the cause!”

Narrator E: Nearly 30 years after Chavez arrived in California, life for farmworkers hasn’t improved. Migrant workers have little say in their hours, pay, or work conditions.

Narrator A: By September 1965, Mexican-American grape pickers in the farm town of Delano, Cali­fornia, have decided they’ve had enough.

Roberto: The way we’re treated is shameful. We have hardly any breaks, and we don’t even get drinking water in the fields.

José: We sweat in this heat all day, hunched over, picking grapes—and for what? A few dollars?

Roberto: It’ll get worse. I hear the growers are planning to cut our pay.

José: We barely make enough to support our families now, even with our wives and children working too!

Roberto: It’s time we stood up for ourselves—even if it means losing our jobs.

Narrator B: Meanwhile, on September 8, 1965, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a union of mostly Filipino-American farm­workers, begins a strike of the Delano vineyards.

Larry Itliong: Our members won’t harvest any more grapes until their pay is raised to at least $1.40 an hour. If the AWOC sticks together, the growers will meet our terms.

Philip Vera Cruz: There’s just one problem. Mexican-American farmworkers are still harvesting grapes. As long as they’re working, the growers don’t need us. They’ll never agree to our demands.

Itliong: True. We need to get all the grape pickers on board. Many of the Mexican-American workers are part of Chavez’s union. Maybe he can convince them to join us.

Narrator C: The AWOC meets with Chavez, hoping to get the much-larger NFWA on its side.

Itliong: Cesar, we need your help. A strike is the only way to show growers that our workers deserve better conditions and pay. But we can’t do it alone.

Vera Cruz: To force the growers to meet our demands, we need you and the NFWA to strike with us.

Cesar Chavez: We’ll join you, as long as no violence is used. We’ll keep pressure on Delano, but let’s focus our efforts on one of the largest growers instead of trying to hit all of them. Schenley Industries has more than 3,000 acres of vineyards and employs hundreds of migrant workers. If we can make Schenley cave, nearby growers might follow suit.

Itliong: That sounds like a plan.

Chavez: I’ll start by reaching out to local church leaders and college students. If we tell them about the farmworkers’ situation, they might join us. The more folks on our side, the stronger our strike will be.

Narrator D: Under Chavez’s direction, teams of farmworkers, students, and other activists start protesting each day at 4 a.m. They crowd the roads along the vineyards, disrupting trucks trying to transport grapes to market.

Protesters: Huelga! Huelga! [Spanish for Strike! Strike!] We deserve better pay! Huelga! Huelga! We deserve better pay!

Narrator E: The protesters try to convince grape pickers in the fields to walk off the job.

Fernando: Leave the fruit on the vine and join our picket line.

Silvia: Don’t let the growers win!

Narrator A: The picketing slows the harvest and angers the growers.

Boss: Hey, foreman! Get those strikers out of here. Half our workers have walked off the job. I can’t afford to lose any more people today. We’re already behind schedule on the harvest. I don’t want our grapes to rot on the vines.

Ray: Understood. I’ll stir up trouble and call the cops if I need to.

Narrator B: Ray and other foremen race tractors down the roads to swirl up clouds of dust. They spray insecticide and fertilizer at protesters. Local police mostly side with the growers and arrest protesters for minor offenses.

Narrator C: But the strikers refuse to go back to work. Schenley has to bus in farmworkers from other parts of California and even Mexico. The inexperienced replacements work slowly and damage the grapes. That hurts growers’ profits, because damaged fruit sells for less money.

Narrator D: By December 1965, Schenley still hasn’t agreed to any of the strikers’ demands.

Chavez: Support for our cause is growing. Our picketers convinced some longshoremen in San Francisco not to load Delano grapes onto a ship bound for Asia.

Dolores Huerta: I heard! More than a thousand 10-ton cases of the fruit were left rotting on the dock.

Chavez: We need to keep up the pressure on the growers. Let’s ask Americans to boycott [refuse to buy] all grapes harvested in Delano.

Huerta: That could work, but only if people know about the farm­workers’ struggle.

Chavez: I’ll send NFWA organizers to major cities.

Huerta: They can spread the word—and score more news coverage for our movement.

Chavez: I’ll station students and other activists outside super-markets nationwide, asking shoppers not to buy Delano grapes.

Narrator E: As the months pass, the number of people involved in the boycott rises.

Huerta: More than 13 million Americans have joined the boycott!

Chavez: That gives me great hope. The growers had better be paying attention.

Narrator A: In early 1966, Chavez comes up with a plan to publicize the strike and the boycott.

Chavez: I’ll lead the NFWA members in a 300-mile march from Delano to Sacramento, the state capital. Americans will take notice, and the growers will too.

Helen Chavez: When you get to Sacramento, see if you can talk directly with the governor. Maybe he can help settle the strike.

Chavez: You’re right. Getting him on our side would put even more pressure on the growers.

Narrator B: In March 1966, Chavez and a few dozen NFWA members, students, and activists start the march. Every night, they hold a rally to draw attention to their efforts. As the national media cover the trek, the number of marchers grows.

Narrator C: By the time Chavez arrives in Sacramento 25 days later, more than 5,000 people are marching behind him, with 10,000 bystanders cheering them on. He shares exciting news with the crowd.

Chavez: We did it! I’ve just gotten word that Schenley Industries has agreed to meet our terms. All grape pickers will be paid $1.75 an hour. Schenley will also formally recognize the NFWA as a union.

Huerta: It’s the first union contract for farmworkers in U.S. history!

Chavez: We’ve proved that farm­workers deserve fair treatment. Let this be a lesson to all growers!

Narrator D: Chavez led the grape protests for four more years, until the Delano growers settled with his union in 1970. Workers won three-year contracts with better wages, health insurance, and other benefits. The NFWA became the United Farm Workers (UFW) in 1971.

Narrator E: Chavez continued to protest on behalf of migrant workers until his death in 1993, at age 66. His commitment and peaceful approach to improving the lives of farmworkers earned him the respect of millions of people around the world. In 1994, Chavez was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, by then-President Bill Clinton. Today, many Americans celebrate Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, his birthday.

Narrator A: Chavez’s words still inspire: I am convinced that the truest act of courage . . . is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice.