Editing Cesar Chavez (section)

==Early life==

===Childhood: 1927–1945===
Cesario Estrada Chavez was born in [[Yuma, Arizona]] on March 31, 1927.<ref>{{cite web |title=AZ birth certificate |url=https://www.azdhs.gov/licensing/vital-records/genealogy/index.php |website=Arizona Genealogy Record Search |publisher=Arizona Department of Health Service |access-date=July 14, 2022}}</ref>{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=2|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2pp=8, 10}} He was named after his paternal grandfather, Cesario Chavez, a Mexican who had crossed into [[Texas]] in 1898.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=8}} Cesario had established a successful wood haulage business near Yuma, and in 1906 bought a farm in the [[Sonora Desert]]'s [[Gila River Valley|North Gila Valley]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=2|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=8}} Cesario had brought his wife Dorotea and eight children with him from Mexico; the youngest, Librado, was Cesar's father.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=8}} Librado married Juana Estrada Chavez in the early 1920s.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=2|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=10}} Born in [[Ascensión Municipality|Ascensión]], [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]], she had crossed into the U.S. with her mother as a baby. They lived in [[Picacho, California]] before moving to Yuma, where Juana worked as a farm laborer and then an assistant to the chancellor of the [[University of Arizona]].{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=9–10}} Librado and Juana's first child, Rita, was born in August 1925, with their first son, Cesar, following nearly two years later.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=10}} Chavez also had three younger siblings. In November 1925, Librado and Juana bought a series of buildings near the family home which included a pool hall, store, and living quarters. They soon fell into debt and were forced to sell these assets. By April 1929, they moved into the ''galera'' storeroom of Librado's parental home, then owned by the widowed Dorotea.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=8, 9}}

Chavez was raised in what his biographer Miriam Pawel called "a typical extended Mexican family";{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=8}} she noted that they were "not well-off, but they were comfortable, well-clothed, and never hungry".{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=11}} The family spoke Spanish,{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=6|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=7}} and he was raised as a [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]], with his paternal grandmother Dorotea largely overseeing his religious instruction.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1pp=2–3|2a1=Ospino|2y=2013|2p=405|3a1=Pawel|3y=2014|3p=8}} His mother Juana engaged in forms of [[folk Catholicism]], being a devotee of [[Jadwiga of Poland|Santa Eduviges]].{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=10–11}} As a child, Chavez was nicknamed "Manzi" in reference to his fondness for [[Chamomile|manzanilla tea]].{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=10}} To entertain himself, he played [[handball]] and listened to [[boxing]] matches on the radio.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=19}} One of five children, he had two sisters, Rita and Vicki, and two brothers, [[Richard Chavez|Richard]] and Librado.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=2}}<ref name=latimes>{{cite news |first=Sam |last=Quinones |title=Richard Chavez dies at 81; brother of Cesar Chavez |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-richard-chavez-20110728,0,3713759.story |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=July 28, 2011 |access-date=July 30, 2011}}</ref>

Cesario began attending Laguna Dam School in 1933; there, the speaking of Spanish was forbidden and Cesario was expected to change his name to Cesar.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=12}} After Dorotea died in July 1937, the Yuma County local government auctioned off her farmstead to cover back taxes, and despite Librado's delaying tactics, the house and land were sold in 1939.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=4|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2pp=13–14}} This was a seminal experience for Cesar, who regarded it as an injustice against his family, with the banks, lawyers, and [[Anglo-Americans|Anglo-American]] power structure as the villains of the incident.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=13–14}} Influenced by his Roman Catholic beliefs, he increasingly came to see the poor as a source of moral goodness in society.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=3}}

The Chavez family joined the growing number of American migrants who were moving to California amid the [[Great Depression]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=4|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=16}} First working as [[avocado]] pickers in [[Oxnard]] and then as [[pea]] pickers in [[Pescadero, California|Pescadero]], the family made it to [[San Jose, California|San Jose]], where they first lived in a garage in the city's impoverished Mexican district.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=16}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ramirez |first=Len |date=July 26, 2022 |orig-date=July 26, 2022 |title=San Jose home of Cesar Chavez purchased by local nonprofit - CBS San Francisco |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-jose-home-of-cesar-chavez-purchased-by-local-nonprofit/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727041717/https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-jose-home-of-cesar-chavez-purchased-by-local-nonprofit/ |archive-date=July 27, 2022 |access-date=October 31, 2024 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Allen • • |first=Heather |date=2024-03-16 |title=San Jose leaders unveil beautification of Plaza de Cesar Chavez |url=https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-jose-beautification-plaza-de-cesar-chavez/3483630/ |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=NBC Bay Area |language=en-US}}</ref> They moved regularly, and on weekends and holidays, Cesar joined his family in working as an agricultural laborer.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1pp=4–5|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=16}} In California, he moved schools many times, spending the longest time at Miguel Hidalgo Junior School; here, his grades were generally average, although he excelled at mathematics.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=17}} At school, he faced ridicule for his poverty,{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=16}} while more broadly, he experienced anti-Latino prejudice from many European-Americans, with many establishments refusing to serve non-white customers.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=7}} He graduated from junior high in June 1942, after which he left formal education and became a full-time farm laborer.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=17}}<ref name="The Story of Cesar Chavez">{{cite web |url=http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?inc=history/07.html&menu=research |title=The Story of Cesar Chavez |publisher=[[United Farm Workers]] |access-date=February 8, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305004101/http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=research&inc=history%2F07.html |archive-date=March 5, 2010 }}</ref>

===Early adulthood: 1946–1953===
In 1944, Chavez enlisted in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]],<ref name="NavyTimes">{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Kent |title=Military honors planned for Cesar Chavez |url=https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2015/04/19/military-honors-planned-for-cesar-chavez/ |website=[[Navy Times]] |date=April 19, 2015 |publisher=Sightline Media |access-date=September 29, 2021}}</ref> and was sent to [[Naval Training Center San Diego]].{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=20}} In July, he was stationed at the U.S. base in [[Saipan]], and six months later moved to [[Guam]], where he was promoted to the rank of seaman first class.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=9|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=20}} He was then stationed to [[San Francisco]], where he decided to leave the Navy, receiving an honorable discharge in 1946.<ref name="NavyTimes"/>{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=21}} Relocating to [[Delano, California]], where his family had settled, he returned to working as an agricultural laborer.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=10|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=21}}

In 1947, Chavez joined the [[National Farm Labor Union]] (NFLU),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=David R. |title=Cesar Chavez |page=100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=whnpfCKYjQUC&pg=PT1 |access-date=September 29, 2021| publisher = Lerner Publications | location = Minneapolis | year = 2005 | isbn = 0822522489|oclc=419830389 }}</ref> which, until its 1947 affiliation with the [[American Federation of Labor]], was the [[Southern Tenant Farmers Union]] (STFU). (Later, the NFLU became the National Agricultural Workers Union.)<ref name="Mean Things">{{cite book | last = Mitchell | first = H. L. | title = Mean things happening in this land : the life and times of H.L. Mitchell, co-founder of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union | publisher = University of Oklahoma Press | location = Norman | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0806139845 | oclc=227031606 | author-link= H. L. Mitchell |url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/meanthingshappen0000mitc/page/n5/mode/2up | access-date = November 12, 2023}}</ref> That year, he was picketing cotton fields in [[Corcoran, California|Corcoran]], near Delano, for the NFLU.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Matthiesen |first1=Peter |author-link=Peter Matthiesen |title=Profile: Cesar Chavez |url=https://libraries.ucsd.edu/farmworkermovement/essays/essays/MillerArchive/032%20Profile%20Cesar%20Chavez.pdf |website=Farmworker Movement Documentation Project |publisher=[[UC San Diego Library]] |access-date=September 29, 2021}}</ref> The union had called a strike against the [[DiGiorgio Corporation|DiGiorgio]] grape fields in 1947.  As in the STFU's strikes against cotton plantations in Arkansas, strikers formed "caravans" and marched around the perimeter of the DiGiorgio property, asking its workers to join them. Chavez led one of those caravans.<ref name="Hearings">{{cite book |last1=Committee on Education and Labor |title=Seminar on Farm Labor Problems: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Agricultural Labor |date=1971 |publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U. S. Government Printing Office]] |location=Washington |page=66 |chapter= The Di Giorgio Grape Strike of 1947 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAXRHG1AKEIC&pg=PA66 |access-date=September 28, 2021|author1-link=United States House Committee on Education and Labor }}</ref>

Chavez entered a relationship with Helen Fabela, who soon became pregnant.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=21–22}} They married in [[Reno, Nevada]] in October 1948; it was a [[double wedding]], with Chavez's sister Rita marrying her fiancé at the same ceremony.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=13|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=22}} By early 1949, Chavez and his new wife had settled in the Sal Si Puedes neighborhood of San Jose, where many of his other family members were now living.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=14|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=22}} Their first child, Fernando, was born there in February 1949; a second, Sylvia, followed in February 1950; and then a third, Linda, in January 1951.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=13|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=22}} The latter had been born shortly after they had relocated to [[Crescent City, California|Crescent City]], where Chavez was employed in the lumber industry.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=13|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=22}} They then returned to San Jose, where Chavez worked as an apricot picker and then as a lumber handler for the General Box Company.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=22–23}}

There, he befriended two social justice activists, [[Fred Ross (community organizer)|Fred Ross]] and Father Donald McDonnell, both European-Americans whose activism was primarily within the Mexican-American community.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1pp=14–15, 21–23|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2pp=27–28}} Chavez helped Ross establish a chapter of his [[Community Service Organization]] (CSO) in San Jose, and joined him in voter registration drives.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=24|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=28}} He was soon voted vice president of the CSO chapter.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=34}} He also helped McDonnell construct the first purpose-built church in Sal Si Puedes, the Our Lady of Guadalupe church, which opened in December 1953.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=29–30}} In turn, McDonnell lent Chavez books, encouraging the latter to develop a love of reading. Among the books were biographies of the saint [[Francis of Assisi]], the U.S. labor organizers [[John L. Lewis]] and [[Eugene V. Debs]], and the Indian independence activist [[Mahatma Gandhi]], introducing Chavez to the ideas of [[Nonviolent resistance|nonviolent protest]].{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=16|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=29}}