Editing Cesar Chavez (section)

===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>