Editing Cesar Chavez (section)

===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}}