Editing Cesar Chavez (section)

===Working for the Community Service Organization: 1953–1962===

In late 1953, Chavez was laid off by the General Box Company.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=35}} Ross then secured funds so that the CSO could employ Chavez as an organizer, traveling around California setting up other chapters.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=26|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2pp=26–27}} In this job, he traveled across [[Decoto]], [[Salinas, California|Salinas]], [[Fresno]], [[Brawley, California|Brawley]], [[San Bernardino, California|San Bernardino]], [[Madera, California|Madera]], and [[Bakersfield]].{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=37–38}} Many of the CSO chapters fell apart after Ross or Chavez ceased running them, and to prevent this [[Saul Alinsky]] advised them to unite the chapters, of which there were over twenty, into a self-sustaining national organization.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=40–41}} In late 1955, Chavez returned to San Jose to rebuild the CSO chapter there so that it could sustain an employed full-time organizer. To raise funds, he opened a rummage store, organized a three-day carnival and sold [[Christmas tree]]s, although often made a loss.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=41–44}}

In early 1957, he moved to Brawley to rebuild the chapter there.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=45}} His repeated moving meant that his family were regularly uprooted;{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=39}} he saw little of his wife and children, and was absent for the birth of his sixth child.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=47}}
Chavez grew increasingly disillusioned with the CSO, believing that middle-class members were becoming increasingly dominant and were pushing its priorities and allocation of funds in directions he disapproved of; he for instance opposed the decision to hold the organization's 1957 convention in Fresco's Hacienda Hotel, arguing that its prices were prohibitive for poorer members.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=49–50}} Amid the wider context of the [[Cold War]] and [[McCarthyism|McCarthyite]] suspicions that leftist activism was a front for [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] groups, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) began monitoring Chavez and opened a file on him.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=25}}

At Alinsky's instigation, the [[United Packinghouse Workers of America]] (UPWA) paid $20,000 to the CSO for the latter to open a branch in Oxnard; Chavez became its organizer, working with the largely Mexican farm laborers.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=50–51}} In Oxnard, Chavez worked to encourage voter registration.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=52}} He repeatedly heard concerns from local Mexican-American laborers that they were being routinely passed over or fired so that employers could hire cheaper Mexican guest workers, or ''[[Bracero program|braceros]]'', in violation of federal law.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=27|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2pp=53–54}} To combat this practice, he established the CSO Employment Committee that launched a "registration campaign" through which unemployed farm workers could sign their name to highlight their desire for work.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=56–57}}

{{Quote box
| quote = I guess the best thing is to keep organizing new groups until they become rotten with personalities, then just move over and begin another group. I really don't know. The only one suggestion I have is to make sure there is always one person who is in charge... I think this way the work of the group moves forward always.
| source=— Cesar Chavez, on avoiding the pitfalls of the CSO{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=104}}
| align = left
| width = 25em
}}

The Committee targeted its criticism at Hector Zamora, the director of the Ventura County Farm Labor Association, who controlled most of the jobs in the area.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=57–58}} It used [[sit ins|sit-ins]] of workers to raise the profile of their cause, a tactic also used by proponents of the [[civil rights movement]] in the southern U.S. at that time.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=28}} It had some success in getting companies to replace ''braceros'' with unemployed Americans.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=59–60}} Its campaign also ensured that federal officials began properly investigating complaints about the use of ''braceros'' and received assurances from the state farm placement service that they would seek out unemployed Americans rather than automatically hiring ''bracero'' labor.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=61}} In May, the Employment Committee was formerly transferred from the CSO to the UPWA.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=60}}

In 1959, Chavez moved to Los Angeles to become the CSO's national director.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=29|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=63}} He, his wife, and now eight children settled into the largely Mexican neighborhood of [[Boyle Heights, Los Angeles|Boyle Heights]].{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=63}} He found the CSO's financial situation was bad, with even his own salary in jeopardy.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=63}} He laid off several organizers to keep the organization afloat.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=64}} He tried to organize a life insurance scheme among CSO members to raise funds, but this project failed to materialize.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=63, 66}} Under Chavez, the CSO secured financing from wealthier donors and organizations, usually to finance specific projects for a set period of time. The California [[American Federation of Labor|American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (AFL-CIO) for instance paid it $12,000 to conduct voter registration schemes in six counties with high Mexican populations.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=64–65}} The wealthy benefactor Katy Peake then offered it $50,000 over three years to organize California's farm workers.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=70}} Under Chavez's leadership, the CSO assisted the successful campaign to get the government to extend the [[Pension|state pension]] to non-citizens who were permanent residents.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=65–66}} At the ninth annual CSO convention in March 1962, Chavez resigned.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=71–72}}