Biography of Labor Rights Leader Cesar Chavez - Research Paper Example

Chavez was a strong and efficient leader with high organization power. He could effectively influence the farm workers and convince them about the necessity of organizing and challenging the biased practices prevailed in the American socioeconomic systems. Chavez’s strong desire for freedom and his unmanageable resentment towards employee discrimination encouraged him to overcome every barrier before him. Cesar Chavez was posthumously awarded the US Medal of Freedom by the former President Bill Clinton.

During the award presentation ceremony, Clinton said that Chavez faced “violent opposition with dignity and nonviolence” (as cited in The story of Cesar Chavez). Chavez’s life gives the message that hard work together with perseverance will certainly assist one to achieve one’s ambition. Cesar Estrada Chavez, the Mexican American, was born on 31st March 1927 at Yuma in Arizona in a middle class family of six children. At the age of 10, Chavez’s family lost its land due to the Great Depression, and therefore they became migrant farm workers.

Chavez migrated across southwest throughout his youth and interacted with labors at vineyards and fields, where he witnessed the stressed facet of farm workers’ life. He left his education after his eighth grade and became a full time worker in the field in order to support his family. His education spread over 30 elementary and middle schools. Although he left the school after achieving the formal education, his insatiable intellectual curiosity motivated him to gain more knowledge. This intrinsic motivation influenced Chavez to continue to be genuine reader throughout his life and he was self-taught in many areas.

In 1946, Chavez joined the US Navy and served the military in the Western Pacific. His military service lasted almost two years and he returned to marry Helen Fabela who was a farm worker in the central California. As reported in the Congressional Record, V. 149, Pt. 1