Standards Addressed by Lesson:    CIVICS Standard 4.3 Students know how citizens can exercise their rights (d). Standard 4.4 Students know how citizens can participate in civic life (a-d). HISTORY Standard 5.1 Students understand how democratic ideas and institutions in the United States have developed, changed, and/or been maintained (c-d). Standard 5.3 Students know how political power has been acquired, maintained, used and /or lost throughout history (e). Standard 6.2 Students know how societies have been affected by religions and philosophies (a).

Lesson Outline

Introduction to Lesson:

This lesson focuses on the life of Cesar Chavez and his creation of a union that actively worked to better the living and working conditions of farm workers. The major objectives are to stress the nonviolent methods he used to achieve his goals: organization and solidarity, marches, strikes, fasts, etc.; and to raise the issue of human rights. The lesson begins with a video, proceeds though some open discussion and into a group activity.

Icebreaker/ Quick Activity to Assess Prior Learning:

Begin by asking students what they already know about Chavez. Share a personal story, if you have one, about boycotting grapes.

Activities

Activity 1:                                                                      Video Viewing and Discussion

Prior to viewing the video, make students aware of what to pay specific attention to by reading the first set of discussion questions. View the video, then ask the students to answer these questions. Then move into the second set of discussion questions to initiate a broader view of individual and human rights.

Discussion Questions I:

•  What are migrant workers?

•  In what conditions do they work?

•  Who inspired Cesar Chavez?

•  What motivated him to form the NFWA?

•  What is their symbol?

•  What is their motto?

•  What did he hope to accomplish?

•  What were his methods?

•  Was he successful? Why or why not?

10. What is his legacy?

Discussion Questions II:

•  What are human rights? Which ones did Cesar Chavez defend?

•  What are some rights and responsibilities that all individuals possess?

•  What can you do in your own communities to defend them?

Activity 2:                                                               Human Rights Group Presentation

Hand out “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Break the class into groups of four, and give each group a scenario from the attachment “Have the Human Rights of the Workers Been Violated?” Have them read through the list of human rights together. Ask each group to decide whether they think the practices in their scenarios are human rights violations. Why or why not? If they are human rights violations, what should be done? Allow each group the opportunity to address the class, reporting on their findings. They can field questions from the other students and from the educator.

Activity 3 (Optional):                                     Discussion of Cesar Chavez Quotations

Form the students into discussion groups of four. Assign a group of quotations from the attachment, “Education of the Heart—Quotations of Cesar Chavez,” to each student group. Model a presentation of one or two quotations for them. Have each group choose a discussion leader. After reading through their quotations, they should then choose one that they want to interpret. (Encourage groups to select different quotations to expand discussion.) They should talk openly about what they think it means, and how they will present it to the class. They can use references from their reading, their lives, their religious training, or their backgrounds. One member of each group will then read aloud the quotation to the class, then another can talk about its meaning and give a relevant anecdote. After the groups have finished their presentations, the educator should review the important aspects of Chavez' thought that the students have identified, and relate them to his work.

Helpful Hints/Comments from Previous Educators:

Many of the students were keen on sharing with the class their own personal acts of charity, from gathering warm winter coats for the homeless, to supporting a child overseas. The educator should show how Cesar Chavez worked actively to change the conditions of poverty and alienation of the farm workers so that they could help themselves rather than relying on hand-outs; and encourage the students to find social justice actions that would emulate his nonviolent but empowering stance.

DJPC 2004

Attachment A: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948

•  The right to equality

•  Freedom from discrimination

•  The right to life, liberty, and personal security

•  Freedom from slavery

•  Freedom from torture or degrading treatment

•  The right to recognition as a person before the law

•  The right to equality before the law

•  The right to remedy by a competent tribunal

•  Freedom from arbitrary arrest or exile

•  The right to a fair and public hearing

•  The right to be considered innocent until proven guilty

•  Freedom from interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence

•  The right to free movement in and out of any country

•  The right to asylum in other countries from persecution

•  The right to a nationality and freedom to change it

•  The right to marriage and family

•  The right to own property

•  Freedom of belief and religion

•  Freedom of opinion and information

•  The right of peaceful assembly and association

•  The right participate in Government and free elections

•  The right to social security

•  The right to desirable work and to join trade unions

•  The right to rest and leisure

•  The right to an adequate standard of living

•  The right to education

•  The right to participate in the cultural life of a community

•  The right to social order assuring human rights

•  Community duties are essential to free and full development

•  Freedom from state or personal interference in the above rights

Attachment B: Have the Human Rights of the Workers Been Violated?

Domestic workers, most of who live far from the homes of the middle- and upper-class people they work for, must getup early in the morning and arrive home late after dark each day. Their wages are very low and insufficient to cover their basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter.

The government states that many strikes by workers are seriously harming the economy. It outlaws strikes but creates an industrial council with business, government, and union leaders on it to hear and make decisions in labor disputes.

Both men and women work in maintenance jobs. Men do more heavy lifting than women. Women receive 20 percent less pay per hour than the men.

Parents who own a farm will not allow their 14-year-old son to go to school. They say they need him to take care of the cows and do other work on the family farm.

Miners whose job it is to set off explosives in the mines ask the mine owner to buy some very expensive safety equipment. The owner refuses, saying the cost of the equipment will result in the mine losing money and, in any case, the miners are paid high wages because of the danger involved.

Labor actions such as strikes or boycotts, that are directed at the government, have been made illegal. Organizers of these actions are arrested and prosecuted.

A store owner refuses to hire a woman as a sales clerk because she has a disabled hand. The storeowner feels this disability will make his customers uncomfortable.

Attachment C: Education of the Heart—Quotations by Cesar Chavez

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1. “We must understand that the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline.”

2. “In this world it is possible to achieve great material wealth, to live an opulent life. But a life built upon those things alone leaves a shallow legacy. In the end, we will be judged by other standards.”

3. “When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So, it's how we use our lives that determines what kind of men (and women) we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life.”

4. “When you have people together who believe in something very strongly— whether it's religion or politics or unions—things happen.”

Education of the Heart—Quotations by Cesar Chavez

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5. “You are never strong enough that you don't need help.”

6. “From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.”

7. “A word as to the education of the heart. We don't believe that this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through the loving touch of the teacher.”

8. “Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity?”

Education of the Heart—Quotations by Cesar Chavez

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9. “I have met many, many farm workers and friends who love justice and who are willing to sacrifice for what is right. They have a quality about them that reminds me of the beatitudes. They are living examples that Jesus' promise is true: they have been hungry and thirsty for righteousness and they have been satisfied. They are determined, patient people who believe in life and who give strength to others. They have given me more love and hope and strength than they will ever know.”

10. “It is not enough to teach our young people to be successful…so they can realize their ambitions, so they can earn good livings, so they can accumulate the material things that this society bestows. Those are worthwhile goals. But it is not enough to progress as individuals while our friends and neighbors are left behind.”

11. “Perhaps we can bring the day when children will learn from their earliest days that being fully man and fully woman means to give one's life to the liberation of the brother (or sister) who suffers. It is up to each one of us. It won't happen unless we decide to use our lives to show the way.”

•  “Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves—and be free.”

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Education of the Heart—Quotations by Cesar Chavez

13. “Our conviction is that human life and limb are a very special possession given by God to man and that no one has the right to take that away, in any cause, however just….”

14. “It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere, but God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we will use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity.”

15. “We shall strike. We shall organize boycotts. We shall demonstrate and have political campaigns. We shall pursue the revolution we have proposed. We are sons and daughters of the farm workers' revolution, a revolution of the poor seeking bread and justice.”

•  “The road to social justice for the farm worker is the road of unionization. Our cause, our strike against table grapes and our international boycott are all founded upon our deep conviction that the form of collective self-help, which is unionization, holds far more hope for the farm worker than any other single approach, whether public or private. This conviction is what brings spirit, high hope and optimism to everything we do.”

Education of the Heart—Quotations by Cesar Chavez

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17. “The first principle of nonviolent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.”

18. “The nonviolent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God.”

19. “You know, if people are not pacifists, it's not their fault. It's because society puts them in that spot. You've got to change it. You don't just change a man—you've got to change his environment as you do it.”

•  “…people think nonviolence is really weak and non-militant. These are misconceptions that people have because they don't understand what nonviolence means. Nonviolence takes more guts, if I can put it bluntly, than violence. Most violent acts are accomplished by getting the opponent off guard, and it doesn't take that much character, I think, if one wants to do it.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Education of the Heart—Quotations by Cesar Chavez

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21. “When workers fall back on violence, they are lost. Oh, they might win some of their demands and might end a strike a little earlier, but they give up their imagination, their creativity, their will to work hard and to suffer for what they believe is right.”

22. “It's amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease. When the poor share some of the power that the affluent now monopolize, we will give a damn.”

•  “It is not good enough to know why we are oppressed and by whom. We must join the struggle for what is right and just. Jesus does not promise that it will be an easy way to live life and his own life certainly points in a hard direction; but it does promise that we will be ‘satisfied' (not stuffed, but satisfied). He promises that by giving life we will find life—full meaningful life as God meant it.”

24. “Jesus' life and words are a challenge at the same time that they are Good News. They are a challenge to those of us who are poor and oppressed. By his life He is calling us to give ourselves to others, to sacrifice for those who suffer, to share our lives with our brothers and sisters who are also oppressed. He is calling us to ‘hunger and thirst after justice' in the same way that we hunger and thirst after food and water: that is, by putting our yearning into practice.”

Education of the Heart—Quotations by Cesar Chavez

25. “Those who are willing to sacrifice and be of service have very little difficulty with people. They know what they are all about. People can't help but want to be near them. They help them; they work with them. That's what love is all about. It starts with your heart and radiates out.”

26. “We can choose to use our lives for others to bring about a better and more just world for our children. People who make that choice will know hardship and sacrifice. But if you give yourself totally to the nonviolence struggle for peace and justice you will also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never be alone. And in giving of yourself you will discover a whole new life full of meaning and love.”

27. “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice.”

28. “We do not need to kill or destroy to win. We are a movement that builds and not destroys.”

Found at: http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=research&inc=history/09.html

Attachment D: “The Story of Cesar Chavez”

THE BEGINNING

The story of Cesar Estrada Chavez begins near Yuma , Arizona . Cesar was born on March 31, 1927. He was named after his grandfather, Cesario. Regrettably, the story of Cesar Estrada Chavez also ends near Yuma , Arizona . He passed away on April 23, 1993, in San Luis, a small village near Yuma , Arizona .

He learned about justice or rather injustice early in his life. Cesar grew up in Arizona ; the small adobe home, where Cesar was born was swindled from them by dishonest Anglos. Cesar's father agreed to clear eighty acres of land and in exchange he would receive the deed to forty acres of land that adjoined the home. The agreement was broken and the land sold to a man named Justus Jackson. Cesar's dad went to a lawyer who advised him to borrow money and buy the land. Later when Cesar's father could not pay the interest on the loan the lawyer bought back the land and sold it to the original owner. Cesar learned a lesson about injustice that he would never forget. Later, he would say, The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most true to our nature.

In 1938 he and his family moved to California . He lived in La Colonia Barrio in Oxnard for a short period, returning to Arizona several months later. They returned to California in June 1939 and this time settled in San Jose . They lived in the barrio called Sal Si Puedes ­"Get Out If You Can." Cesar thought the only way to get out of the circle of poverty was to work his way up and send the kids to college. He and his family worked in the fields of California from Brawley to Oxnard , Atascadero, Gonzales, King City , Salinas , McFarland, Delano , Wasco, Selma , Kingsburg, and Mendota.

He did not like school as a child, probably because he spoke only Spanish at home. The teachers were mostly Anglo and only spoke English. Spanish was forbidden in school. He remembers being punished with a ruler to his knuckles for violating the rule. He also remembers that some schools were segregated and he felt that in the integrated schools he was like a monkey in a cage. He remembers having to listen to a lot of racist remarks. He remembers seeing signs that read whites only. He and his brother, Richard, attended thirty-seven schools. He felt that education had nothing to do with his farm worker/migrant way of life. In 1942 he graduated from the eighth grade. Because his father, Librado, had been in an accident and because he did not want his mother, Juana, to work in the fields, he could not to go to high school, and instead became a migrant farm worker.

While his childhood school education was not the best, later in life, education was his passion. The walls of his office in La Paz (United Farm Worker Headquarters ) are lined with hundreds of books ranging from philosophy, economics, cooperatives, and unions, to biographies on Gandhi and the Kennedys'. He believed that, "The end of all education should surely be service to others," a belief that he practiced until his untimely death.

In 1944 he joined the Navy at the age of seventeen. He served two years and in addition to discrimination, he experienced strict regimentation.

In 1948 Cesar married Helen Fabela. They honeymooned in California by visiting all the California Missions from Sonoma to San Diego (again the influence of education). They settled in Delano and started their family. First Fernando, then Sylvia, then Linda, and five more children were to follow.

Cesar returned to San Jose where he met and was influenced by Father Donald McDonnell. They talked about farm workers and strikes. Cesar began reading about St. Francis and Gandhi and nonviolence. After Father McDonnell came another very influential person, Fred Ross.

Cesar became an organizer for Ross' organization, the Community Service Organization ­ CSO. His first task was voter registration.

THE UNITED FARM WORKERS IS BORN

In 1962 Cesar founded the National Farm Workers Association, later to become the United Farm Workers ­ the UFW. He was joined by Dolores Huerta and the union was born. That same year Richard Chavez designed the UFW Eagle and Cesar chose the black and red colors. Cesar told the story of the birth of the eagle. He asked Richard to design the flag, but Richard could not make an eagle that he liked. Finally he sketched one on a piece of brown wrapping paper. He then squared off the wing edges so that the eagle would be easier for union members to draw on the handmade red flags that would give courage to the farm workers with their own powerful symbol. Cesar made reference to the flag by stating, "A symbol is an important thing. That is why we chose an Aztec eagle. It gives pride . . . When people see it they know it means dignity."

For a long time in 1962, there were very few union dues paying members. By 1970 the UFW got grape growers to accept union contracts and had effectively organized most of that industry, at one point in time claiming 50,000 dues paying members. The reason was Cesar Chavez's tireless leadership and nonviolent tactics that included the Delano grape strike, his fasts that focused national attention on farm workers problems, and the 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966. The farm workers and supporters carried banners with the black eagle with HUELGA (strike) and VIVA LA CAUSA (Long live our cause). The marchers wanted the state government to pass laws which would permit farm workers to organize into a union and allow collective bargaining agreements. Cesar made people aware of the struggles of farm workers for better pay and safer working conditions. He succeeded through nonviolent tactics (boycotts, pickets, and strikes). Cesar Chavez and the union sought recognition of the importance and dignity of all farm workers.

It was the beginning of La Causa a cause that was supported by organized labor, religious groups, minorities, and students. Cesar Chavez had the foresight to train his union workers and then to send many of them into the cities where they were to use the boycott and picket as their weapon.

Cesar was willing to sacrifice his own life so that the union would continue and that violence was not used. Cesar fasted many times. In 1968 Cesar went on a water only, 25 day fast. He repeated the fast in 1972 for 24 days, and again in 1988, this time for 36 days. What motivated him to do this? He said, Farm workers everywhere are angry and worried that we cannot win without violence. We have proved it before through persistence, hard work, faith and willingness to sacrifice. We can win and keep our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the spirit of all people if we do it through a rededication and recommitment to the struggle for justice through nonviolence.

THE FAST

Many events precipitated the fast, especially the terrible suffering of the farm workers and their children, the crushing of farm worker rights, the dangers of pesticides, and the denial of fair and free elections.

Cesar said about the fast, " A fast is first and foremost personal. It is a fast for the purification of my own body, mind, and soul. The fast is also a heartfelt prayer for purification and strengthening for all those who work beside me in the farm worker movement. The fast is also an act of penance for those in positions of moral authority and for all men and women activists who know what is right and just, who know that they could and should do more. The fast is finally a declaration of non­cooperation with supermarkets who promote and sell and profit from California table grapes. During the past few years I have been studying the plague of pesticides on our land and our food," Cesar continued "The evil is far greater than even I had thought it to be, it threatens to choke out the life of our people and also the life system that supports us all. This solution to this deadly crisis will not be found in the arrogance of the powerful, but in solidarity with the weak and helpless. I pray to God that this fast will be a preparation for a multitude of simple deeds for justice. Carried out by men and women whose hearts are focused on the suffering of the poor and who yearn, with us, for a better world. Together, all things are possible."

Cesar Chavez completed his 36-day Fast for Life on August 21, 1988. The Reverend Jesse Jackson took up where Cesar left off, fasting on water for three days before passing on the fast to celebrities and leaders. The fast was passed to Martin Sheen, actor; the Reverend J. Lowery, President SCLC; Edward Olmos, actor; Emilio Estevez, actor; Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy, Peter Chacon, legislator, Julie Carmen, actress; Danny Glover, actor; Carly Simon, singer; and Whoopi Goldberg, actress.

THE DEATH OF CESAR CHAVEZ

Cesar Estrada Chavez died peacefully in his sleep on April 23, 1993 near Yuma , Arizona , a short distance from the small family farm in the Gila River Valley where he was born more than 66 years before.

The founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL­CIO was in Yuma helping UFW attorneys defend the union against a lawsuit brought by Bruce Church Inc., a giant Salinas , Calif.­based lettuce and vegetable producer. Church demanded that the farm workers pay millions of dollars in damages resulting from a UFW boycott of its lettuce during the 1980's. Rather than bring the legal action in a state where the boycott actually took place, such as California or New York , Church "shopped around" for a friendly court in conservative, agribusiness dominated Arizona where there had been no boycott activity.

"Cesar gave his last ounce of strength defending the farm workers in this case," stated his successor, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, who was with him in Arizona during the trial. He died standing up for their First Amendment right to speak out for themselves. He believed in his heart that the farm workers were right in boycotting Bruce Church Inc. lettuce during the l980's and he was determined to prove that in court." (When the second multimillion dollar judgment for Church was later thrown out by an appeal's court, the company signed a UFW contract in May 1996.

After the trial recessed at about 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 22, Cesar spent part of the afternoon driving through Latino neighborhoods in Yuma that he knew as a child. Many Chavezes still live in the area.

He arrived about 6 p.m. in San Luis , Arizona about 20 miles from Yuma , at the modest concrete block home of Dofla Maria Hau, a former farm worker and longtime friend. Cesar and eight other UFW leaders and staff were staying at her house in a poor farm worker neighborhood not far from the Mexican border.

Cesar ate dinner at around 9 p.m. and presided over a brief meeting to review the day's events. He had just finished two days of often grueling examination by attorneys for Bruce Church Inc.

He talked to his colleagues about taking care of themselves a recent recurring theme with Cesar because he was well aware of the long hours required from him and other union officers and staff. Still, he was in good spirits despite being exhausted after prolonged questioning on the witness stand; he complained about feeling some weakness when doing his evening exercises.

The UFW founder went to bed at about 10 or 10:30 p.m. A union staff member said he later saw a reading light shining from Cesar's room.

The light was still on at 6 a.m. the next morning. That was not seen as unusual. Cesar usually woke up in the early hours of the morning well before dawn to read, write or meditate.

When he had not come out by 9 a.m., his colleagues entered his bedroom found that Cesar had died apparently, according to authorities, at night in his sleep.

He was found lying on his back with his head turned to the left. His shoes were off and he still wore his clothes from the day before. In his right hand was a book on Native American crafts. There was a peaceful smile on his face.

THE LAST MARCH WITH CESAR CHAVEZ

On April 29, 1993, Cesar Estrada Chavez was honored in death by those he led in life. More than 50,000 mourners came to honor the charismatic labor leader at the site of his first public fast in 1968 and his last in 1988, the United Farm Workers Delano Field Office at "Forty Acres."

It was the largest funeral of any labor leader in the history of the U.S. They came in caravans from Florida to California to pay respect to a man whose strength was in his simplicity.

Farm workers, family members, friends and union staff took turns standing vigil over the plain pine coffin which held the body of Cesar Chavez. Among the honor guard were many celebrities who had supported Chavez throughout his years of struggle to better the lot of farmworkers throughout America .

Many of the mourners had marched side by side with Chavez during his tumultuous years in the vineyards and farms of America . For the last time, they came to march by the side of the man who had taught them to stand up for their rights, through nonviolent protest and collective bargaining.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney, who celebrated the funeral mass, called Chavez "a special prophet for the worlds' farm workers." Pall bearers, including crews of these workers, Chavez children and grandchildren, then carried their fallen leader, resting at last, from the Memorial Park to Forty Acres.

The death of Chavez marked an era of dramatic changes in American agriculture. His contributions would be eroded, and others would have to shoulder the burden of his work. But, Cesar Chavez, who insisted that those who labor in the earth were entitled to share fairly in the rewards of their toil, would never be forgotten.

As Luis Valdez said, "Cesar, we have come to plant your heart like a seed . . . the farm workers shall harvest in the seed of your memory."

FINAL RESTING PLACE/FINAL RECOGNITION

The body of Cesar Chavez was taken to La Paz , the UFW's California headquarters, by his family and UFW leadership. He was laid to rest near a bed of roses, in front of his office.

On August 8, 1994, at a White House ceremony, Helen Chavez, Cesar's widow, accepted the Medal of Freedom for her late husband from President Clinton. In the citation accompanying America 's highest civilian honor which was awarded posthumously, the President lauded Chavez for having "faced formidable, often violent opposition with dignity and nonviolence.

And he was victorious. Cesar Chavez left our world better than he found it, and his legacy inspires us still. He was for his own people a Moses figure," the President declared. "The farm workers who labored in the fields and yearned for respect and self-sufficiency pinned their hopes on this remarkable man who, with faith and discipline, soft spoken humility and amazing inner strength, led a very courageous life"

The citation accompanying the award noted how Chavez was a farm worker from childhood who "possessed a deep personal understanding of the plight of migrant workers, and he labored all his years to lift their lives." During his lifetime, Chavez never earned more than $5,000 a year. The late Senator Robert Kennedy called him "one of the heroic figures of our time."

Chavez's successor, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, thanked the president on behalf of the United Farm Workers and said, "Every day in California and in other states where farm workers are organizing, Cesar Chavez lives in their hearts. Cesar lives wherever Americans' he inspired work nonviolently for social change."

--Biography supplied by the United Farm Workers. Found at: http://www.lasculturas.com/aa/bio/bioCesarChavez.htm