March 31
The day was chosen to celebrate Ceasar Chavez' birth and legacy.
Born Cesar Estrada Chavez on March 13, 1937. Chavez, the Mexican American labor leader, was the founder and president of the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, later known as the United Farm Workers of America in 1965 when it merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. He advocated equality for Latinos, farm workers, and environmental justice by brings awareness of the dangers of pesticides.
Chavez engaged in non-violent protests through boycotts and hunger strikes to bring attention to the needs of the workers for a living wage, a safe workplace with protections against sickness and disability. In the grape fields, Chavez won the first union contracts for agricultural workers. When Chavez died on April 23, 1993, it is thought that his hunger strikes lead to his death.
Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers of America union with Chavez in 1962, and coined the movement's famous slogan, Sí se puede - "Yes, we can!" Chavez frequently gets credit for both, but Huerta's work was fundamental to the movement's success. In 1965, she organized the grape worker's strike, fighting back against low wages and dismal working conditions. Years later, she told NPR, "They didn't have toilets in the fields, they didn't have cold drinking water. They didn't have rest periods." Fields were sprayed with pesticides, which affected women and children especially hard, resulting in cancer and birth defects.
To this day, Huerta continues to advocate for agricultural worker's rights through her Dolores Huerta Foundation.
