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LIFE IN CHRIST—
PART TWO
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CHRISTIAN MORAL LIFE
—CCC, NOS. 1691-2082
HE IS A GOD-FEARING,
CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN
His Catholic faith led Cesar Chavez to improve the lives and livelihood of
America’s farm workers. Chavez was born on March 31, 1927. Raised in the
grinding poverty of the Great Depression, he was trained by his parents to
remember that there was always room for one more needy person at their
dinner table. He served in the Navy for two years during World War II.
After the war, Chavez met a priest who ministered to the Mexican
American migrant workers. The priest told Chavez about Catholic teach-
ings concerning the rights of workers. Chavez said, “I would do anything
to get Father to tell me more about labor history. I began going to the
bracero
(guest worker) camps with him to help with the Mass, to the city
jail to talk to the prisoners, anything to be with him.”
Chavez soon became active in drives for voter registration and in
countering abuses against Mexican immigrants and Mexican American
immigrants. During the 1960s, his organizing efforts gave birth to the United
Farm Workers. But federal laws exempted the agriculture industry from
the requirement of allowing free exercise of the right of farm workers to
organize a union. Chavez had to find a unique way to get the growers to
recognize his union. He resorted to the strategy of consumer boycotts.
In 1968, he led the nation’s first grape boycott. At one point, 17 million
Americans honored the boycott. Chavez went further and asked the
American bishops to support the boycott. In response, they intervened to
mediate the conflict.