The Legacy of Cesar Chavez in Activism

Before he organized farm workers, Cesar Chavez’s activism began by registering and turning out poor Latinos to vote. He also fought Republican voter suppression tactics as early as 1952 in the impoverished Eastside San Jose barrio called Sal Si Puedes(Get Out If You Can).

Think about it. Why did President Biden have Cesar Chavez’s bronze bust placed in the Oval Office on the first day he entered it as president—27 years after Cesar’s passing? Why did 17 million Americans support his boycott of California table grapes in 1975? Was it partly because the genesis of Cesar’s activism was community organizing and voter engagement? He was a civil rights leader before becoming a farm labor leader.

Cesar Chavez’s organizing career started at age 25, when he met Fred Ross Sr., one of America’s greatest community organizers.

Cesar Chavez and Fred Ross Sr.
(Bob Fitch)

“The first time I met Fred Ross, he was about the last person I wanted to see,” Cesar recalled when eulogizing his mentor and teacher in 1992. Ross arrived in the rough East San Jose barrio in the spring of 1952, organizing a local chapter of the Community Service Organization after forming the original chapter in East Los Angeles. Cesar had recently left field work. He initially believed Ross was one of the college professors who came down from Berkeley or Stanford while studying Mexicans and asking them rude questions. Once Ross started talking, he quickly realized that wasn’t the case. He spoke about empowerment through the ballot box—and Cesar’s life was forever changed. Ross wrote that night in his diary, “I think I’ve found the guy I’m looking for.”

Over more than a month of frantic days and nights, Cesar helped CSO register 4,000 new voters. When Election Day arrived, the local Republican Party dispatched “challengers” to threaten Latinos voting for the first time. It was reminiscent of voter suppression still taking place in too many places when people of color cast ballots. The tactic failed. One Latino voter exclaimed, “At first, I got really mad, but then thought if they go to all that trouble to keep us from voting, it means they are paying attention to us.”

The Impact and Importance of Mobilizing Latino Voters

So many Latinos turned out to vote that county authorities got packinghouses to stop dumping waste into barrio creeks. And they fixed cesspools that had been producing amoebic dysentery.

After that successful drive, Ross saw to it that Cesar was put on as a full-time CSO organizer. Together, the two men established 22 CSO chapters across California and in Arizona. More than 500,000 voters were registered.

Cesar Chavez mobilized the Latino vote while working with CSO in Oxnard in the fall of 1958.

Some 50,000 residents become U.S. citizens. This organizing produced indigenous leaders such as Edward Roybal, Herman Gallegos, and Cruz Reynoso, among many others. CSO attracted broad support by addressing the concerns expressed by the people who were being organized. It confronted voter suppression, battled police brutality, and opposed employment discrimination and school segregation. The diverse coalition it assembled included Latinos, African Americans, Jews, Catholics, Japanese Americans, and union leaders.

CSO registered 160,000 Latino voters and turned them out to the polls for John F. Kennedy’s 1960 race for president. Cesar won praise from Robert F. Kennedy, who met with him and would later play a key role in the farm worker movement.

Mobilizing for Today and Tomorrow

“You can’t do anything by talking,” Cesar explained. “You can’t do anything if you haven’t got the power…And the only way you can generate power is by doing a lot of work.”

This year, let’s do a lot more work by making sure everyone is registered to vote—and votes. How better to honor Cesar Chavez than by doing what he did? As he once said, “We don’t need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation.”

Let your voice be heard! Visit vote.org now to find your polling center and get all the info you need for your state’s election. Together, we can create a powerful impact on the future of our nation.