Cesar Chavez’s legacy in Texas is marked by his deep commitment to organizing farmworkers and advocating for Mexican American communities throughout the Southwest. His influence, while strongest in California, found a significant foothold in Texas, particularly Austin, where he frequently visited to deliver boycott speeches, engage in campus discussions, and support East Austin community initiatives. On Labor Day, September 5, 1966, Chavez highlighted his dedication to the cause by leading a rally on the statehouse steps. He concluded a 400-plus-mile march from Rio Grande City by farmworkers, including early UFW members from Texas. This historic march, which began on the Fourth of July, aimed at securing a $1.25 minimum wage, drawing as many as 6,000 attendees, according to the American-Statesman.
Cesar Chavez is applauded before a talk sponsored by the San Antonio Friends of the Farm Workers. Among those in attendance, standing to his right, are Judge Albert Peña, Jr., and Bishop Raymundo Peña, July 26, 1979. (San Antonio Express-News Collection)
To honor Chavez’s enduring legacy and continue his work, the Cesar Chavez Foundation is committed to significantly expanding its programs, mainly targeting young Latinos in the major urban centers of Texas, without overlooking the foundational communities in California’s Central Valley. With plans to establish a robust operational presence in Texas by December 31, 2026, the Chavez Foundation is dedicated to uplifting and supporting the communities Cesar Chavez fought for, ensuring his legacy thrives well into the future.
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’sgreatest 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, andCruz 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.
The annual Cesar Chavez Legacy Awards ceremony was held on April 4, 2024, at the beautiful Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles. The event brought together leaders from various sectors, including business, government, labor, and education, to commemorate the life and work of Cesar Chavez. In addition to honoring Cesar’s life and legacy, the Legacy Awards celebrate those who exemplify excellence and commitment to advocacy and community.
The inaugural Taste of Avenida Cesar Chavez made its debut at this year’s Legacy Awards. Inspired by a movement and legacy that endure well beyond the fields and into America’s largest cities, this unique culinary experience pays homage to the people and businesses along the street that bears the name—Avenida Cesar Chavez.
2024 HONOREES
Cástulo de la Rocha, President and CEO of AltaMed Health Services, was recognized for his unwavering commitment to expanding access to healthcare in underserved communities. His passion for social justice has driven his professional and personal pursuits, significantly impacting health service accessibility.
Jane Fonda, a stellar actress and fervent activist, was among the distinguished honorees. With a legacy of advocacy that spans decades, Fonda’s work ranges from supporting Indigenous peoples’ rights and economic justice to LGBTQ rights, gender equality, and, more recently, leading efforts against climate change through Fire Drill Fridays and the Jane Fonda Climate PAC.
Robert Rivas, Speaker of the California State Assembly, was honored for his dedication to serving the most vulnerable. Inspired by his grandfather, a labor activist, Rivas’s journey from teacher and firefighter to a historic Assembly Speaker is a testament to his commitment to public service.
The legacy awards included Julián Castro, the former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the new CEO of the Latino Community Foundation, whodelivered the keynote address, andCristela Alonzo, an acclaimed actor, and comedian known for her unique blend of humor and insight, hosted the ceremony. Her role as the evening’s host added a special touch to the celebration, highlighting the achievements of the honorees and the legacy of Cesar Chavez.
Check out our video highlighting the night’s events!
In celebration of Black History Month, we are highlighting Cesar Chavez and the farm worker movement’s deep roots and successful collaborations with the Black Panther Party and African American activism in Oakland.
Before starting to build what became the United Farm Workers in 1962, Cesar helped organize and lead the Community Service Organization, California’s largest and most effective Latino civil rights group in the 1950s and early ‘60s. The first CSO chapter Cesar organized on his own was in West Oakland around 1953.
Founded in Oakland in 1966, The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was ideologically rooted in Black Power, self-determination, and the right to defend oneself against oppressive systems. It quickly gained the trust and respect of Black community members thanks to its Community Survival Programs such as free breakfasts, health clinics, food banks, health clinics, and more.
Greeting young African American children in Oakland (from left) Cesar Chavez, Bobby Seale, and Chavez aide Richard Ybarra.
In its early years, the UFW organized farm workers by providing them with services such as a credit union, death benefit insurance, a service station where migrants could buy cheap gas and fix their cars, and service centers to help them with myriad problems. Cesar and his colleagues believed workers weren’t just workers. While only a union could remedy abuses in the fields, workers faced other crippling dilemmas when they returned to their communities. So, it would take more than a union to overcome those dilemmas; it would take a movement.
Black Panther founders and early leaders Bobby Seale and Huey Newton emphasized dismantling systemic injustice. By focusing on the laws, bureaucratic structures, and economic incentives that maintain white supremacy and capitalism, they strove to dismantle them from the roots.
Meantime, from the UFW’s inception, Cesar Chavez inspired farm workers to challenge and overcome a farm labor system in this country that treats them as if they are not important human beings—as if they are beasts of burden—through self-organization and collective action.
Those visions perfectly positioned the Panthers and the UFW to share a commonality of missions and led them to support each other’s struggles.
Walking precincts in West Oakland in the mid-1970s (from left) U.S. Rep. Ron Dellums, Alameda County Supervisor John George, Cesar Chavez, and Assemblymember Tom Bates.
The Panthers joined the UFW’s international boycott of California table grapes in the late 1960s by picketing major supermarkets in Oakland. They supported farm worker boycotts of grapes, lettuce, and Gallo wine in the early-to-mid ’70s. The party refused donations to its free breakfast program from boycotted stores and organized carpools to shuttle shoppers to other markets.
Cesar and the UFW campaigned to send Ron Dellums to Congress in 1970, the first African American ever elected from Oakland. Cesar and the farm workers worked with the Panthers in Bobby Seale’s unsuccessful 1973 run for Oakland mayor, and in 1977, they helped elect Lionel Wilson, the first African American mayor of Oakland. Cesar walked precincts in West Oakland alongside African American elected officials.
Throughout their decades-long connection, each organization supported the other. The inspiration from their model of multi-racial solidarity is perhaps more relevant in this time of increasing polarization and ideological entrenchment. Their alliance is a reminder that authentic coalition building is possible when we connect through a larger shared vision for systemic change.
Would you like to know more about Cesar Chavez’s legacy? Please visit the National Chavez Center, an organization that is committed to promoting and conserving the memory of Cesar Chavez through his words and images, and the place where he lived during the last quarter century of his life – the César E. Chávez National Monument.
The National Chavez Center Speakers Bureau is a year-round program dedicated to sharing the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez. Official Speakers and representatives from the National Chavez Center present at nationwide conferences, community-based events, marches, universities and more, lending contemporary meaning to Cesar’s core beliefs and values. To learn more or to request a speaker, please submit a Speakers Request Form.
