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Birth of Chavez
César E. Chávez born in Yuma, Arizona -
Joins Community Service Organization
César E. Chávez meets Fred Ross and joins the Community Service Organization. -
César E. Chávez establishes NFWA (or FWA).
César E. Chávez establishes NFWA [National Farm Workers Association] (or FWA) in Fresno. Union has first convention 211 members -
César E. Chávez begins a 340-mile Peregrinácion (pilgrimage) from Delano to Sacramento.
Chávez and small group of strikers walk from Delano and are joined by thousands of supporters by the time they reach
the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento. The march draws national attention to the suffering of farm workers. During the march and after a four-month boycott, Schenley Vineyards negotiates an agreement with NFWA--the first genuine union contract between a grower and farm workers' union in United State's history. -
Chavez's union votes to join AWOC in a grape strike
Chávez's union votes to join Agricultural Workers Organizing
Committee (AWOC), AFL-CIO led by Filipino workers in a grape strike. -
NFWA merges with AWOC and forms UFWOC (United Farm Workers Organizing Committee)
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César begins a fast for non-violence
César begins a fast for non-violence which lasts 25 days. U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy joins 8,000 farm workers and supporters at a mass where César breaks his fast, calling the weakened farm labor leader "one of the heroic figures of our time." -
26 growers in Delano sign contracts with UFW ending a five year struggle.
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Salad Bowl Strike begins.
Conflict with Teamsters begins as Teamsters sign sweetheart contracts with growers. -
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Chavez is jailed.
César is jailed in Salinas, California for refusing to obey a court order to stop the boycott against Bud Antle lettuce. Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, visit César in jail. -
The UFW is chartered as an independent affiliate.
1972 The UFW is chartered as an independent affiliate by the AFL-CIO; it becomes the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW). -
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Chavez fasts for 25 days.
May 11-June 4, 1972 César fasts for 25 days in Phoenix over a just-passed Arizona law banning the right of farm workers to strike or boycott -
Chávez is awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize by Coretta Scott King.
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César E. Chávez and the UFW get the Agricultural Labor Relations Act signed by California Governor Jerry Brown.
The Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 was designed to protect rights of farm workers to act together to help themselves, to engage in union organizational activity, and to select their own representatives to bargain with employers. -
Proposition 14 drive gets 719,000 signatures.
Proposition 14 drive gets 719,000 signatures and passes forcing
California to fund the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB). -
Grape boycott launched.
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"Wrath of Grapes" campaign
César E. Chávez kicks off the "Wrath of Grapes" campaign to draw
public attention to the pesticide poisoning of grape workers and their children. -
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Chavez fasts for 36 days.
At age 61, César E. Chávez conducts his last--and longest--public fast for 36 days in Delano to call attention to farm workers and their
children stricken by pesticides -
Chavez is awarded the Aguila Azteca.
Nov. 12, 1990 Mexican President Salinas de Gortari awards Chávez the Aguila Azteca, the highest Mexican civilian award. -
Chavez dies peacefully in his sleep in San Luis, Arizona.
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Arturo Rodriguez becomes UFW president.
Veteran UFW organizer Arturo Rodriguez succeeds César E. Chávez as union president. -
Presidential Medal of Freedom
President Bill Clinton posthumously presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor to César E. Chávez. His widow, Helen, receives the medal during a White House ceremony. -
Establishment of Cesar Chavez Day
César Chávez Day established when California Governor Gray
Davis signs into law SB 984, authored by Senator Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles.
