A True American Hero, Cesar Chavez

César Estrada Chávez (March 31, 1927 to 23 April 1993) was a Mexican leader the U.S. workforce that uses nonviolent methods to fight for the rights of migrant farm workers in the southwestern United States. Migrant farm workers are people who do farm work, from farm to farm and city to city, because their work is necessary – that’s a tough job that pays very little and can be dangerous due to the use of pesticides ( Pesticides are chemicals that kill insects and can make people sick).
Chavez founded a group that advocates for the rights of agricultural workers, to act to raise wages and improve working conditions and safety of agricultural workers. He also organized strikes (when workers refuse to work until the improvement of working conditions and salary requirements are met) and the nationwide boycott of agricultural products to help workers (a boycott is a protest in which invited the public not to buy certain products). Chavez went on hunger strikes many, refusing to eat until the violence against strikers ended and until legislators (legislators) voted for legislation to improve the living conditions of farm workers. He was also jailed several times during his fight against the terrible conditions of migrant workers.
More than two years in the making, the fight in the fields: Cesar Chavez and the struggle for farm workers is the first film to cover the arc of the life of Cesar Chavez.

Using archival footage, news, and today’s talks with Ethel Kennedy, former California Governor Jerry Brown, Dolores Huerta, Chavez’s brother, sister, son and daughter, among others, the documentary traces the remarkable contributions Chavez and others involved in this epic struggle.

Produced, directed and written by Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Tel les, the fight in the fields is presented by the Independent Television Service (ITVS). The film was produced by Paradigm Productions. The two-hour documentary the first time at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997, in January, was broadcast nationwide on PBS from 1997 to 2000, and on the Sundance Channel in 2001 and 2002.
 
The fight in the fields after the first successful campaign organization of agricultural workers in the U.S., while recounting the many failed attempts to organize and dramatic leading to victory.Among the many obstacles to organizing was the Bracero Program, which flooded the fields with the hired workers in Mexico between WWII and 1960.

Woven through this historical mosaic is the story of Chavez’s life:
adolescence as a migrant farm worker
its beginnings as a community organizer
his marriage to Helen Chavez, whose support enabled him to participate in the movement
his successful efforts to organize farm workers
his dramatic fasts kept the eyes of the national press on the subject and the strikers are committed to nonviolence
pivots 300 miles in March, led from Delano to Sacramento
and his friendship and political alliance with Robert Kennedy history.
The fight in the fields: Cesar Chavez and the struggle of farm workers “is not a traditional biography. This is social history with Chavez as the central figure, and the stories of many ordinary people who were part of the movement.

Chavez and many others, has contributed to significant changes in the lives of farm workers. Many of these things for granted, like safe water and latrines in public areas and the most important reforms, such as ensuring fair labor practices and to end the bracero program.

The film pays tribute to the tremendous progress made by Chavez and all the men and women of the United Farm Workers Union who fought for a stake in the American dream.