Mexicans and Mexican Americans, both as documented and as undocumented workers, carved out a living from the planting, cultivating and harvesting of crops including cotton, citrus and vegetables. After World War II, organizations such as the Maricopa County Organizing Project (MCOP) and the United Farm Workers (UFW) fought to uphold the civil and legal rights of agricultural laborers.

Today, some Mexican Americans continue their work as farm laborers, but due to the mechanization and the technology involved in the harvesting of crops their numbers have dropped. Documented and undocumented immigrants, however, continue to work in the fields.

Mexicanos y mexicano americanos, ambos trabajadores documentados e indocumentados, se abrieron una vida sembrando, cultivando y cosechando cultivos inclusive algod�n, frutas c�tricas, y vegetales. Despu�s de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, organizaciones tales como el Proyecto Organizador del Condado de Maricopa (Maricopa County Organizing Project (MCOP) y los Agricultores Unidos (United Farm Workers/UFW) lucharon por defender los derechos civiles y legales de los agricultores.

Hoy d�a, algunos mexicano americanos contin�an su trabajo como agricultures, pero debido a la mecanizaci�n y tecnolog�a involucrada en la cosecha de cultivos el n�mero de agricultores ha deca�do. Inmigrantes documentados e indocumentados, sin embargo, contin�an trabajando en los campos.

Early Agricultural Labor/Comienzos de Labor Agricultural

Organized Labor Movement/Movimiento de Labor Organizada

Cesar Estrada Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) /
César Estrada Chávez y los Trabajadores Unidos de Hacienda (UFW)

After serving two years in the Navy towards the end of World War II, he met and married his wife Helen Fabela, in 1948. By 1958, Ch�vez began advocating for the development of a farm labor organization. With the help of Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, Ch�vez organized the United Farm Workers (UFW),which was organized in 1962 as the Farm Workers Association (FWA). By 1965, the organization had grown to include fifty chapters throughout the San Joaquin Valley, won its first successful strike and had changed its name to the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).

Ch�vez merged the NFWA with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to form with the AFL-CIO the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) which initiated a general grape boycott and claimed a victory in 1969 when major table-grape growers signed three-year union contracts with UFWOC.

By 1967, Ch�vez attempted to unionize agricultural workers in efforts to call attention to the plight of farm workers through boycotts and labor strikes. United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) changed its name to the United Farm Workers (UFW) and as a labor union, affiliated with the AFL-CIO. During the mid-1970s, the UFW sent labor organizers throughout the United States to begin similar unionization efforts, and it was during this period that the Arizona Farm Workers (AFW) was established. However, Arizona's conservative leaders and their political maneuvers made it difficult for organizers to unionize farm workers, and they met with defeat in their attempts to do so.

For his humanitarian contributions and his work on behalf of farm workers, the down-trodden, the poor, and the families who toil the soil and suffer from the dangers of pesticides, Arizona State University awarded C�sar Estrada Ch�vez an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in commencement ceremonies on May 8, 1992. On April 22, 1993, C�sar Estrada Ch�vez died in his sleep in Yuma, Arizona, a few hours after finishing his second day of court testimony in a trial defending the United Farm Workers (UFW) union in a suit brought against it by Bruce Church, Inc., a vegetable produce company in Salinas, California. Throughout his life, however, C�sar Ch�vez acknowledged his Arizona birthright and often recalled his family's struggles as workers in the fields.

Despu�s de servir dos a�os en la marina, hacia finales de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, �l conoci� y se cas� con su esposa Helen Fabela en 1948. Alrededor de 1958, Ch�vez comenz� a defender el desarrollo de una organizaci�n de labradores. Con la ayuda de Dolores Huerta y Gilbert Padilla, Ch�vez organiz� la Uni�n de Trabajadores de Hacienda/United Farm Workers (UFW), la cual fue organizada en 1962 como la Asociaci�n de Trabajadores de Hacienda/Farm Workers Asociation (FWA). Alrededor de 1965, la organizaci�n hab�a crecido hasta cincuenta cabildos a trav�s del Valle San Joaqu�n y gan� exitosamente su primera huelga, cambiando su nombre a Asociaci�n Nacional de Trabajadores de Hacienda (National Farm Workers Association - NFWA).

Ch�vez fusion� la NFWA con el Comit� Organizador de Trabajadores Agr�colas (Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee - AWOC), que inici� un boicoteo general de las uvas y declar� victoria en 1969 cuando un criador de tabla mayor de uvas firm� contratos de uni�n por tres a�os con UFWOC.

Alrededor de 1967, Ch�vez trat� de unificar a los agricultores en un esfuerzo por llamar la atenci�n por la situaci�n dif�cil de los labradores a trav�s de boicoteos y huelgas de labor. Comit� Organizador de Labradores Unidos (United Farmworkers Organizing Commettee - WFWOC) cambi� su nombre a Trabajadores de Hacienda Unidos (United Farm Workers - UFW) y por ser una uni�n de labor, se afili� con AFL-CIO. Durante mediados de 1970, la UFW envi� organizadores de labor a trav�s de los Estados Unidos para iniciar esfuerzos similares de unificaci�n, y fue durante este per�odo que se estableci� Trabajadores de Hacienda de Arizona (Arizona Farm Workers - AFW). Sin embargo, los l�deres conservadores y sus maniobras pol�ticas hicieron dif�cil que los organizadores unificaran a los labradores y encontraron la derrota al tratar de hacerlo.

Por sus contribuciones humanitarias y su trabajo en beneficio de los agricultores, los oprimidos, los pobres, y las familias que trabajaron las tierras y sufrieron por los peligros de los pesticidas, la Universidad del Estado de Arizona otorg� a C�sar Estrada Ch�vez el grado de Doctor Honorario de Cartas Humanitarias en las ceremonias de graduaci�n el 8 de mayo de 1992. El 22 de abril de 1993, C�sar Estrada Ch�vez muri� mientras dorm�a en Yuma, Arizona, unas horas despu�s de haber terminado su segundo d�a en un testimonio en la corte en un juicio en el que se defend�a a la uni�n de los Trabajadores de Hacendados Unidos (UFW), un juicio seguido en contra de la uni�n por Bruce Chuch, Inc., una compa��a de producci�n de vegetales en Salinas, California. A trav�s de su vida, sin embargo, C�sar Ch�vez, reconoci� sus derechos de nacimiento en Arizona y muy a menudo record� las luchas de su familia como trabajadores del campo.