April 17, 2021 • 38 mins
Join us as we uncover the best part of NCAA tournament, take a brief look at this week in history, and highlight the life of César Chávez.
Sources:
https://chavezfoundation.org/about-cesar-chavez/
https://www.history.com/topics/mexico/cesar-chavez
https://www.npr.org/2016/08/02/488428577/cesar-chavez-the-life-behind-a-legacy-of-farm-labor-rights
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pearl (00:00):
All right well welcome back to your favorite podcasts
AJ (00:03):
Here we are on the pod with my gorgeous wife Pearl Hearst
Pearl (00:07):
and my stunningly stellar husband AIJ Hearst You are
listening to the stories Weforgot It's a history podcasts
for non historians
AJ (00:21):
by non
Pearl (00:22):
You got it We got her a little exchangeable perfected
You say one part I say the otherpart It's like we're finishing
each other's We're grossing meout Oh gosh
AJ (00:40):
We've had a a fun past week done some good cooking Pearl
recently got a walk And she isbeginning to master it and
Pearl (00:51):
a real walk in the park
AJ (00:53):
there's going to be a lot of those folks it's been quite
delicious and Pearl is gettingmuch better at it And we are
thinking of some good If we wereto in the future open up a walk
Pearl (01:06):
right
AJ (01:07):
what should we call it We need some submissions We need
some ideas We you came up withone the other day
Pearl (01:13):
don't remember what it was And it was so funny we could
call it school of walk
AJ (01:18):
school of walk
Pearl (01:19):
That'd be funny my current favorite idea is to make
a really spicy menu item andcall it walk me baby all night
long you know Cause it's goingto keep you up with the you know
AJ (01:31):
or I want to walk and roll all night
Pearl (01:34):
Yeah I feel like that's what I just said but sure We'll
do yours Okay
AJ (01:38):
It's like what you said but funnier
Pearl (01:40):
sure or yeah all of the funny ones are just like
escaping
AJ (01:44):
of hard walks this could go South very quickly Um Hmm
Pearl (01:49):
Rock out with your Walker
AJ (01:51):
Okay That's the that's the one that's the winner right
there
Pearl (01:55):
Oh gosh
AJ (01:57):
my wife ladies and gentlemen
Pearl (01:59):
is that what we're going to call it
AJ (02:01):
works for
Pearl (02:01):
Oh man I might just take that out
AJ (02:04):
leave that in What else did we do Well
Pearl (02:07):
Oh we had a well we finally got around to making
that the prize for winning theMarch madness bracket Yeah
AJ (02:17):
We had a bracket going with our family and number three
child one the bracket
Pearl (02:26):
kid number three
AJ (02:27):
kid number three Oliver one the bracket I think it came down
to the very last game He pickedBaylor I picked Gonzaga and
Pearl (02:36):
then he we started doing this a couple of years ago where
everyone in the family gets topick their own makeup their own
March madness bracket And
AJ (02:46):
Which is fun
Pearl (02:46):
super fun
AJ (02:47):
also Yeah Basically
Pearl (02:49):
I mean it's complete
AJ (02:50):
picking colors and
Pearl (02:52):
guessing
AJ (02:53):
Cause we don't actually follow college basketball
Pearl (02:56):
Well I mean it doesn't matter if you do or if you don't
you're still just completelygood
AJ (02:59):
Well that's true I mean one of our kids actually did pick
oral Roberts who was like a 15
Pearl (03:04):
Yeah that was Peter Peter picked oral Roberts
AJ (03:06):
two or three games
Pearl (03:08):
They did really
AJ (03:09):
Sorry kid you're that just ruined your bracket and actually
ruined most everyone
Pearl (03:13):
yeah exactly
AJ (03:14):
anyways all of her one And he wanted an ice cream pie which
somehow when he was planningthat out with Pearl it turned
into baked Alaska
Pearl (03:25):
Well we've been talking about making baked Alaska and it
was kind of like we wereessentially making a he wanted
to have an Oreo crust and thenfill it with ice cream And
that's what it was going to beSo baked Alaska is basically
just the Marine on top
AJ (03:39):
It's basically you just yeah
Pearl (03:40):
Yeah So that's what we did
AJ (03:43):
was delicious
Pearl (03:44):
Yeah It was a pre cooked merengue I think it was an
Italian merengue I can't I can'tremember all the differences one
of the moorings you pour themelted boiling sugar water into
the egg whites As they'rewhipped up and then you continue
to whip them up and they cookbecause of that
AJ (04:02):
So it
Pearl (04:02):
So it's a pre cooked merengue and it tastes literally
like marshmallow cream
AJ (04:06):
but like the best marshmallow cream you've ever
Pearl (04:09):
Yeah It's
AJ (04:09):
it wasn't it was so good yeah that was pretty fun Pretty
delicious And then we had aMarch madness bracket
competition with another familyand the losing family had to
bake the cake of choice for thewinning family
Pearl (04:27):
Right So that was not us obviously Clearly we won
AJ (04:30):
Clearly we won So obviously
Pearl (04:33):
we're experts at this
AJ (04:34):
And so yeah we got a pineapple upside down cake made
for us which was quite stellar
Pearl (04:40):
I mean pineapple upside down cake It's just so good
AJ (04:43):
Well she really went the extra mile
Pearl (04:44):
Well she yeah she did like
AJ (04:46):
pan
Pearl (04:46):
did it in a Bundt cake and then she did like the Brown
sugar and butter on the bottomYeah
AJ (04:51):
Had that crisp little Oh it was good It was very tasty
Pearl (04:54):
It was amazing yeah huge fan.
All the garden stuff is in fullswing right now I mean it's in
full swing like prepping andplanting but no results yet kind
of full swing
AJ (05:04):
still a lot of just hoping that things will actually sprout
and
Pearl (05:08):
seems a little bit like uh like like um I dunno punking
myself by all this work I putinto it you know you're like
you're putting these littleBrown things into the ground and
you expect that to turn into afour-foot plant Okay Sure But it
does by you know by Augustyou're like well this I never
really worked What do you know
AJ (05:26):
I feel a little bit like Jack and from Jack and the
Beanstalk
Pearl (05:28):
a little bit I do
AJ (05:30):
from Jack and the Beanstalk like why would you do that
Pearl (05:34):
Yeah yeah We have the kids actually counted their pea
plants We talked about last weekon the podcast where I gave them
just a handful I gave each kid ahandful of PCs to go plant
around outside And I thinkthey've got like 97 pea plants
that have come up which that'sgoing to make a lot of them
AJ (05:51):
no I'm pretty sure that violet came up and said that we
have at least 162
Pearl (05:57):
specific That's so many
AJ (06:00):
also a lot of people
Pearl (06:02):
Yeah And T last couple of days of course weeds are going
like crazy And I really try toavoid using Roundup and you know
killing frogs but this year I'vejust had a really tough time
with a weed control So we'vejust been doing the boiling
water method Cause there's acouple weeds couple Gar a couple
like beauty bark beds and I'mreally trying to keep nice and
(06:24):
we have out here we've got theselittle onions that just grow
everywhere little wild onions Itdrives me crazy They can add for
all of the for all of the beautybarked beds that we did We laid
down two layers of cardboard boxFirst we did cardboard as our
landscape cloth weed barrier andthen the wood chips on top of
(06:44):
that So it's a bio-degradableweed barrier but man weeds are
AJ (06:48):
Yeah There's literally a spot where the edge of the
cardboard is just being shovedup into the air as an onion
plant grows out
Pearl (06:56):
Yeah Like these little delicate tiny flimsy chive
onions
AJ (07:01):
know how they do it
Pearl (07:02):
Yeah So
AJ (07:03):
To be fair We cooked with them a little bit last year when
we ran out of onions one
Pearl (07:07):
Yeah That's true
AJ (07:09):
So not entirely
Pearl (07:10):
I know but we're literally talking hundreds of
thousands
AJ (07:13):
yeah They're just
Pearl (07:14):
They're just all over the place but so the last couple of
days all of them Peter and Ihave and we
AJ (07:19):
and
Pearl (07:19):
and I say all of them Peter because you know you they
walk around and they're they'resuper excited We're out here
boiling plants to death So I'llfill up the teapot the electric
tea kettle and I'll uh you knowwe talk boils and then we'll go
outside and just hunt for weedsand thistles and just pour it
straight on the thistles andwatch them change colors They
cook and the boys are like duhsuper adorable remember
AJ (07:44):
doing that when I was like mowing the yard or weed eating
as a kid
Pearl (07:48):
Oh man There's nothing quite as vindictive as a little
child
AJ (07:52):
rain
Pearl (07:53):
Nothing is vindictive as a little child who always runs
around barefoot killing fizzlesYeah Like this this is the enemy
of my life
AJ (08:01):
This is true This is very true
Pearl (08:05):
Can I get those kids to keep shoes on man
AJ (08:10):
all right Shall we roll
Pearl (08:11):
Yeah Why don't you want you to tell us what you got
AJ (08:14):
So today is April 14th that I'm checking out all this this
day in history and there's quitea bit that happened So this was
known as April 14th, 1935 Knownas black Sunday it was one of
the worst Dustbowl
Pearl (08:33):
Oh yeah I wish I just saw that I didn't read about it So
what is that
AJ (08:37):
Well I couldn't find honestly a whole lot of real
specific information I washoping to find more like some
like wind speeds and differentthings like that but I couldn't
but they estimate that it thisdust storm um I mean it just
rolled through multiple StatesIt's like it hit hit these
people at noon and then thesepeople at three and then these
(08:58):
people that you know rolled intoTexas at seven o'clock that
night and just picking up moreand more dust the whole time
millions of pounds of dust anddebris was moved People said
that it was a beautiful daysuper like like unusually
gorgeous day And So people wereopening windows of their house
(09:23):
People were going out for drivesand the countryside and just
having a grand old day And thenall of a sudden they saw this
cloud in the distance that washugging the ground and it was
just black black cloud And itwasn't moving slow You could see
it like rolling over itself likea wave
Pearl (09:45):
Yeah I see Wow
AJ (09:47):
and just kept coming towards them And then it hit and it
everything went black Youcouldn't see just a few feet in
front of you people were stuckin their cars they just had to
like hunker down in their carAnd then it was so dark They
couldn't drive but maybe justcreeping along the road trying
to get back to their house andthen One family said they got
(10:12):
back and it was like snowdriftsup against their house They had
to go get a shovel to dig theirway into their front door just
from all the dirt and
Pearl (10:22):
all top soil
AJ (10:23):
all top soil Yeah Cause it had been a there was a drought
an eight year drought thatstarted in 1931 So this is four
years into this terrible drought
Pearl (10:33):
It wasn't just the drought It was also farming
AJ (10:35):
farming practices Yeah Yeah But the drought didn't help it
finally ended in 1939 when theygot rains again and there was
conservation programs andfarmers were being paid to
change their farming practicesto preserve the top soil but
yeah this on April 14th, 1935just this massive massive storm
(10:56):
rolled in one of the worst andyeah so some people you know
they had their windows opencause they were just kind of
airing out their house So thentheir house
Pearl (11:03):
full of dirt Wow
AJ (11:06):
They said that they could see birds flying ahead of the
storm cloud rolling in and onlythe fastest birds were making it
clear and the smaller birdswould just fly until they were
exhausted and then dropped tothe ground and die from
suffocation Like the thousandsof Jack rabbits dying from
(11:27):
suffocation as well Yeah WowPretty nasty
Pearl (11:32):
So when
AJ (11:33):
that was black Sunday 1935
Pearl (11:36):
Wow man
AJ (11:38):
Also on April 14th was the day that John Wilkes booth shot
Abraham Lincoln That's a fairlyimportant date in the U S
history also an interesting sidenote since most people have
heard about John Wilkes boothshooting Abraham Lincoln on
April 12th Samuel James Seymourlet's see on April 12th he 1956
(12:06):
he passed away He was the lastsurviving person who had been in
Ford's theater on the night ofthe assassination And he claims
now there is some question as towhether or not his claims are
accurate but he says when he waslike five years old and he was
in one of the raised booth areasa box whatever they call them
Pearl (12:29):
it's called yeah It's box
AJ (12:30):
He was across from president Lincoln with like his his mother
and a maid or something And hecan remember seeing president
Lincoln slumping over and seenJohn Wilkes booth jump to the
stage and he never told hisstory until I think in 1954 He
(12:52):
first told his story Well so1954
Pearl (12:56):
Wait when did he die 1959 Six 56
AJ (12:59):
So in 54 he told he just verbally told his story to
somebody for the first time 1956two months before he died he
went on a TV show called I'vegot a secret and it's this I'm
not sure exactly how it works Itwas there was a panel of people
(13:20):
who were trying to guess yoursecret with maybe like a 20
questions type thing And theymust have each gotten a limited
number of questions And and iffor every person that could not
guess your secret you would get$20 in 1956
Pearl (13:39):
Right
AJ (13:39):
Uh so so one one or two people But I think by the third
person they guessed it So he heshould have only gotten like$40
for the two people who didn'tbut because he was 94 years old
he had fallen the night beforeof the TV show and had a big
bruise on his face But he hisdoctor said well if you really
(14:02):
want to go on the show you canhe said I really want to go So
the host of the show is likewell for being such a good sport
and showing up for this we'regoing to give you the full$80
and a tin of Prince Albert pipetobacco
Pearl (14:17):
Prince Albert pipe
AJ (14:18):
So that was his story yeah kind of interesting Lastly it's
a lot of this day in history isa very popular day in history
the first American abolitionsociety was founded in
Philadelphia on April 14th, 1775It was founded by a Quaker
educator and abolitionistAnthony Ben is it yeah I won't
(14:41):
go into much more than that but1775 the
Pearl (14:44):
yeah You know the the interesting thing about a fact
like that is it reminds us thateven though slavery was a
cultural norm in 1775 peoplestill knew that it was You know
it's not like it's not likewe've come to this realization
as modern humans and back in the17 hundreds they just didn't
(15:07):
know you know they they knewthat it was wrong and they
justified it Right And itdoesn't really matter what other
I mean the the thing about beinga human is that We're all super
complex and complicated and weall do bad things and good
things but I think it's temptingto look back at people in
(15:29):
history that you respect likeGeorge Washington first
president of United States alsoslave owner So really
complicated person there youknow did some good stuff
obviously did some bad stuffbecause it's not like he didn't
know You know And we forgetabout that sometimes Or we use
it as an as an excuse Well itwas uh you know it was a
culturally accepted they werejust a product They were just a
(15:52):
product of their time
AJ (15:53):
you can't blame them because they were just doing what
everyone else was doing and
Pearl (15:58):
and you know while that's true it makes me think about
what are the things that arehappening today in 2021 that are
just a product of their timethat we still know are wrong You
know what are those things thatwe're we are complicit in either
actively partaking in or just bynot separating ourselves from
(16:21):
them and speaking up againstthem You know So today on the
pod I am going to talk a littlebit about very briefly not in
depth Couldn't possibly sum thisup in one podcast and I feel
like I need to say that eachtime I'm talking about someone
because it's just Every time Ifinish a podcast about a person
(16:43):
I find out more about their lifeand I'm like Oh I miss that one
AJ (16:46):
Well like you said there were all very complicated people
Pearl (16:51):
Yeah Like the um the the podcast that we did last week
about the foreign 42nd RCT madeup of Japanese Americans in
world war II one of the one ofthose stories that I read after
we recorded the podcast was howthey were dispatched to rescue a
(17:14):
a unit of men from Texas thatwere trapped under enemy fire
And they went in they rescuedthe other unit and they suffered
heavy casualties and then Acouple shortly afterwards there
was some parade to celebratethis huge victory And they they
(17:36):
were asked to be part of theparade and when they all showed
up the the unit commander forthe Texas unit asked where
everyone was and they said theydied they lost so many
casualties in that just kind ofknowing that it was a super
dangerous position to be in andthey were going to suffer
(17:57):
greatly but they just went inthere and yeah I don't know just
stories like that where as soonas you as soon as I finish any
of these I rec I realized howmuch I missed
AJ (18:07):
We are only scratching the
Pearl (18:08):
yeah So with that in mind today we're going to talk about
the life of Cesar Chavez I
AJ (18:13):
don't know much about him
Pearl (18:15):
Yeah I know
AJ (18:16):
name Recognize it
Pearl (18:19):
he's one of those figures who's usually relegated to about
a page in a history book If thatPage two up somewhere in the
paragraph to page range
AJ (18:29):
Well I guess American
Pearl (18:32):
American history Yeah he generally doesn't get a whole
lot of screen time or focus andyeah so I mean this was kind of
as much for myself as for thelisteners to this podcast I just
kinda wanted to bring to lifehis story and revisit his legacy
a little bit and talk about himSo um we're going to kind of
(18:55):
just go through the timeline ofhis life and I'm just going to
kind of lay out who what andwhen and yeah
AJ (19:02):
yeah I'm really interested in this I feel like just
recently I saw a brief littlearticle and I read through it
and I was like Oh he was muchmore interesting than I than I
realized
Pearl (19:15):
Yeah So um Chavez was born in Arizona on the 31st of
March in 1927 he was born to apoor family His father he was he
was living in a small Adobe homein Arizona and his father was
(19:35):
Working out a deal to buy thehome that they were living in He
was given an option He was hewas told that if he cleared 80
acres of land for this guy thathe was going to get the deed to
the 40 acres of land next to itwhich meant clearing 80 acres of
land
AJ (19:53):
That's what I'm
Pearl (19:53):
It really depends on what the land is like obviously
AJ (19:56):
and what tools you have at your
Pearl (19:57):
and what tools you have but either way there's no
scenario we're clearing 80 acresof land Isn't just like an
astronomical
AJ (20:05):
That's so much
Pearl (20:06):
because it's kind of like clearing a sidewalk in a
snowstorm Once you finish yougotta start over again you know
AJ (20:12):
Right Right
Pearl (20:13):
Yeah So um he cleared the he cleared the land and the
agreement was not offered wasnot honored And the land was
sold to someone He finally hisdad finally got a loan set up to
buy the land And the second thathe when he the second he
(20:36):
couldn't pay interest on theloan the everything was taken
and back and sold to theoriginal owner and you know um
so they yeah so then they movedto California and became migrant
farm workers Um Uh yeah So inhis early life Chavez uh his his
(20:56):
parents went to California tobecome migrant farm workers and
he was in school at least duringschool hours And then he was
also helping us family but whilehe's in school his school
experience is just really notgreat You know uh schools were
segregated for Mexican Americansand they treated them poorly And
(21:19):
of course everything was allEnglish speaking with no
accommodations for Spanishspeakers And
AJ (21:25):
Was he an American citizen
Pearl (21:27):
I think so I actually don't know the answer to that
but as a first generationAmerican obviously his family
wanted him to go to school buthis father died I think around
the time he was 11 years old Andbecause of that he you know
dropped out of school andstarted working in the fields
(21:47):
full-time to help support hisfamily I think he was one of
five siblings so he works
AJ (21:55):
trying to put that into context of our son Who's almost
Pearl (21:59):
Right Yeah I mean can you imagine so he works it works in
the fields full-time and then hejoins the Navy in 1946 This is
in the aftermath obviously ofworld war II I think he's in a
segregated unit again and thenwhen he when he comes back he
only serves for two years whenhe comes back in 1948 he marries
a girl that he met as a migrantfarm worker her name was Helen
(22:23):
Bayla and Caesar and Helen Gotmarried and they started having
children And he during this thisseason of his life was a huge
season of just kind of personaldiscovery and kind of figuring
out what his you know what hismission on earth was And it was
(22:43):
at this time that he start hedevelops a close relationship
with his priest and he starts Hebegins his lifelong quest of
learning Uh you know he droppedout of school really young but
in later years he was alwayssurrounded by books and was just
constantly reading and learningand encouraging others to do the
same and encouraging educationfor young Mexican Americans and
(23:06):
so two of the well actuallythree of the people that were
most inspirational to him duringthis season of his life through
reading was St Francis of Assisist Francis was a it was an
Italian nobleman from the 13th13th century and he gave up his
material wealth to live andserve on the behalf of the poor
(23:28):
live with and serve on thebehalf of the poor So um that
was one of his his inspirationsand then also Gandhi in India
And Gandhi's main thing waspeaceful protest without
violence to protest the Imperialrestrictions in India And then
(23:51):
Martin Luther King Jr Yeah So uhthose As as a devout Catholic he
was really inspired by theirexample of selflessness and
sacrifice and just theirwillingness to put everyone
ahead of themselves And there'sactually a quote a quote from
(24:13):
Chavez that I wanted to read Andhe said this is in 1968 He had
just finished a 25 day hungerstrike and he said I'm convinced
that the truest act of couragethe strongest act of Manliness
is to sacrifice ourselves forothers in a totally non-violent
(24:34):
struggle for justice to be a manis to suffer for others God help
us be men So that kind of thatkind of sums up his outlook on
life And Yeah So I just kind ofwanted to go through just a real
quick timeline of what he whathe did in his life so he marries
(24:55):
Helen in 1948 so he marries in1948 so he's 21 when he gets
married he marries a woman namedHelen who was also who was also
a migrant farm worker And thenin 1952 so four years later he
starts working as a communityservice organizer for Latino
(25:19):
civil rights and basically justorganizing communities around
issues including voterregistration immigration police
abuse when he actually becomeswithin 10 years he becomes a
group's national director so heis really passionate obviously
about my reform workers becausethat's his background and he
(25:40):
wants to he wants to form a farmworkers union and that has been
largely unsuccessful up untilthen So in 1950 and 1962 he so
1962 he is let's see 48 he's2152 he's 25 So he's 35 when he
(26:04):
resigns from the communityservice organization that he's
the director of And he starts touse his life savings of$1,200
and he forms the national farmworkers association in
California There are 10 members
AJ (26:22):
10 members
Pearl (26:22):
10 members are he his wife And his eight children
AJ (26:28):
I was wondering if that's what you're going to say next
Pearl (26:30):
Yep Yeah So he he doesn't have a lot of support at first
because no one thinks thatthere's really any it's just
such a an uphill battle to fightagainst large growers and
suppliers and supermarket chainsAnd um you know this this
massive industry that is thefood industry against individual
(26:54):
migrant farm workers becausethey aren't unionized And so he
he basically just he he gives upa career you know in a middle in
a you know pretty decent incomeWho's probably uh you know
considered middle-class Incomeat that point And when he gives
(27:15):
up his career at the age of 35with eight children his wife
goes back to work in the fieldsto support their family And um
as as he is canvassing and youknow trying to get people to
join he's asking these migrantfarm workers for food because he
can't afford to feed himself orhis family you know Um so he
(27:40):
joins up with so that so in 1965he calls for a strike a strike
against grape growers becauseand they were also joining the
joining a Filipino Americanlabor group at the same time in
this strike And at the timefield workers earned as little
(28:02):
as 40 cents an hour And this isyou know 1965 so a long time ago
but still 40 cents an hour isstill not very much money
AJ (28:12):
right Well I wonder what minimum wage was
Pearl (28:15):
Yeah So minimum wage in 1965 was a dollar 25 an hour
AJ (28:19):
Oh
Pearl (28:20):
So
AJ (28:21):
a third
Pearl (28:22):
earning a third of minimum wage at that time so
during this strike they'reasking supermarket chains and
families across America to notconsume grapes that are not
harvested by unionized farmswhen he when he forms the
national farm workersassociation So during this
(28:44):
strike the national farm workersassociation merges with the
agricultural workers organizingcommittee and then they formed
so that was the Filipino laborgroup So the two groups emerge
after this grape strike and theyformed the United farm workers
so in addition to the strike healso calls for a national
(29:05):
boycott of non-union tablegrapes where I said he sends
United farm workers to citiesacross the country to raise
awareness through marches andspeeches and just trying to
generally you know The media andthereby the national eye to give
them just a little bit ofattention in 1968 he for
(29:29):
February and February and MarchChavez fast for 25 days yeah
fast for 25 days And he breakshis fast with there's actually a
picture here of him breaking hisfast with Senator Robert Kennedy
at the morning mass and you knowusing these these high-profile
(29:51):
fasts he was able to bringattention to the plight of farm
workers without without violencewhich was kind of his main thing
So for the for the rest of hiscareer he basically picks picks
out he basically picks outcauses that he wants to
highlight um like you knowlettuce pickers or pesticide use
(30:17):
or laws against the right togather you know things like that
And he would just use that ashis platform and speak out
against it and protest againstit And he was starting to gain
enough of a following at thispoint that it was really a
catalyst for change for farmworkers in 1972 He fasted for a
(30:43):
second time for 24 days and thatwas to protest and Arizona law
that banned farm workers fromorganizing Boycotting and
striking and then his final fastokay In 19 it was in 1988 the
fast lasted 36 days And Ibelieve that that fast was
protesting the pesticidepoisoning of farm workers and
(31:05):
their children which of courseis something that's very near
and dear to his heart You knowhis you know his entire extended
family has been working asmigrant farm workers Right Um
and then he died in his sleep in1933 at the age of 66
AJ (31:21):
Sorry what year You said 33
Pearl (31:23):
1930 1993
AJ (31:25):
I figured you meant
Pearl (31:26):
1993 at the age of 66 yeah Yeah more than 40,000
people attend his attended hisfuneral and they basically just
carried his Simple pine coffinthrough the fields that he
AJ (31:41):
that he had unionized
Pearl (31:43):
fields and unites So you know when he left the CSO in
1962 that was kind of like thatwas the moment when he
essentially took that vow ofpoverty Obviously he'd never
been wealthy in his life butthat was his first chance at an
easier Life and an easier lifefor him and his wife and their
(32:05):
children their eight children in1962 president Kennedy actually
offered him head of the peaceCorps for part of Latin America
and that would have been amassive lifestyle change He
would have been in a big housewith servants and great schools
for his kids and he turned itdown because he was just so
(32:26):
passionate about well you knowthat speech that he said where
he was just talking about youknow to truly be a man was to
lay down your life for the onesaround you and to sacrifice And
he never earned more than$6,000a year He never owned a house
and when he died at the age of66 in 1930 1993 he left behind
(32:47):
no money for his family
AJ (32:48):
That makes me wonder I'm kind of curious what happened
with his eight kids What kind oftrajectories they went on
Pearl (32:57):
When he fought when he built the farm workers union he
began a burial program the firstcredit union for farm workers
health clinics daycare centersjob training programs he helped
build affordable housingincluding a retirement home for
the elderly and displacedFilipino Americans he also
(33:20):
helped build multifamily andhomeownership communities for
farm workers and other lowincome working families He
established two educationalstyle Spanish language radio
stations which is now I thinkit's called I think it's called
the radio Campesina network Andhe also established a training
(33:46):
Institute which would help trainnegotiators contract
administrators and unionorganizers so that people who
wanted to follow in hisfootsteps would have the tools
and equipping necessary one ofhis you know obviously one of
his big things was non-violenceand he was really adamant about
demanding that farm workersstrictly adhere to a pledge of
(34:08):
non-violence A lot of times hewould get a lot of pushback from
younger and male strikers whowould just be frustrated over
the slow progress especiallywhen their employers are abusive
to them
AJ (34:23):
you're working through this and you see some light at the
end but meanwhile you're stillhaving to go out day in and day
out
Pearl (34:31):
Yeah
AJ (34:33):
backbreaking labor
Pearl (34:34):
yeah So um you know in spite of all of the all of the
the obstacles in his path he wasthe first person that was able
to use boycotts to change majorlabor management disputes He
AJ (34:49):
interesting
Pearl (34:50):
Yeah millions millions of people in North America rallied
to LACASA the farm workers causeand they boycotted grapes and
other products and they forcedgrowers just normal American
families choosing the rightthings at the supermarket forced
growers to have to bargain withunion workers and make up
contracts and agree to farmlabor laws and stuff
AJ (35:13):
that's impressive
Pearl (35:14):
because of the work of Cesar Chavez and all the people
that worked with him GovernorJerry Brown in California in
1975 he passed a an agriculturallabor relations act and it was
the nation's first And it'sstill the only law that
guarantees farm workers theright to organize the right to
choose or Oregon rep or theirunion representatives and their
(35:37):
right to negotiate with theiremployers And that is largely
because of him In 1994 presidentClinton post humorously awarded
him the presidential medal offreedom which went to his wife
Helen I think that Helen liveduntil 2016 And she was just kind
(35:58):
of uh she was his backboneobviously it takes a really
committed partnership for um youknow your spouse to leave his
reliable job at the age of 35And you go with your eight
children and become a fieldworker So after his death she
continued to be an advocate forunionizing and she took over the
(36:23):
management of the farm workerscredit union and Just continued
serving the farm worker movementfor decades
AJ (36:30):
Yeah She sounds like an amazing
Pearl (36:32):
right Yeah so that's just a really brief blip about the
life of Cesar Chavez and justhis commitment to laying down
his life on the behalf of theunderserved and the forgotten
people just you know kind ofwilling to model that for his
(36:55):
family and for everyone feelslike they don't have don't have
The leverage that they need tochange the world You know you
take a a boy who dropped out ofschool at the age of 11 to
become a migrant farm worker andhow he changed the world
AJ (37:12):
Yeah that's amazing It sounds like he you know probably
a lot of what he did was givepeople hope these people who are
stuck in these cycles of povertyand just you know I'm sure there
were a lot of abusive practicesbeing used against these migrant
(37:33):
workers at the time Cause theydidn't really have much of a
voice and here comes this thisman who can you know give hope
and give them a voice And that'sgreat Good story well do you
have anything else for the pod
Pearl (37:51):
no Yeah I'm
AJ (37:52):
Well if you're still listening
Pearl (37:53):
good for you Wow Hi five round of applause We're clapping
for you You can't hear itbecause that'd be silent
clapping We're sealed We'reT-Rex clapping We're giving you
a T-Rex round replies T-Rex iscan clap I don't know if that
was like a backwards complimentfor you and T-Rex clapping you
know Cause T Rexes can't clapNevermind Okay Moving on Good
(38:17):
for you for listening to thisentire podcast Uh you're doing a
great job We appreciate it Weappreciate you if you want any
of our sources for our podcasttoday they will be in the show
notes And don't forget to likereview subscribe and
AJ (38:35):
visit the stories We forgot.com and don't forget to
Pearl (38:39):
share it with your mom Oh gosh All right That was painful
It's always painful
AJ (38:45):
not sure we're getting
Pearl (38:46):
We're not getting better This
All right well welcome back to your favorite podcasts
AJ (00:03):
Here we are on the pod with my gorgeous wife Pearl Hearst
Pearl (00:07):
and my stunningly stellar husband AIJ Hearst You are
listening to the stories Weforgot It's a history podcasts
for non historians
AJ (00:21):
by non
Pearl (00:22):
You got it We got her a little exchangeable perfected
You say one part I say the otherpart It's like we're finishing
each other's We're grossing meout Oh gosh
AJ (00:40):
We've had a a fun past week done some good cooking Pearl
recently got a walk And she isbeginning to master it and
Pearl (00:51):
a real walk in the park
AJ (00:53):
there's going to be a lot of those folks it's been quite
delicious and Pearl is gettingmuch better at it And we are
thinking of some good If we wereto in the future open up a walk
Pearl (01:06):
right
AJ (01:07):
what should we call it We need some submissions We need
some ideas We you came up withone the other day
Pearl (01:13):
don't remember what it was And it was so funny we could
call it school of walk
AJ (01:18):
school of walk
Pearl (01:19):
That'd be funny my current favorite idea is to make
a really spicy menu item andcall it walk me baby all night
long you know Cause it's goingto keep you up with the you know
AJ (01:31):
or I want to walk and roll all night
Pearl (01:34):
Yeah I feel like that's what I just said but sure We'll
do yours Okay
AJ (01:38):
It's like what you said but funnier
Pearl (01:40):
sure or yeah all of the funny ones are just like
escaping
AJ (01:44):
of hard walks this could go South very quickly Um Hmm
Pearl (01:49):
Rock out with your Walker
AJ (01:51):
Okay That's the that's the one that's the winner right
there
Pearl (01:55):
Oh gosh
AJ (01:57):
my wife ladies and gentlemen
Pearl (01:59):
is that what we're going to call it
AJ (02:01):
works for
Pearl (02:01):
Oh man I might just take that out
AJ (02:04):
leave that in What else did we do Well
Pearl (02:07):
Oh we had a well we finally got around to making
that the prize for winning theMarch madness bracket Yeah
AJ (02:17):
We had a bracket going with our family and number three
child one the bracket
Pearl (02:26):
kid number three
AJ (02:27):
kid number three Oliver one the bracket I think it came down
to the very last game He pickedBaylor I picked Gonzaga and
Pearl (02:36):
then he we started doing this a couple of years ago where
everyone in the family gets topick their own makeup their own
March madness bracket And
AJ (02:46):
Which is fun
Pearl (02:46):
super fun
AJ (02:47):
also Yeah Basically
Pearl (02:49):
I mean it's complete
AJ (02:50):
picking colors and
Pearl (02:52):
guessing
AJ (02:53):
Cause we don't actually follow college basketball
Pearl (02:56):
Well I mean it doesn't matter if you do or if you don't
you're still just completelygood
AJ (02:59):
Well that's true I mean one of our kids actually did pick
oral Roberts who was like a 15
Pearl (03:04):
Yeah that was Peter Peter picked oral Roberts
AJ (03:06):
two or three games
Pearl (03:08):
They did really
AJ (03:09):
Sorry kid you're that just ruined your bracket and actually
ruined most everyone
Pearl (03:13):
yeah exactly
AJ (03:14):
anyways all of her one And he wanted an ice cream pie which
somehow when he was planningthat out with Pearl it turned
into baked Alaska
Pearl (03:25):
Well we've been talking about making baked Alaska and it
was kind of like we wereessentially making a he wanted
to have an Oreo crust and thenfill it with ice cream And
that's what it was going to beSo baked Alaska is basically
just the Marine on top
AJ (03:39):
It's basically you just yeah
Pearl (03:40):
Yeah So that's what we did
AJ (03:43):
was delicious
Pearl (03:44):
Yeah It was a pre cooked merengue I think it was an
Italian merengue I can't I can'tremember all the differences one
of the moorings you pour themelted boiling sugar water into
the egg whites As they'rewhipped up and then you continue
to whip them up and they cookbecause of that
AJ (04:02):
So it
Pearl (04:02):
So it's a pre cooked merengue and it tastes literally
like marshmallow cream
AJ (04:06):
but like the best marshmallow cream you've ever
Pearl (04:09):
Yeah It's
AJ (04:09):
it wasn't it was so good yeah that was pretty fun Pretty
delicious And then we had aMarch madness bracket
competition with another familyand the losing family had to
bake the cake of choice for thewinning family
Pearl (04:27):
Right So that was not us obviously Clearly we won
AJ (04:30):
Clearly we won So obviously
Pearl (04:33):
we're experts at this
AJ (04:34):
And so yeah we got a pineapple upside down cake made
for us which was quite stellar
Pearl (04:40):
I mean pineapple upside down cake It's just so good
AJ (04:43):
Well she really went the extra mile
Pearl (04:44):
Well she yeah she did like
AJ (04:46):
pan
Pearl (04:46):
did it in a Bundt cake and then she did like the Brown
sugar and butter on the bottomYeah
AJ (04:51):
Had that crisp little Oh it was good It was very tasty
Pearl (04:54):
It was amazing yeah huge fan.
All the garden stuff is in fullswing right now I mean it's in
full swing like prepping andplanting but no results yet kind
of full swing
AJ (05:04):
still a lot of just hoping that things will actually sprout
and
Pearl (05:08):
seems a little bit like uh like like um I dunno punking
myself by all this work I putinto it you know you're like
you're putting these littleBrown things into the ground and
you expect that to turn into afour-foot plant Okay Sure But it
does by you know by Augustyou're like well this I never
really worked What do you know
AJ (05:26):
I feel a little bit like Jack and from Jack and the
Beanstalk
Pearl (05:28):
a little bit I do
AJ (05:30):
from Jack and the Beanstalk like why would you do that
Pearl (05:34):
Yeah yeah We have the kids actually counted their pea
plants We talked about last weekon the podcast where I gave them
just a handful I gave each kid ahandful of PCs to go plant
around outside And I thinkthey've got like 97 pea plants
that have come up which that'sgoing to make a lot of them
AJ (05:51):
no I'm pretty sure that violet came up and said that we
have at least 162
Pearl (05:57):
specific That's so many
AJ (06:00):
also a lot of people
Pearl (06:02):
Yeah And T last couple of days of course weeds are going
like crazy And I really try toavoid using Roundup and you know
killing frogs but this year I'vejust had a really tough time
with a weed control So we'vejust been doing the boiling
water method Cause there's acouple weeds couple Gar a couple
like beauty bark beds and I'mreally trying to keep nice and
(06:24):
we have out here we've got theselittle onions that just grow
everywhere little wild onions Itdrives me crazy They can add for
all of the for all of the beautybarked beds that we did We laid
down two layers of cardboard boxFirst we did cardboard as our
landscape cloth weed barrier andthen the wood chips on top of
(06:44):
that So it's a bio-degradableweed barrier but man weeds are
AJ (06:48):
Yeah There's literally a spot where the edge of the
cardboard is just being shovedup into the air as an onion
plant grows out
Pearl (06:56):
Yeah Like these little delicate tiny flimsy chive
onions
AJ (07:01):
know how they do it
Pearl (07:02):
Yeah So
AJ (07:03):
To be fair We cooked with them a little bit last year when
we ran out of onions one
Pearl (07:07):
Yeah That's true
AJ (07:09):
So not entirely
Pearl (07:10):
I know but we're literally talking hundreds of
thousands
AJ (07:13):
yeah They're just
Pearl (07:14):
They're just all over the place but so the last couple of
days all of them Peter and Ihave and we
AJ (07:19):
and
Pearl (07:19):
and I say all of them Peter because you know you they
walk around and they're they'resuper excited We're out here
boiling plants to death So I'llfill up the teapot the electric
tea kettle and I'll uh you knowwe talk boils and then we'll go
outside and just hunt for weedsand thistles and just pour it
straight on the thistles andwatch them change colors They
cook and the boys are like duhsuper adorable remember
AJ (07:44):
doing that when I was like mowing the yard or weed eating
as a kid
Pearl (07:48):
Oh man There's nothing quite as vindictive as a little
child
AJ (07:52):
rain
Pearl (07:53):
Nothing is vindictive as a little child who always runs
around barefoot killing fizzlesYeah Like this this is the enemy
of my life
AJ (08:01):
This is true This is very true
Pearl (08:05):
Can I get those kids to keep shoes on man
AJ (08:10):
all right Shall we roll
Pearl (08:11):
Yeah Why don't you want you to tell us what you got
AJ (08:14):
So today is April 14th that I'm checking out all this this
day in history and there's quitea bit that happened So this was
known as April 14th, 1935 Knownas black Sunday it was one of
the worst Dustbowl
Pearl (08:33):
Oh yeah I wish I just saw that I didn't read about it So
what is that
AJ (08:37):
Well I couldn't find honestly a whole lot of real
specific information I washoping to find more like some
like wind speeds and differentthings like that but I couldn't
but they estimate that it thisdust storm um I mean it just
rolled through multiple StatesIt's like it hit hit these
people at noon and then thesepeople at three and then these
(08:58):
people that you know rolled intoTexas at seven o'clock that
night and just picking up moreand more dust the whole time
millions of pounds of dust anddebris was moved People said
that it was a beautiful daysuper like like unusually
gorgeous day And So people wereopening windows of their house
(09:23):
People were going out for drivesand the countryside and just
having a grand old day And thenall of a sudden they saw this
cloud in the distance that washugging the ground and it was
just black black cloud And itwasn't moving slow You could see
it like rolling over itself likea wave
Pearl (09:45):
Yeah I see Wow
AJ (09:47):
and just kept coming towards them And then it hit and it
everything went black Youcouldn't see just a few feet in
front of you people were stuckin their cars they just had to
like hunker down in their carAnd then it was so dark They
couldn't drive but maybe justcreeping along the road trying
to get back to their house andthen One family said they got
(10:12):
back and it was like snowdriftsup against their house They had
to go get a shovel to dig theirway into their front door just
from all the dirt and
Pearl (10:22):
all top soil
AJ (10:23):
all top soil Yeah Cause it had been a there was a drought
an eight year drought thatstarted in 1931 So this is four
years into this terrible drought
Pearl (10:33):
It wasn't just the drought It was also farming
AJ (10:35):
farming practices Yeah Yeah But the drought didn't help it
finally ended in 1939 when theygot rains again and there was
conservation programs andfarmers were being paid to
change their farming practicesto preserve the top soil but
yeah this on April 14th, 1935just this massive massive storm
(10:56):
rolled in one of the worst andyeah so some people you know
they had their windows opencause they were just kind of
airing out their house So thentheir house
Pearl (11:03):
full of dirt Wow
AJ (11:06):
They said that they could see birds flying ahead of the
storm cloud rolling in and onlythe fastest birds were making it
clear and the smaller birdswould just fly until they were
exhausted and then dropped tothe ground and die from
suffocation Like the thousandsof Jack rabbits dying from
(11:27):
suffocation as well Yeah WowPretty nasty
Pearl (11:32):
So when
AJ (11:33):
that was black Sunday 1935
Pearl (11:36):
Wow man
AJ (11:38):
Also on April 14th was the day that John Wilkes booth shot
Abraham Lincoln That's a fairlyimportant date in the U S
history also an interesting sidenote since most people have
heard about John Wilkes boothshooting Abraham Lincoln on
April 12th Samuel James Seymourlet's see on April 12th he 1956
(12:06):
he passed away He was the lastsurviving person who had been in
Ford's theater on the night ofthe assassination And he claims
now there is some question as towhether or not his claims are
accurate but he says when he waslike five years old and he was
in one of the raised booth areasa box whatever they call them
Pearl (12:29):
it's called yeah It's box
AJ (12:30):
He was across from president Lincoln with like his his mother
and a maid or something And hecan remember seeing president
Lincoln slumping over and seenJohn Wilkes booth jump to the
stage and he never told hisstory until I think in 1954 He
(12:52):
first told his story Well so1954
Pearl (12:56):
Wait when did he die 1959 Six 56
AJ (12:59):
So in 54 he told he just verbally told his story to
somebody for the first time 1956two months before he died he
went on a TV show called I'vegot a secret and it's this I'm
not sure exactly how it works Itwas there was a panel of people
(13:20):
who were trying to guess yoursecret with maybe like a 20
questions type thing And theymust have each gotten a limited
number of questions And and iffor every person that could not
guess your secret you would get$20 in 1956
Pearl (13:39):
Right
AJ (13:39):
Uh so so one one or two people But I think by the third
person they guessed it So he heshould have only gotten like$40
for the two people who didn'tbut because he was 94 years old
he had fallen the night beforeof the TV show and had a big
bruise on his face But he hisdoctor said well if you really
(14:02):
want to go on the show you canhe said I really want to go So
the host of the show is likewell for being such a good sport
and showing up for this we'regoing to give you the full$80
and a tin of Prince Albert pipetobacco
Pearl (14:17):
Prince Albert pipe
AJ (14:18):
So that was his story yeah kind of interesting Lastly it's
a lot of this day in history isa very popular day in history
the first American abolitionsociety was founded in
Philadelphia on April 14th, 1775It was founded by a Quaker
educator and abolitionistAnthony Ben is it yeah I won't
(14:41):
go into much more than that but1775 the
Pearl (14:44):
yeah You know the the interesting thing about a fact
like that is it reminds us thateven though slavery was a
cultural norm in 1775 peoplestill knew that it was You know
it's not like it's not likewe've come to this realization
as modern humans and back in the17 hundreds they just didn't
(15:07):
know you know they they knewthat it was wrong and they
justified it Right And itdoesn't really matter what other
I mean the the thing about beinga human is that We're all super
complex and complicated and weall do bad things and good
things but I think it's temptingto look back at people in
(15:29):
history that you respect likeGeorge Washington first
president of United States alsoslave owner So really
complicated person there youknow did some good stuff
obviously did some bad stuffbecause it's not like he didn't
know You know And we forgetabout that sometimes Or we use
it as an as an excuse Well itwas uh you know it was a
culturally accepted they werejust a product They were just a
(15:52):
product of their time
AJ (15:53):
you can't blame them because they were just doing what
everyone else was doing and
Pearl (15:58):
and you know while that's true it makes me think about
what are the things that arehappening today in 2021 that are
just a product of their timethat we still know are wrong You
know what are those things thatwe're we are complicit in either
actively partaking in or just bynot separating ourselves from
(16:21):
them and speaking up againstthem You know So today on the
pod I am going to talk a littlebit about very briefly not in
depth Couldn't possibly sum thisup in one podcast and I feel
like I need to say that eachtime I'm talking about someone
because it's just Every time Ifinish a podcast about a person
(16:43):
I find out more about their lifeand I'm like Oh I miss that one
AJ (16:46):
Well like you said there were all very complicated people
Pearl (16:51):
Yeah Like the um the the podcast that we did last week
about the foreign 42nd RCT madeup of Japanese Americans in
world war II one of the one ofthose stories that I read after
we recorded the podcast was howthey were dispatched to rescue a
(17:14):
a unit of men from Texas thatwere trapped under enemy fire
And they went in they rescuedthe other unit and they suffered
heavy casualties and then Acouple shortly afterwards there
was some parade to celebratethis huge victory And they they
(17:36):
were asked to be part of theparade and when they all showed
up the the unit commander forthe Texas unit asked where
everyone was and they said theydied they lost so many
casualties in that just kind ofknowing that it was a super
dangerous position to be in andthey were going to suffer
(17:57):
greatly but they just went inthere and yeah I don't know just
stories like that where as soonas you as soon as I finish any
of these I rec I realized howmuch I missed
AJ (18:07):
We are only scratching the
Pearl (18:08):
yeah So with that in mind today we're going to talk about
the life of Cesar Chavez I
AJ (18:13):
don't know much about him
Pearl (18:15):
Yeah I know
AJ (18:16):
name Recognize it
Pearl (18:19):
he's one of those figures who's usually relegated to about
a page in a history book If thatPage two up somewhere in the
paragraph to page range
AJ (18:29):
Well I guess American
Pearl (18:32):
American history Yeah he generally doesn't get a whole
lot of screen time or focus andyeah so I mean this was kind of
as much for myself as for thelisteners to this podcast I just
kinda wanted to bring to lifehis story and revisit his legacy
a little bit and talk about himSo um we're going to kind of
(18:55):
just go through the timeline ofhis life and I'm just going to
kind of lay out who what andwhen and yeah
AJ (19:02):
yeah I'm really interested in this I feel like just
recently I saw a brief littlearticle and I read through it
and I was like Oh he was muchmore interesting than I than I
realized
Pearl (19:15):
Yeah So um Chavez was born in Arizona on the 31st of
March in 1927 he was born to apoor family His father he was he
was living in a small Adobe homein Arizona and his father was
(19:35):
Working out a deal to buy thehome that they were living in He
was given an option He was hewas told that if he cleared 80
acres of land for this guy thathe was going to get the deed to
the 40 acres of land next to itwhich meant clearing 80 acres of
land
AJ (19:53):
That's what I'm
Pearl (19:53):
It really depends on what the land is like obviously
AJ (19:56):
and what tools you have at your
Pearl (19:57):
and what tools you have but either way there's no
scenario we're clearing 80 acresof land Isn't just like an
astronomical
AJ (20:05):
That's so much
Pearl (20:06):
because it's kind of like clearing a sidewalk in a
snowstorm Once you finish yougotta start over again you know
AJ (20:12):
Right Right
Pearl (20:13):
Yeah So um he cleared the he cleared the land and the
agreement was not offered wasnot honored And the land was
sold to someone He finally hisdad finally got a loan set up to
buy the land And the second thathe when he the second he
(20:36):
couldn't pay interest on theloan the everything was taken
and back and sold to theoriginal owner and you know um
so they yeah so then they movedto California and became migrant
farm workers Um Uh yeah So inhis early life Chavez uh his his
(20:56):
parents went to California tobecome migrant farm workers and
he was in school at least duringschool hours And then he was
also helping us family but whilehe's in school his school
experience is just really notgreat You know uh schools were
segregated for Mexican Americansand they treated them poorly And
(21:19):
of course everything was allEnglish speaking with no
accommodations for Spanishspeakers And
AJ (21:25):
Was he an American citizen
Pearl (21:27):
I think so I actually don't know the answer to that
but as a first generationAmerican obviously his family
wanted him to go to school buthis father died I think around
the time he was 11 years old Andbecause of that he you know
dropped out of school andstarted working in the fields
(21:47):
full-time to help support hisfamily I think he was one of
five siblings so he works
AJ (21:55):
trying to put that into context of our son Who's almost
Pearl (21:59):
Right Yeah I mean can you imagine so he works it works in
the fields full-time and then hejoins the Navy in 1946 This is
in the aftermath obviously ofworld war II I think he's in a
segregated unit again and thenwhen he when he comes back he
only serves for two years whenhe comes back in 1948 he marries
a girl that he met as a migrantfarm worker her name was Helen
(22:23):
Bayla and Caesar and Helen Gotmarried and they started having
children And he during this thisseason of his life was a huge
season of just kind of personaldiscovery and kind of figuring
out what his you know what hismission on earth was And it was
(22:43):
at this time that he start hedevelops a close relationship
with his priest and he starts Hebegins his lifelong quest of
learning Uh you know he droppedout of school really young but
in later years he was alwayssurrounded by books and was just
constantly reading and learningand encouraging others to do the
same and encouraging educationfor young Mexican Americans and
(23:06):
so two of the well actuallythree of the people that were
most inspirational to him duringthis season of his life through
reading was St Francis of Assisist Francis was a it was an
Italian nobleman from the 13th13th century and he gave up his
material wealth to live andserve on the behalf of the poor
(23:28):
live with and serve on thebehalf of the poor So um that
was one of his his inspirationsand then also Gandhi in India
And Gandhi's main thing waspeaceful protest without
violence to protest the Imperialrestrictions in India And then
(23:51):
Martin Luther King Jr Yeah So uhthose As as a devout Catholic he
was really inspired by theirexample of selflessness and
sacrifice and just theirwillingness to put everyone
ahead of themselves And there'sactually a quote a quote from
(24:13):
Chavez that I wanted to read Andhe said this is in 1968 He had
just finished a 25 day hungerstrike and he said I'm convinced
that the truest act of couragethe strongest act of Manliness
is to sacrifice ourselves forothers in a totally non-violent
(24:34):
struggle for justice to be a manis to suffer for others God help
us be men So that kind of thatkind of sums up his outlook on
life And Yeah So I just kind ofwanted to go through just a real
quick timeline of what he whathe did in his life so he marries
(24:55):
Helen in 1948 so he marries in1948 so he's 21 when he gets
married he marries a woman namedHelen who was also who was also
a migrant farm worker And thenin 1952 so four years later he
starts working as a communityservice organizer for Latino
(25:19):
civil rights and basically justorganizing communities around
issues including voterregistration immigration police
abuse when he actually becomeswithin 10 years he becomes a
group's national director so heis really passionate obviously
about my reform workers becausethat's his background and he
(25:40):
wants to he wants to form a farmworkers union and that has been
largely unsuccessful up untilthen So in 1950 and 1962 he so
1962 he is let's see 48 he's2152 he's 25 So he's 35 when he
(26:04):
resigns from the communityservice organization that he's
the director of And he starts touse his life savings of$1,200
and he forms the national farmworkers association in
California There are 10 members
AJ (26:22):
10 members
Pearl (26:22):
10 members are he his wife And his eight children
AJ (26:28):
I was wondering if that's what you're going to say next
Pearl (26:30):
Yep Yeah So he he doesn't have a lot of support at first
because no one thinks thatthere's really any it's just
such a an uphill battle to fightagainst large growers and
suppliers and supermarket chainsAnd um you know this this
massive industry that is thefood industry against individual
(26:54):
migrant farm workers becausethey aren't unionized And so he
he basically just he he gives upa career you know in a middle in
a you know pretty decent incomeWho's probably uh you know
considered middle-class Incomeat that point And when he gives
(27:15):
up his career at the age of 35with eight children his wife
goes back to work in the fieldsto support their family And um
as as he is canvassing and youknow trying to get people to
join he's asking these migrantfarm workers for food because he
can't afford to feed himself orhis family you know Um so he
(27:40):
joins up with so that so in 1965he calls for a strike a strike
against grape growers becauseand they were also joining the
joining a Filipino Americanlabor group at the same time in
this strike And at the timefield workers earned as little
(28:02):
as 40 cents an hour And this isyou know 1965 so a long time ago
but still 40 cents an hour isstill not very much money
AJ (28:12):
right Well I wonder what minimum wage was
Pearl (28:15):
Yeah So minimum wage in 1965 was a dollar 25 an hour
AJ (28:19):
Oh
Pearl (28:20):
So
AJ (28:21):
a third
Pearl (28:22):
earning a third of minimum wage at that time so
during this strike they'reasking supermarket chains and
families across America to notconsume grapes that are not
harvested by unionized farmswhen he when he forms the
national farm workersassociation So during this
(28:44):
strike the national farm workersassociation merges with the
agricultural workers organizingcommittee and then they formed
so that was the Filipino laborgroup So the two groups emerge
after this grape strike and theyformed the United farm workers
so in addition to the strike healso calls for a national
(29:05):
boycott of non-union tablegrapes where I said he sends
United farm workers to citiesacross the country to raise
awareness through marches andspeeches and just trying to
generally you know The media andthereby the national eye to give
them just a little bit ofattention in 1968 he for
(29:29):
February and February and MarchChavez fast for 25 days yeah
fast for 25 days And he breakshis fast with there's actually a
picture here of him breaking hisfast with Senator Robert Kennedy
at the morning mass and you knowusing these these high-profile
(29:51):
fasts he was able to bringattention to the plight of farm
workers without without violencewhich was kind of his main thing
So for the for the rest of hiscareer he basically picks picks
out he basically picks outcauses that he wants to
highlight um like you knowlettuce pickers or pesticide use
(30:17):
or laws against the right togather you know things like that
And he would just use that ashis platform and speak out
against it and protest againstit And he was starting to gain
enough of a following at thispoint that it was really a
catalyst for change for farmworkers in 1972 He fasted for a
(30:43):
second time for 24 days and thatwas to protest and Arizona law
that banned farm workers fromorganizing Boycotting and
striking and then his final fastokay In 19 it was in 1988 the
fast lasted 36 days And Ibelieve that that fast was
protesting the pesticidepoisoning of farm workers and
(31:05):
their children which of courseis something that's very near
and dear to his heart You knowhis you know his entire extended
family has been working asmigrant farm workers Right Um
and then he died in his sleep in1933 at the age of 66
AJ (31:21):
Sorry what year You said 33
Pearl (31:23):
1930 1993
AJ (31:25):
I figured you meant
Pearl (31:26):
1993 at the age of 66 yeah Yeah more than 40,000
people attend his attended hisfuneral and they basically just
carried his Simple pine coffinthrough the fields that he
AJ (31:41):
that he had unionized
Pearl (31:43):
fields and unites So you know when he left the CSO in
1962 that was kind of like thatwas the moment when he
essentially took that vow ofpoverty Obviously he'd never
been wealthy in his life butthat was his first chance at an
easier Life and an easier lifefor him and his wife and their
(32:05):
children their eight children in1962 president Kennedy actually
offered him head of the peaceCorps for part of Latin America
and that would have been amassive lifestyle change He
would have been in a big housewith servants and great schools
for his kids and he turned itdown because he was just so
(32:26):
passionate about well you knowthat speech that he said where
he was just talking about youknow to truly be a man was to
lay down your life for the onesaround you and to sacrifice And
he never earned more than$6,000a year He never owned a house
and when he died at the age of66 in 1930 1993 he left behind
(32:47):
no money for his family
AJ (32:48):
That makes me wonder I'm kind of curious what happened
with his eight kids What kind oftrajectories they went on
Pearl (32:57):
When he fought when he built the farm workers union he
began a burial program the firstcredit union for farm workers
health clinics daycare centersjob training programs he helped
build affordable housingincluding a retirement home for
the elderly and displacedFilipino Americans he also
(33:20):
helped build multifamily andhomeownership communities for
farm workers and other lowincome working families He
established two educationalstyle Spanish language radio
stations which is now I thinkit's called I think it's called
the radio Campesina network Andhe also established a training
(33:46):
Institute which would help trainnegotiators contract
administrators and unionorganizers so that people who
wanted to follow in hisfootsteps would have the tools
and equipping necessary one ofhis you know obviously one of
his big things was non-violenceand he was really adamant about
demanding that farm workersstrictly adhere to a pledge of
(34:08):
non-violence A lot of times hewould get a lot of pushback from
younger and male strikers whowould just be frustrated over
the slow progress especiallywhen their employers are abusive
to them
AJ (34:23):
you're working through this and you see some light at the
end but meanwhile you're stillhaving to go out day in and day
out
Pearl (34:31):
Yeah
AJ (34:33):
backbreaking labor
Pearl (34:34):
yeah So um you know in spite of all of the all of the
the obstacles in his path he wasthe first person that was able
to use boycotts to change majorlabor management disputes He
AJ (34:49):
interesting
Pearl (34:50):
Yeah millions millions of people in North America rallied
to LACASA the farm workers causeand they boycotted grapes and
other products and they forcedgrowers just normal American
families choosing the rightthings at the supermarket forced
growers to have to bargain withunion workers and make up
contracts and agree to farmlabor laws and stuff
AJ (35:13):
that's impressive
Pearl (35:14):
because of the work of Cesar Chavez and all the people
that worked with him GovernorJerry Brown in California in
1975 he passed a an agriculturallabor relations act and it was
the nation's first And it'sstill the only law that
guarantees farm workers theright to organize the right to
choose or Oregon rep or theirunion representatives and their
(35:37):
right to negotiate with theiremployers And that is largely
because of him In 1994 presidentClinton post humorously awarded
him the presidential medal offreedom which went to his wife
Helen I think that Helen liveduntil 2016 And she was just kind
(35:58):
of uh she was his backboneobviously it takes a really
committed partnership for um youknow your spouse to leave his
reliable job at the age of 35And you go with your eight
children and become a fieldworker So after his death she
continued to be an advocate forunionizing and she took over the
(36:23):
management of the farm workerscredit union and Just continued
serving the farm worker movementfor decades
AJ (36:30):
Yeah She sounds like an amazing
Pearl (36:32):
right Yeah so that's just a really brief blip about the
life of Cesar Chavez and justhis commitment to laying down
his life on the behalf of theunderserved and the forgotten
people just you know kind ofwilling to model that for his
(36:55):
family and for everyone feelslike they don't have don't have
The leverage that they need tochange the world You know you
take a a boy who dropped out ofschool at the age of 11 to
become a migrant farm worker andhow he changed the world
AJ (37:12):
Yeah that's amazing It sounds like he you know probably
a lot of what he did was givepeople hope these people who are
stuck in these cycles of povertyand just you know I'm sure there
were a lot of abusive practicesbeing used against these migrant
(37:33):
workers at the time Cause theydidn't really have much of a
voice and here comes this thisman who can you know give hope
and give them a voice And that'sgreat Good story well do you
have anything else for the pod
Pearl (37:51):
no Yeah I'm
AJ (37:52):
Well if you're still listening
Pearl (37:53):
good for you Wow Hi five round of applause We're clapping
for you You can't hear itbecause that'd be silent
clapping We're sealed We'reT-Rex clapping We're giving you
a T-Rex round replies T-Rex iscan clap I don't know if that
was like a backwards complimentfor you and T-Rex clapping you
know Cause T Rexes can't clapNevermind Okay Moving on Good
(38:17):
for you for listening to thisentire podcast Uh you're doing a
great job We appreciate it Weappreciate you if you want any
of our sources for our podcasttoday they will be in the show
notes And don't forget to likereview subscribe and
AJ (38:35):
visit the stories We forgot.com and don't forget to
Pearl (38:39):
share it with your mom Oh gosh All right That was painful
It's always painful
AJ (38:45):
not sure we're getting
Pearl (38:46):
We're not getting better This
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