Key leaders
Important figures who contributed immensely to the California Farm Worker Movement.
Cesar Chavez: American labor leader who co-founded the United Farm Workers Union. Chavez was born into a poor, Mexican-American family of migrant farm laborers and decided to dedicate his life's work to fighting for civil rights for farmworkers. Chavez was influenced by Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi through non-violent civil disobedience.
Dolores Huerta: American labor leader who also co-founded the United Farm Workers Union. Worked her entire life to improve social and economic conditions for farm workers. Huerta received a tremendous amount of hate and discrimination when she was young and made it a focal point to fight this type of ignorance. Huerta also created the Agricultural Workers Association.
Larry Itliong: An American labor organizer who sparked the Delano grape strike in 1965 in order to demand wages equal to the federal minimum wage. Itliong managed to convince Huerta and Chavez to persuade Mexican workers to join forces with Itliong to form the United Farm Workers Union. Because of this, Itiliong is considered one of the founding fathers of the West Coast labor movement.