The Chicano Movement
” Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.” Dolores Huerta
The National Farm Workers Association
In 1962, farm labor leaders and organizers, including Dolores Huerta, established the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). Their goal was to help farm workers secure better wages and improve harsh working conditions. One of the movement’s guiding ideas was that people who are outraged by injustice cannot feel truly free or content unless they commit themselves to changing those conditions. From the beginning, the NFWA—later known as the United Farm Workers—followed the principles of nonviolence, using methods such as fasting and marches to draw attention to their cause.
Strong spiritual beliefs played a major role in shaping this commitment to peaceful reform. In 1968, a 25-day fast demonstrated personal dedication as well as the movement’s commitment to nonviolence. Additional fasts took place in 1972 for another 25 days, and again in 1988, when a 36-day fast highlighted the harmful effects of pesticides on farm workers and their families.
A powerful statement from the movement reflected a deep identification with the poor and suffering, emphasizing that solutions to injustice come not from the arrogance of the powerful but through solidarity with the weak and vulnerable. It called for simple acts of justice carried out by people devoted to improving the lives of others, affirming that meaningful change is possible through collective effort.
On Mexican Independence Day in 1965, the NFWA and its 1,200 members voted to join a strike against Delano grape growers. The resulting boycott gained national attention, with millions of Americans supporting the cause. Prominent figures such as Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. also backed the movement. By 1970, twenty-six growers, concerned about financial losses and public pressure, agreed to demands that included higher wages, improved living conditions, and other important concessions.
The Chicano Movement
"Motivated and inspired by the success of the farm workers in their fight for equality, thousands of Mexican-American university students in California initiated their own grassroots movement for social equality that became known as the Chicano Movement. The term Chicano became associated with youthful assertiveness and a civil rights agenda. Although students and their supporters also used the term in reference to the entire Mexican-American population, it nevertheless had a more direct application to the politically active movement.
The Chicano Movement is diverse, multifaceted and compelling. It does not lend itself to a single definition or neat depiction. The Chicano initiative is composed of various goals. Many of them focus on education—the inception of bilingual/bicultural programs, development of Chicano centered curricula, increased number of Chicano educators and administrators, improved support services and many other educational issues. The movement also spearheaded cultural reform by creating politically motivated visual, literary and stage production art and addressing community concerns, employment issues and equality for women.
Throughout the 1970’s, students numbering in the thousands formed several activist organizations. Although the leaders and participants in the movement did not always agree on policy and direction and indeed often quarreled, they had a common purpose—to acquire the civil rights and privileges that the larger sector of society already had. Eventually, most of them merged under the umbrella of El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA).
The movement achieved great advancements in higher education, employment and business and also won major civil rights victories but perhaps the greatest impact was on the people themselves. They gained renewed strength and the realization of their ability to affect change."
