César Chávez day is March 31. Shutterstock/rook76 
After graduating from junior high and working in the fields with his family for three years, Chavez enlisted in the Navy at age eighteen. Two years later, he was honorably discharged, and with little in the way of other options, he went back to farm work in Delano, California. Instagram/CesarChavezMovie 
Chavez got his start in labor organizing with the Community Service Organization (CSO) in San Jose, Calif. After a decade with them, he split off to form the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later joined with the mostly Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to make up the UFW. Here, a person holds up a U.F.W. sign during President Barack Obama's announcement of the Cesar E. Chavez National Day on October 8, 2012 in Keene Kern County, California Getty Images 
The 1965 grape strike in Delano began with Filipino workers and blossomed into picket lines across the Southwest and a national (and international) call for a consumer boycott -- as well as boycotts that targeted major distributors in cities. It's the fruit with which much of the public came to associate Chavez's work, especially after a historic contract signing with grower John Giumarra, Jr. marked a victory for the UFW. Reuters/John Kolesidis 
By 1970, several grape growers had agreed to sign deals with strikers. In July of that year, John Giumarra, Jr. (pictured on the right here), the "Grape King" of California, left a message on Chavez's voicemail saying he was ready to work out a deal. When Giumarra fell, so did all the others -- in days, over 20 other growers agreed to negotiate contracts. YouTube 
On July 1, 1975, Chavez led UFW workers on a 1,000-mile march from San Ysidro, up along the coast to Sacramento, and back down south to La Paz. The march was held in celebration of a state law ensuring farm workers' right to organize as well as to urge farm workers to vote on which union -- the UFW or the Teamsters, or none at all -- would represent them at each individual location. Instagram/CesarChavezMovie 
Chavez delivered one of his most famous speeches -- the Commonwealth Club address -- in 1984 upon the invitation of child star Shirley Temple Black. The labor leader had initially been reluctant; Black had a long history of stumping for Republican causes, and even served as Richard Nixon's ambassador to Ghana. Instagram/ CesarChavezMovie 
Chávez has over the years been the subject of an intensifying campaign to make his birthday a holiday. Here, a man holds a photo of him during an immigration rights rally at the Arizona State Capital in Phoenix, Arizona, September 4, 2006. REUTERS/Jeff Topping
Previous
1 of 8
Next
César Chávez's birthday on March 31 gets the state holiday treatment in Colorado, California and Texas, and President Obama has called for Americans to observe the labor-rights and Latino icon's memory on that day. In 2014, his birthday got even more attention than normal because of the Diego Luna-directed biopic; immigration-reform boosters like Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us and a plethora of groups who want his birthday to be declared a national holiday have latched onto the release of the movie to promote their own cause. Let's remember him on this day and check out the story of Chávez's life in farmworker advocacy -- in photographic shorthand.
