英语名人堂：凯萨查维斯（在线收听）

凯萨查维斯 (Cesar Chavez) 是一位墨西哥裔美国劳工运动者，也是联合农场工人联盟的领袖二十世纪时，他是农场季节工人(migrant farm workers：为找工作四处迁徙的人)的主要发声人。他坚忍的领导能力让全国人民注意到劳工的工作环境有多糟糕，最后，他们的工作环境终于因此而获得改善。

Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American labour leader and civil rights activist. He was a farm worker who co-founded the biggest farm workers’ union in the USA and improved the working conditions of thousands of farm labourers. Many see him as one of America’s greatest civil rights leaders. More and more US states are honoring him by making his birthday a holiday.

Chavez was born in Arizona in 1927 to farm worker parents. His childhood was very tough because of the poverty caused by the Great Depression. Chavez was a natural leader and in 1952 he became an administrator in the Latino civil rights group the Community Service Organization. He travelled throughout California urging Mexican Americans to vote and speaking about workers’ rights.

In 1962, Chavez co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with Dolores Huerta. His first success was to lead a California grape pickers strike for better wages. The strike lasted five years and attracted the attention of Robert Kennedy. The NFWA won its first major labour victory for American farm workers. Chavez moved on to campaign for the rights of other farm workers.

The NFWA developed into the United Farm Workers. Chavez led marches and encouraged farm workers across America to join together. He helped them strike and organize boycotts. In the 1980s he fasted to draw public attention to the dangerous use of pesticides. Chavez died in 1993 of natural causes. Ten years later, America honoured him with a postage stamp.