At the age of ten, when his father lost his farm, Cesar Chavez learned how it felt to be really poor.
Like others in 1937, the Chavez family piled into a battered car and set off through the country looking for workâpicking crops for anyone who would pay them fifteen cents an hour.
They traveled from labor camp to labor camp, living under bridges and viaducts when they couldn't afford a dollar for rent and cooking wild mustard greens for food.
Even as he grew into a man, Cesar could not escape the cycle of poverty perpetuated by owners of large farms.
Then one day he met a labor organizer named Fred Ross and suddenly he saw a way of fight back against exploitation.
This is the story of the movement he formed and of the bitter struggle he waged and won on behalf of farm workers.