Cesar Chavez Holiday

The Commissioners Court first approved the Cesar Chavez Holiday in 2001 because of its relevance to the growing number of Hispanics in the county.

Chavez organized the United Farm Workers Union in 1966 to improve the living and working conditions of low-paid, often migrant laborers.  He is credited with using peaceful protest tactics, including a month-long fast in the late 1980s, to protest the use of pesticides on crops was harmful to farm workers.

He died in April 1993 of natural causes.

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