Cesar Chavez left school after eighth grade and went on to build one of the most powerful labor movements in American history, only to see his legacy dismantled decades after his death. This episode follows him from the Yuma family farm lost during the Great Depression, through his life as a migrant worker, to his discovery of Gandhi and St. Francis and his rise through the Community Service Organization.

We look at how he founded the National Farm Workers Association with Dolores Huerta, why Filipino workers started the 1965 Delano grape strike, and how fasting, nonviolence, and the national grape boycott won historic contracts and the 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act. We then examine his autocratic turn at La Paz, his use of Synanon’s “Game,” his stance on undocumented immigration, and the 2026 sexual abuse allegations that led institutions to reconsider how they honor him.

• How losing the family farm shaped Chavez’s lifelong distrust of the establishment
• The Bracero program and why Chavez built mutual aid such as a credit union before ever calling a strike
• The Delano grape strike, the merger with Filipino workers into the UFW, and nonviolence as strategy
• The consumer boycott that brought farm labor to grocery stores across the country
• Internal purges, the wet line, the 2026 allegations, and the renaming of Cesar Chavez Day to Farm Workers Day