Whereas César Estrada Chávez spent his early years on a family farm; Whereas, at the age of 10, César Estrada Chávez joined the thousands of migrant farmworkers laboring in fields and vineyards throughout the Southwest after a bank foreclosure resulted in the loss of the family farm; Whereas César Estrada Chávez, after attending more than 30 elementary and middle schools and achieving an eighth grade education, left school to work full-time as a farmworker to help support his family; Whereas, at the age of 17, César Estrada Chávez entered the United States Navy and served the United States with distinction for 2 years; Whereas, in 1948, César Estrada Chávez returned from military service to marry Helen Fabela, whom he had met while working in the vineyards of central California; Whereas César Estrada Chávez and Helen Fabela had 8 children; Whereas, as early as 1949, César Estrada Chávez was committed to organizing farmworkers to campaign for safe and fair working conditions, reasonable wages, livable housing, and the outlawing of child labor; Whereas, in 1952, César Estrada Chávez joined the Community Service Organization, a prominent Latino civil rights group, and worked with the organization to coordinate voter registration drives and conduct campaigns against discrimination in East Los Angeles; Whereas César Estrada Chávez served as the national director of the Community Service Organization; Whereas, in 1962, César Estrada Chávez left the Community Service Organization to establish the National Farm Workers Association, which eventually became the United Farm Workers of America; Whereas César Estrada Chávez was a strong believer in the principles of nonviolence practiced by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Whereas César Estrada Chávez effectively used peaceful tactics that included fasting for 25 days in 1968, 25 days in 1972, and 36 days in 1988 to call attention to the terrible working and living conditions of farmworkers in the United States