César Chávez – 1968, Sacramento, California – Speech at the Second Annual Mexican Conference
César Chávez was a labor and union leader who notably used fasting as a means of nonviolent protest to fight for economic justice. In 1968, during a 25-day spiritual fast, he delivered a rousing speech at the Second Annual Mexican Conference encouraging the Church to be more involved in the people’s quest for social change.
Hearing his message, around 6,000 joined his fast. Chávez, whose celebrity was growing at the time, ended his fast soon after by breaking bread with Robert F. Kennedy. Chávez went on to fight for workers’ rights in the decades that followed, spending his later years doing speaking engagements on college campuses.
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