Chávez was born in Yuma, Arizona, to Librado Chávez, a Mexican-American farmworker from Sinaloa, and Juana Estrada Chávez. His parents were migrant farm workers, and Chávez spent much of his early childhood traveling with his family to various farm labor camps. He attended 38 different schools before reaching the eighth grade.
At the age of 17, Chávez left school to work full-time in the fields. In 1946, Chávez joined the Community Service Organization (CSO), a non-profit, community-based organization focused on empowering impoverished Latino communities in California. In 1952, he was elected as national director of the CSO, a position he held for ten years.
While at CSO, Chávez began organizing farmworkers in the Coachella Valley of California. In 1962, he led the first successful strike by farmworkers in the history of California agriculture. The following year, he and Huerta co-founded the NFWA, which would later become the UFW.
Under Chávez's leadership, the UFW won numerous victories for farmworkers, including improved wages, benefits, and working conditions. The union also played a major role in the larger civil rights movement of the 1960s, and Chávez became a symbol of the struggle for social justice.
Chávez was also a gifted orator and writer. In 1975, he published his autobiography, "An Organizer's Tale." He died of natural causes in 1993, leaving behind a legacy of social activism and labor organizing that continues to inspire people today.