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Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez
Usage Conditions Apply
Artist
Manuel Acosta, 9 May 1921 - 25 Oct 1989
Sitter
Cesar Estrada Chavez, 31 Mar 1927 - 23 Apr 1993
Date
1969
Type
Painting
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Stretcher: 61 x 50.8 x 2.5cm (24 x 20 x 1")
Frame: 76.2 x 66 x 5.7cm (30 x 26 x 2 1/4")
Topic
Costume\Dress Accessory\Button
Cesar Estrada Chavez: Male
Cesar Estrada Chavez: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Labor leader
Cesar Estrada Chavez: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist
Cesar Estrada Chavez: Military and Intelligence\Navy
Cesar Estrada Chavez: Presidential Medal of Freedom
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Copyright
© Manuel Acosta
Object number
NPG.78.TC298
Exhibition Label
Encouraged by victories of the black civil rights movement, labor organizer Cesar Chavez began in the early 1960s to protest the unfair treatment of farm workers in California and the Southwest. In 1962 he and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association. Three years later, their mainly Mexican and Mexican American union joined the Filipino-based Agricultural Farm Workers Organizing Committee in a strike of grape field workers in Delano. Soon both unions merged under the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), the first effective national organization to represent agricultural workers and press for political reform. Farm workers sustained the strike for five years, and also engaged many sympathetic Americans in their struggle, “la causa,” through a consumer boycott of table grapes. Time magazine published this portrait as its cover image in 1969, four years into the strike and boycott. An Aztec eagle, the symbol of the UFW, is emblazoned on Chavez's shirt.
Collection Description
In 1978, Time magazine donated approximately eight hundred works of original cover art to the National Portrait Gallery. The museum is dedicated to telling the stories of individuals who have shaped the United States, and the Time Collection—featuring prominent international figures and events—enriches our understanding of the United States in a global context.
En 1978, la revista Time donó a la National Portrait Gallery cerca de 800 obras de arte originales creadas para sus portadas. Nuestro museo se dedica a narrar la historia de figuras que han contribuido a forjar el desarrollo de Estados Unidos, y es así que la Colección Time, que incluye retratos de importantes personalidades internacionales, nos ayuda a comprender mejor a nuestra nación en un contexto global.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Location
Currently not on view