Kennedy once noted. was "one of the heroic figures of our time." A true American hero. Cesar was a civil rights. Latino. farmworker. and labor leader. a religious and spiritual figure. a community servant and social entrepreneur. a crusader for nonviolent social change. an environmentalist and consumer advocate. A secondgeneration MexicanAmerican. Cesar was born on March 31. 1927. near his familys farm in Yuma. Arizona. At age 10. his family became migrant farmworkers after losing their farm in the Great Depression. Throughout his youth and into his adulthood. Cesar migrated across the Southwest laboring in the fields and vineyards. where he was exposed to the hardships and injustices of farmworker life.