CESAR E. CHAVEZ’ CORE VALUES
1. Service to Others – Service that is predicated on empowering others; engendering self-help, self-determination, and self-sufficiency versus charity.
2. Sacrifice – Sacrifice that is spiritual; that is courageous and steadfast in its willingness to endure great hardship for others.
3. A Preference to Help the Most Needy – A concerted effort to support programs that reach the most needy, the most dispossessed, the most forgotten people in society no matter how difficult the challenge that choice may bring.
4. Determination – Determination that is characterized by an attitude that with faith, steadfast commitment, patience, and optimism, human beings can prevail against all odds.
5. Non-Violence – Invoking non-violence as the most powerful tool for achieving social/economic justice and equality; action that requires boldness and courage versus meekness and passivity.
6. Acceptance of all People – An essential ingredient for success in organizing diverse forces to achieve social change, create community, and actualize democracy is the acceptance of all people; an absolutely indispensable necessity to the well-being of this country.
7. Respect for Life and the Environment – Respect that holds as sacred the land, the people, and all other forms of life.
8. Celebrating Community - Sharing the joyous and respectful expression of cultural diversity through the reinforcement of the values of equity and responsibility to and for one another.
9. Knowledge - The pursuit of self-directed learning and the development of critical thinking and constructive problem solving skills; overcoming ignorance through education.
10. Innovation – A creative capacity to find pragmatic strategies and tactics to resolve problems and situations that often seem insurmountable to others.