Cesar Chavez and the UFW Legacy: Richard Rodriguez Gets it Wrong

[Omaha Steve]

http://latinalista.net/sandiego/2010/03/cesar_chavez_and_the_ufw_legacy_richard.html

By Randy Shaw
La Prensa San Diego


I became suspicions about Richard Rodriguez's Wilson Quarterly Winter 2010 essay, "Saint Cesar of Delano," with the author's recollection that when he first saw the UFW leader speak in the late 1960s, "Something about Chavez embarrassed me."

Embarrassed by Cesar Chavez? Chavez's small physical stature and moderate voice often surprised those first seeing him, but Rodriquez's feeling of embarrassment is unusual. It helps explain why he wrongly concludes that Cesar Chavez "died as a loser" and describes the UFW as "largely a failure."

Both history and current social movements defy Rodriquez's conclusions.

Chavez and UFW's Historic Success

Prior to Chavez's launching his drive to create a farmworkers union, every previous effort had failed. California agribusiness dominated the fields, using government, law enforcement and the courts to suppress worker organizing. Agribusiness was so powerful that farmworkers were excluded from the National Labor Relations Act and were denied the federal protections for union organizing afforded most other workers.

Cesar Chavez spent his teenage years in the fields, performing the stoop labor that left him with chronic back problems. He had seen workers come together to strike, only for the effort to quickly fail due to lack of organization and strategy.

Chavez began his impossible quest without money or political connections, but with a strong background in community organizing and a deep religious faith.

Cesar Chavez had so little money at the start that he and his wife Helen picked cotton from 6:00am to 2:00 p.m., after which he spent the balance of the afternoon and evening knocking on doors and meeting with farmworkers.

FULL story at link.

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1. Es un tio Tomas