Cesar Chavez. Leader, Organizer and Mexican American Hero in Labour History

Cesar Chavez. Leader, Organizer and Mexican American Hero in Labour History PDF Author: Sophia Khatri
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3346368092
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 19

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Biographies, grade: 1,3, University of Erfurt, language: English, abstract: This paper will introduce the Mexican American labour organizer Cesar Chavez to the reader. Since he was an important and inspiring person for the marginalized labour movement in the United States in the 1960s and 70s, his organization United Farm Workers Organization Committee (UFWOC), his achievements, beliefs and methods will be closely examined in this paper. His understanding of social change and shifting the power relations between workers and employers was closely linked with nonviolent action. Furthermore, the reasons for the non-violent actions will be analysed through the Ration Action Theory. The paper consists of two parts: The first part will elaborate on the problems for foreigner field workers, how the organization and the social worker movement La Causa could be a solution to that and the meaning of Chavez persona and his methods. The second part of the paper follows the research question: Why is non-violence an adequate strategy to fight injustice on the farm fields?

The Crusades of Cesar Chavez

The Crusades of Cesar Chavez PDF Author: Miriam Pawel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 160819714X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 560

Book Description
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist Winner of the California Book Award A searching portrait of an iconic figure long shrouded in myth by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of an acclaimed history of Chavez's movement. Cesar Chavez founded a labor union, launched a movement, and inspired a generation. He rose from migrant worker to national icon, becoming one of the great charismatic leaders of the 20th century. Two decades after his death, Chavez remains the most significant Latino leader in US history. Yet his life story has been told only in hagiography-until now. In the first comprehensive biography of Chavez, Miriam Pawel offers a searching yet empathetic portrayal. Chavez emerges here as a visionary figure with tragic flaws; a brilliant strategist who sometimes stumbled; and a canny, streetwise organizer whose pragmatism was often at odds with his elusive, soaring dreams. He was an experimental thinker with eclectic passions-an avid, self-educated historian and a disciple of Gandhian non-violent protest. Drawing on thousands of documents and scores of interviews, this superbly written life deepens our understanding of one of Chavez's most salient qualities: his profound humanity. Pawel traces Chavez's remarkable career as he conceived strategies that empowered the poor and vanquished California's powerful agriculture industry, and his later shift from inspirational leadership to a cult of personality, with tragic consequences for the union he had built. The Crusades of Cesar Chavez reveals how this most unlikely American hero ignited one of the great social movements of our time.

Trampling Out the Vintage

Trampling Out the Vintage PDF Author: Frank Bardacke
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1781680663
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 857

Book Description
In its heyday, the United Farm Workers was an embodiment of its slogan “Yes, we can”—in the form “¡Sí, Se Puede!”—winning many labor victories, securing collective bargaining rights for farm workers, and becoming a major voice for the Latino community. Today, it is a mere shadow of its former self. Trampling Out the Vintage is the authoritative and award-winning account of the rise and fall of the United Farm Workers and its most famous and controversial leader, Cesar Chavez. Based interviews conducted over many years—with farm workers, organizers, and the opponents and friends of the UFW—the book tells a story of collective action and empowerment rich in evocative detail and stirring human interest. Beginning with the influence of the ideas of Saul Alinsky and Catholic Social Action at the union’s founding, through the UFW’s thrilling triumphs in the California fields, the drama concludes with the debilitating internal struggles that effectively crippled the union. A vivid rendering of farm work and the world of the farm worker, Trampling Out the Vintage is a dramatic reappraisal of the political trajectory of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and an essential re-evaluation of their most tumultuous years. Winner of the 2012 Hillman Prize in Book Journalism.

From the Jaws of Victory

From the Jaws of Victory PDF Author: Matt García
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520283856
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
From the Jaws of Victory:The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement is the most comprehensive history ever written on the meteoric rise and precipitous decline of the United Farm Workers, the most successful farm labor union in United States history. Based on little-known sources and one-of-a-kind oral histories with many veterans of the farm worker movement, this book revises much of what we know about the UFW. Matt Garcia’s gripping account of the expansion of the union’s grape boycott reveals how the boycott, which UFW leader Cesar Chavez initially resisted, became the defining feature of the movement and drove the growers to sign labor contracts in 1970. Garcia vividly relates how, as the union expanded and the boycott spread across the United States, Canada, and Europe, Chavez found it more difficult to organize workers and fend off rival unions. Ultimately, the union was a victim of its own success and Chavez’s growing instability. From the Jaws of Victory delves deeply into Chavez’s attitudes and beliefs, and how they changed over time. Garcia also presents in-depth studies of other leaders in the UFW, including Gilbert Padilla, Marshall Ganz, Dolores Huerta, and Jerry Cohen. He introduces figures such as the co-coordinator of the boycott, Jerry Brown; the undisputed leader of the international boycott, Elaine Elinson; and Harry Kubo, the Japanese American farmer who led a successful campaign against the UFW in the mid-1970s.

The Union of Their Dreams

The Union of Their Dreams PDF Author: Miriam Pawel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608190994
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

Book Description
Named one of the Best Books of 2009 by the San Francisco Chronicle A Los Angeles Times Notable Book

We Are Not Beasts of Burden

We Are Not Beasts of Burden PDF Author: Stuart A. Kallen
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
ISBN: 0761363521
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
"The only way we could win was to keep fighting for a long time...the only way we could win was by staying with it."—Cesar Chavez As the sun rose on September 8, 1965, in Delano, California, thousands of acres of ripe grapes hung heavy on the vine. But instead of harvesting the crop, Filipino farmworkers on nine large ranches laid down their tools and walked out of the vineyards in protest of their low wages and dangerous working conditions. The strike quickly caught the attention of Cesar Chavez, who had been organizing Mexican American farmworkers through the United Farmworkers Union. Together, thousands of California agricultural laborers fought for their rights through strikes, boycotts, and a 250-mile (400-kilometer) protest march, the longest march in U.S. history. For more than five years, their struggle had the support of the American public and led to labor laws and agricultural practices that ensure the rights of all farmworkers to decent pay, safe working conditions, and other benefits. In this compelling story of the rise of Cesar Chavez from local organizer to national civil rights hero, we'll learn how he and other leaders of the grape strike endured violence and fought corruption to win rights for workers. And we'll see how the story continues in the twenty-first century as the United Farmworkers Union works to protect the civil rights of every agricultural laborer in the nation.

Journey for Justice

Journey for Justice PDF Author: Gayle Romasanta
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781732199323
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
This book, written by historian Dawn Bohulano Mabalon with writer Gayle Romasanta, richly illustrated by Andre Sibayan, tells the story of Larry Itliong's lifelong fight for a farmworkers union, and the birth of one of the most significant American social movements of all time, the farmworker's struggle, and its most enduring union, the United Farm Workers.

Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez PDF Author: Eric Braun
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 073684631X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34

Book Description
Presents the life of Cesar Chavez, focusing primarily on his work organizing the National Farm Workers Association and working for improved working and living conditions for all Mexican Americans.

Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can)

Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can) PDF Author: Peter Matthiessen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520282507
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
In the summer of 1968 Peter Matthiessen met Cesar Chavez for the first time. They were the same age: forty-one. Matthiessen lived in New York City, while Chavez lived in the Central Valley farm town of Delano, where the grape strike was unfolding. This book is Matthiessen’s panoramic yet finely detailed account of the three years he spent working and traveling with Chavez, including to Sal Si Puedes, the San Jose barrio where Chavez began his organizing. Matthiessen provides a candid look into the many sides of this enigmatic and charismatic leader who lived by the laws of nonviolence. Sal Si Puedes is less reportage than living history. In its pages a whole era comes alive: the Chicano, Black Power, and antiwar movements; the browning of the labor movement; Chavez’s fasts; the nationwide boycott of California grapes. When Chavez died in 1993, tens of thousands gathered at his funeral. It was a clear sign of how beloved he was and how important his life had been. A new foreword by Marc Grossman considers the significance of Chavez’s legacy for our time. As well as serving as an indispensable guide to the 1960s, this book rejuvenates the extraordinary vitality of Chavez’s life and spirit, giving his message a renewed and much-needed urgency.

How to Fight Inequality

How to Fight Inequality PDF Author: Ben Phillips
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509543104
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 85

Book Description
Inequality is the crisis of our time. The growing gap between a few at the top and the rest of society damages us all. No longer able to deny the crisis, every government in the world is now pledged to fix it – and yet it keeps on getting worse. In this book, international anti-inequality campaigner Ben Phillips shows why winning the debate is not enough: we have to win the fight. Drawing on his insider experience, and his personal exchanges with the real-life heroes of successful movements, he shows how the battle against inequality has been won before, and he shares a practical plan for defeating inequality again. He sets a route map for us to overcome deference, build our collective power, and create a new story. Most books on inequality are about what other people ought to do about it – this book is about why winning the fight needs you. Tired of feeling helpless in the face of spiralling inequality? Want to know what you can do about it? This is the book for you.