On March 31,
Eleven states will hold holidays
celebrating labor and Latino leader
Cesar Chavez. A new film Cesar
Chavez: History is Made One Step at a Time, starring Michael Peña
as Cesar Chavez and Rosario
Dawson as Dolores Huerta opens in cities
across the country on April 4, 2014. Here is a trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLkfMrqAmD0
There is a film review by Randy Shaw
in the post below.
Let us be clear. Chavez was religious, but he was not a saint. Neither
were the growers, the Teamster collaborators, nor corporate agribusiness
saints. Celebrations should not be about
hero worship or uncritical praise, nor should we ignore the present oppression
of farm workers in the U.S.
What Chavez and Huerta did
accomplish along with Philip Vera Cruz ,
Marshall Ganz, LeRoy Chatfield, Gil Padilla and hundreds of others was to organize in California the first successful
farm worker union against overwhelming odds.
With Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, and
others Chávez and Huerta deliberately
created a multiracial union; Mexican,
Mexican American, Filipino, African-American, Dominican, Puerto Rican
and Arab workers, among others, have been part of the UFW. This cross-racial organizing was necessary in order to combat the prior divisions and exploitations of workers
based upon race and language. Dividing the workers on racial and language lines, as well as immigration status always left the corporations the winners.
Each of the prior attempts to organize a farm worker union had been
destroyed by racism and corporate power. Chávez chose to build a union
that incorporated the strategies of social movements and community organizing. They allied the union with churches,
students, and organized labor. The successful creation of the UFW
changed the nature of labor organizing in the Southwest and
contributed significantly to the growth
of Latino politics in the U.S.
