Cesar Chavez: A Triumph of SpiritThis biography of Chavez by Richard Griswold del Castillo and Richard A. Garcia is the first to approach Chavez's life - his courageous acts, his turning points, his many perceived personas - in the context of Chicano and American history. It reveals a shy, quiet man who was launched by events into a maelstrom of campesino strikes, religious fervor, and nonviolent battles for justice. Among his friends and supporters he counted Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and millions across America who rallied to his cause. In Griswold del Castillo and Garcia's biography, Chavez's life mirrors major events in Mexican American history: Mexican immigration during the 1920s; forced repatriation in the 1930s; segregation in public schools; Mexican American contributions during World War II; the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles; formation of Mexican American organizations to advance civil and political rights; the Chicano movement of the 1960s and early 1970s; the emergence of a conservative political backlash in the 1980s; and, finally, the "new immigration" in the 1990s. Cesar Chavez was touched by all these events, and his story is both private and part of a collective experience. |
Contents
Early Years | 3 |
The Education of an Organizer 22 243 | 22 |
The Birth of La Causa | 41 |
The Strength of Dolores | 59 |
Courage and Persistence | 76 |
César Chávez and American Liberals | 96 |
Fragile Victories | 116 |
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activists AFL-CIO agricultural ALRB Americans Angeles AWOC barrio became began Bert Corona border braceros California Causa César Chávez Chá Chávez family Chicano movement civil rights contracts cultural Delano Dolores Huerta early elections ethnic Farm Labor Farm Workers Union farm-worker fast fields Filipino Fred Ross Giorgio Giumarra grape strike growers Helen Huelga human ican ideological intellectual issues Jim Drake Julián Samora justice Kennedy later leader leadership Levy liberal lives London and Anderson Luis Valdez Manuel Matthiessen Mexi Mexican Mexican immigrants Mexican workers Mexican-American Mexico migrant moral negotiations nonviolence orga picket line police political poor President protest radical rally ranches Raza recruited Salinas San Joaquin Valley social Spanish-speaking spiritual strike and boycott strikebreakers struggle Teamsters teatro Texas Tijerina tion tional traditional UFW organizers UFW's undocumented United Farm Workers Vietnam violence volunteers vote voters wages wanted women Workers Association