Review by New York Times Review
IN AN ESSAY entitled "Reflections on Gandhi," George Orwell wrote: "Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent." While he acquitted Gandhi, he might have been harder on Cesar Chavez, the great farmworker leader. Certainly in this engrossing biography Miriam Pawel, a former editor and reporter with Newsday and The Los Angeles Times, is out to show both the good and bad. In the 1960s and early 70s, Chavez did seem like a version of Gandhi. Organizing the dispossessed, our own untouchables, he fasted to the point of death, staged mass marches up and down California that resembled religious pilgrimages, and defeated growers with nationwide boycotts that even Gandhi would have found hard to duplicate. Back then, many of the best and saintliest of America's young quit their jobs or dropped out of school to join up with Chavez and live lives of voluntary poverty. "The Crusades of Cesar Chavez" contains many stirring set pieces: Chavez with Robert F. Kennedy, Chavez in jail, Chavez up against Teamster goons, Chavez paying homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe. There is so much brilliant political theater in this book that it's easy to see why Chavez is still the most celebrated Latino leader in American history. He has no rival, even years after his death in 1993 at age 66. Who knows? Someday there may be a national holiday for Chavez, as there is for Martin Luther King Jr. Yet as Pawel tells it, Chavez's crusades ended in defeat, if not total rout. After an early heroic phase, he seemed to lose interest even in organizing. As she describes in unsparing detail, he created a cult around himself. Perhaps trying too hard to be like his role model Gandhi, he retreated into a kind of ashram known as La Paz, in the foothills of the Tehachapi Mountains, far away from the fields where the battles were being fought The commune was the scene of repeated purges of loyal followers, even longtime ones, and the purges were often cruel. Especially depressing is Chavez's fascination with Synanon, a rather kooky clinic for fighting drug addiction - and the use of a technique called the Game, in which participants engaged in unrestrained personal attacks on one another. Chavez seems to have pushed away everyone, turning in the end even on one of his greatest defenders, the minister Chris Hartmire, whose expulsion may be the saddest of all. Much of this story is familiar from Pawel's well-regarded 2009 book "The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement." At any rate, there is not much left of the United Farm Workers of America (U.F.W.) today: 5,000, or perhaps fewer members. There is no large-scale farmworkers organization anywhere in the country. But for people in the labor movement (like this reviewer), Chavez still is a hero. Indeed, at a time when the have-nots have less and less, Chavez may have more and more to teach us. Like Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin, Chavez may be one of the last Americans who thought creatively about a national "poor people's movement" - and the kind of disruption that might get a response from the country's elite. For a while everything he tried appeared to work. The first strikes worked. The fasts worked. The marches - inspired by Mao's Long March, picking up followers along the way - worked. Most of all, the boycotts worked. There are many surprising things to learn from this book. Here are just a few. Chavez did not start out as a labor organizer, or even a labor activist. For years, he had been a community organizer whose early interest was not labor but registering Latinos to vote. Like Barack Obama, he learned from Saul Alinsky, who knew Chavez in his early days. Furthermore, Chavez never really wanted a normal labor union. He imagined his United Farm Workers as a cross between a union and a national poor people's movement, though he could never quite figure out what this new type of movement would be. If Chavez failed to create a traditional union, it's partly because deep down he didn't want one. Nor was Chavez a champion of undocumented workers. He tried to keep people from sneaking into the United States. For him, they were potential strikebreakers. And in an especially unsavory episode, his cousin Manuel Chavez may have even used violence to keep migrants from crossing the borders to get work in the fields. The biggest surprise may be that Chavez was leery of pro-union labor law reform. He had to pretend to want - but was ambivalent about - the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which allies like Gov. Jerry Brown were pushing through the Legislature in 1975. Why, some will wonder, would Chavez be against a law that provided for elections like those run by the National Labor Relations Board - elections from which farmworkers by statute had long been excluded? Chavez seemed to grasp that he might be better off organizing the U.F.W. as labor militants organized workers in the 1930s - with no law at all. The absence of legislation would justify the mass picketing, demonstrations and disruptions in which he had enjoyed such early success. But this new law might just get in the way. And as a down-to-earth union leader, he would have to become entangled in the day-to-day administration of hundreds of labor contracts. Pawel writes: "The more elections the U.F.W. won, the more resources had to be diverted toward serving new members, and the less expansion they could afford - delaying his dreams of a broader movement." That's what Chavez meant when he said, "We're being held back by our own success." Even today, when organized labor is in decline, the problem remains: whether to go out and risk new organizing when staff members can barely administer or service the contracts they have. In Pawel's view, the U.F.W. on the whole did a poor job of administering contracts, but she also gives Chavez his say. In later years, after the Agricultural Labor Relations Act went into effect, Chavez seemed to lose interest in organizing. But before we judge him guilty of failing not just as a saint but also as a labor leader, it is only fair to look at mitigating factors. Farmworkers are the true dispossessed: Those who are undocumented can be deported at any time. Even in elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, American workers with far more security are afraid to stand up and be counted. It is unreasonable to expect undocumented farmworkers to be more heroic. Then there is the problem of waiting to get a contract when, over the course of a few growing seasons, most of the work force will turn over. Finally, there is the challenge of conducting an agricultural strike. Pawel quotes one observer: "It's like striking an industrial plant that has a thousand entrance gates. ... You don't know each morning where the plant will be, or where the gates are, or whether it will be open or closed." Perhaps Chavez deserves blame for not creating a strong union. But it is certainly arguable that he never had a chance. And despite courageous attempts elsewhere, no one seems to have done much better. Chavez may have been right to think that if organized labor is ever to revive, it will have to be as something new. He is absolutely right about one thing: At every moment, always, a labor movement has to be on the attack. Disrupt. Sue. Fast, to the point of death. Go into the streets even if it means going to jail. He may have failed, whereas Gandhi and King did not. But Gandhi was up against the British Empire, which was an anachronism and on the way out. King was up against Jim Crow, which was an anachronism and on the way out. Chavez was up against the employers of America - and they get stronger every day. As Miriam Pawel tells it, Cesar Chavez's crusades ended in defeat, if not total rout. THOMAS GEOGHEGAN is a lawyer and the author of "Which Side Are You On?" and the forthcoming "Only One Thing Can Save Us: Why America Needs a New Kind of Labor Movement."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 27, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Pawel, rigorous and captivating, follows her history of Cesar Chavez's crusade to protect farm workers' rights, The Union of Their Dreams (2009), with a zestful, dramatic, and redefining biography of the innovative, daring, and persevering activist. Raised by his strong mother to embrace sacrifice and help others, Chavez (1927-93) dropped out of school to work in the fields to support his destitute, homeless family, joining the ranks of California's exploited Mexican American migrant workers. Driven by his social conscience, pragmatic genius, and motivational ardor; inspired by Gandhi; and mentored by the highly unorthodox Father Donald McDonnell and Saul Alinsky disciple and community organizer Fred Ross, Chavez created a scrappy and revolutionary labor union for the poorest, most powerless workers in the country. Pawel thoroughly chronicles every aspect of Chavez's battles against California's politically dominant produce growers, from audacious strikes to the now legendary national grape boycott to his penitential fasts. As she insightfully dissects Chavez's troubled relationships with his inner circle and each phase in the rise and fall of his increasingly complex and mismanaged organization, Pawel portrays a visionary civil rights leader whose fame and near-beatification engendered tragic misuses of power, but who improved countless lives and raised global consciousness. Chavez's epic story, told so astutely and passionately by Pawel, is essential to understanding today's struggles for justice and equality.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In her second book on Chavez, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Pawel (The Union of Their Dreams) turns away from the United Farm Workers organization to offer a comprehensive portrait of its founder, a "poor, brown, and homeless" child whose career as a "eccentrically charismatic" community organizer saw him join his idol Gandhi in the pantheon of celebrated nonviolent activists. Chavez, often remembered in murals as a solitary hunger striker, receives greater contextualization by examining his long and complex relationships with his associates, many of whom were interviewed for this work. Some relationships are particularly revealing, as when his own lifelong plea that his followers "refrain from violence" is contradicted by a tolerance of violent activism of his "troublemaker cousin." Chavez comes across as a shrewd leader with a "willingness to endure" hardship for la causa, yet was also demanding and increasingly authoritarian and suspicious of his colleagues later in his career. Particularly intriguing is Chavez's little memorialized relationship with the Synanon cult group, from whom he zealously appropriated "authoritarian tactics" of group therapy for his own commune, La Paz, throughout the 1970s. Pawel's clear, accessible prose befits a subject famous for his plain rhetoric, ensuring a broad readership can appreciate this valuable exploration of Chavez's unique legacy. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins/Loomis Agency. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Pawel (former editor, Los Angeles Times; The Union of Their Dreams) returns to the theme of her earlier work in this comprehensive biography of both Cesar Chavez (1927-93) and the movement he led, cofounding the -National Farm Workers Association. Chavez was many things-a brilliant community organizer, a self-effacing man with little education, a Machiavellian intriguer unwilling to share power, and a leader committed to nonviolence and social justice. Pawel paints a complex portrait of Chavez with all his strengths and weaknesses. He wanted to do things his way, was happiest leading a movement rather than simply a bread-and-butter union, and clearly understood his symbolic power. He demanded complete loyalty from his followers. As he rose from unpaid community organizer to inspiring leader of a fledgling farm workers union and finally a mythic hero, Chavez worked harder than anyone else, sacrificed his health and his family to the cause, and deliberately cast aside those who questioned his need to control everything around him. The author's insightful, painstakingly researched, and thoughtful work makes Chavez all the more dimensional and nuanced by recognizing his failings as well as his successes. VERDICT This fully rounded portrait could well be the definitive biography of this all too human figure. It is also a timely complement to the forthcoming Hollywood biopic, Cesar Chavez: An American Hero, due to open in April. [See Prepub Alert, 10/1/13.]-Duncan Stewart, Univ. of Iowa Libs., Iowa City (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An exhaustive study of the life and work of iconic labor leader Cesar Chavez (19271993). In a follow-up to her previous book about the United Farm Workers (The Union of their Dreams, 2009), former Newsday and Los Angeles Times editor Pawel examines Chavez's transformation from a dedicated advocate for the rights of the poor and exploited to a corrupt leader charged with misappropriating funds and dictatorial rule over the union he founded. The author shows that Chavez was a man of his times. Despite his tarred reputation as a union leader, his legend still inspires young Hispanic workers with his slogan, "Si se pueda"yes, it can be done. The child of itinerant farm laborers who was forced to drop out of school to work in the fields, Chavez found few opportunities after his return home after service in the military. Eventually, he found work in the lumberyards. In Delano, Calif., his hometown, Mexican-Americans were at the bottom of the social pyramid. Chavez joined the Community Service Organization in Los Angeles and quickly became a leading member. The CSO led a voter registration drive, ran English classes and set up a credit union. Organized by a priest and a local community worker, it was a chapter of the national network of community organizations launched by Saul Alinsky. When their voter registration campaign stalled, Chavez, with Alinsky's backing, founded the UFW and began a campaign to organize grape pickers after the grape growers moved to import undocumented Mexican workers and force down wages. Chavez recruited outside support from the broader liberal community and students and launched nationwide boycotts. As a result, writes Pawel, "Mexican Americans once shut out of power[have] become the establishment in venues that had once been bastions of Anglo power." A warts-and-all biography of an important figure.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
