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The rise, fall, and legacy of the inspirational United Farm Workers movement, and the untold story of iconic community organizer Cesar Chavez. A generation of Americans came of age boycotting grapes, swept up in a movement that vanquished California's most powerful industry and accomplished the unthinkable: dignity and contracts for farm workers. Four decades later, Cesar Chavez's likeness graces postage stamps, and dozens of schools and streets have been renamed in his honor. But the real story of Chavez's farm workers' movement--both its historic triumphs and its tragic disintegration--has remained buried beneath the hagiography. Drawing on a rich trove of original documents, tapes, and interviews, Miriam Pawel chronicles the rise of the UFW during the heady days of civil rights struggles, the antiwar movement, and student activism in the 1960s and '70s. From the fields, the churches, and the classrooms, hundreds were drawn to la causa by the charismatic Chavez, a brilliant risk-taker who mobilized popular support for a noble cause. But as Miriam Pawel shows, the UFW was ripped apart by the same man who built it, as Chavez proved unable to make the transition from movement icon to union leader. Pawel traces the lives of several key members of the crusade, using their stories to weave together a powerful portrait of a movement and the people who made it. A tour de force of reporting and a spellbinding narrative, The Union of Their Dreams explores an important and untold chapter in the history of labor, civil rights, and immigration in modern America.… (more)
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Any history this charged with scandal and controversy is hard to present objectively, but author Miriam Pawel manages to keep herself out of it. It's evident that she gathered ALL the information she could, to the point that she apologizes to her sources in the Acknowledgments section for grilling them on so many details... Then, in the book, she presents just the facts as she can cite and support them. All opinions expressed are those of UFW founding members or long-time participants who personally witnessed the collapse of the UFW. And, let me tell you, the story is so shocking that it borders on exposé.
A warning that Union of their Dreams is pretty lengthy and detailed. It's the kind of book you have to sit down and enjoy in solitude, because it doesn't really lend itself to distractions. And then you might have to read it over a second time because you didn't catch it all the first time through. (I skimmed some paragraphs just so I wouldn't end up drowning in the details.) Still, DEFinitely worth reading, especially if you've ever heard of Cesar Chavez and wondered, hey whatever happened there, anyway? You won't find out by looking it up on Wikipedia--that's how ground-breaking Pawel's book is. I highly recommend it.
At first it's an inspiring story of boycotts, strikes and union elections where the union prevails against the growers (and their Teamster thugs) as well as scoring legislative victories. Chávez becomes a national hero for his inspiration, non-violent leadership. Unfortunately like many organizations the UFW is torn apart by internal conflicts and Chávez only exacerbates the problems. Pawel details how these close friend and colleagues of Chávez see him becoming increasingly paranoid, micromanaging and megalomaniac, purging the union of people on specious grounds and making life miserable for those who remain.
This book is ultimately heartbreaking but there are glimpses of hope nevertheless. It's inspiring that despite all the difficulties these nine people dedicated themselves to an ideal and a cause. While shattering the myth of Chávez the hero, this book still illustrates the good that can be done by ordinary people working for social justice.
Before reading the book, I was only familiar in vague outline with Chavez and the UFW, so it's hard for me to analyze the accuracy of the portrayal. But the book, which tells its story chiefly through the interwoven stories of a number of less-well-known UFW activists, makes its argument clearly and compellingly, and left me wanting to know more.
However, as so often happens with idealistic visions, reality inevitably sets in and the result to the psyche is seldom pretty. Unfortunately in this case, the weaknesses and mistakes of Chavez (who is not portrayed sympathetically by the author) are exposed and offered as the main reason the union ultimately failed, and why all eight eventually parted ways with Chavez, some on their own terms, some unwillingly, all unhappily.
Nonetheless, the book ends on a positive note. The final pages are devoted to a "Where are they now?" recap. There we find no regrets over the time each worked for the UFW, despite the pain and bitternes of their final days. All feel the time spent at the UFW influenced their lives in significant, permanent ways. Sandy Nathan, one of the eight, carried in his wallet a quote from Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" which sums up perfectly their attitude and the real message of this book: "...still let us remember how good it was once here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us...better perhaps than we are."
Pawel’s method of unfolding her story is by focusing on various people who eventually became disaffiliated from the union, mostly through the use of purges of union leadership. Through the use of interviews of eight former members who were all victims of these purges, Pawel pieces together an alternative vision of the rise of the UFW that is not expressed in standard accounts of the UFW.
There are a number of important contributions that Pawel has made to the often complex picture that has become the UFW. First, she shows the dynamic group of people who were all part of the union’s rise. By not focusing solely on Chavez, Pawel shows how a whole group of people,- idealist lawyers and college students, ministers, and farm workers- contributed to the often startling successes of the UFW. In addition, she does not hesitate to show Chavez in solely glowing terms. This account gives a more realistic picture to the person of Cesar Chavez.
However, this positive also becomes a negative. This book should also not be seen as an objective account of the UFW. Rather, it has its own understanding and biases which are shown through her methodology. All of her primary sources are people who, in one way or another, feel that they were victims of these purges. In other words, her sources are not wholly objective either. A far different account of the union would be shown if she included in her sources others who were not disaffiliated with the union. However, I do not believe that this is her purpose for the book. It is not to provide an objective account, but rather an account from a certain point of view.
In addition, there are two aspects of her writing that I find problematic. First, is the way the various chapters are broken up. Rather then being told in a narrative form, the chapters are broken by the person speaking. This way of writing was at times confusing with characters coming in and out of the story at various times. From an organization standpoint, I found this extremely confusing. From a standpoint of respecting each individuals distinctive voice it is commendable. In this case, I would have preferred clarity however. Second, there is one serious act which I find to be more on gossip mongering then actual reporting. Pawel’s account of the death of Cleofas Guzman insinuates that Cesar Chavez had wanted his death is startling. Providing nothing but rumors her account seemed to wallow in the rumors of people who she did not speak to nor could their account be evenly remotely proved. It seemed that rather then just tell the account of former union members, Pawel also desired to denounce a person for the sake of denouncing them.
Would I recommend this book? My answer is maybe. I would not recommend it for a person who knows nothing about Chavez or the union. The book, while not focusing on Chavez, also focuses a lot on Chavez. Other members of the leadership and their part in the union are barely mentioned or within a completely one-sided way, most important would be Delores Huerta. I would recommend this book if one has some familiarity with the union and its various accounts. I believe that a person would need to have some background in the general development of the union before one reads this book.
The book’s organization is a major hurdle for the reader to overcome. Although the main chapters are laid out in chronological order they are broken into sections headlined only by a persons first name. Following the story is difficult due to the lack of full names and titles. “Reverend Chris Hartmire” would stick in the readers mind as a uniquely identified person quicker than just “Chris”. Why use an individual’s names for the headings anyway? I have seen this method used in oral histories but this is not an oral history. Although Pawel did speak to many of these people in her research these are not the person’s own words.
In spite of the organization the book is worth reading. Seeing Chavez’s failures allows us to see what can happen when the perfect becomes the enemy of the good. The story of the NFWA illustrates both the advantages and the dangers inherent with charismatic leadership. Chavez built and destroyed the union and, in large part because of the cult of personality built around him, even people who saw his errors were unwilling to correct him.
Although he is not highlighted with a personal narrative, Cesar Chavez is the central character throughout the book. He was the person who founded the union, set the policy, micromanaged the union, and was centrally involved in its disintegration. The history shows how many idealistic people who had worked well together initially became each other’s enemies in the years of the union’s decline.
I will be looking for critical responses to this book as it doesn't paint Chavez in the best light, but one
Earlier, I reviewed John Dittmer's The Good Doctors which explored a civil rights organization from its birth in the segregation-era South to its eventual dissentigration. Whereas the Medical Committee for Human Rights eventually fell prey to its diversified interestsand lack of strong leaders that diluted its clout, the UFW profiled by Pawal was an organization bound too tightly to a single charismatic leader. It reminds the reader that institutions have many ways to fail, no matter how much good they've effected.
Pawal's book is an important addition to the history of American labor, and is unique in its attention to the relatively anonymous participants. It was heartbreaking to read the stories of people who had poured their lives into the movement and been discarded and forgotten. Chavez played a major role in the UFW, but he was never alone.
I would
César Chávez was a hero to many people in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the driving force behind making the plight of migrant farmworkers visible to the rest of America through boycotts of grapes and lettuce. With the founding of the United Farm Workers union, he and his dedicated staff fought for what most of us recognize as basic human rights: a safe workplace, a fair wage, decent housing, education for our children. Under his leadership, the UFW boycotts captured the attention of the nation and won major concessions from field owners to improve the lives of the workers. His accomplishments have been enshrined in American life: schools, parks, libraries and streets have been named after him, and the state of California officially celebrates his birthday as César Chávez Day.
As Miriam Pawel illuminates in The Union of Their Dreams: Power, hope, and struggle in Cesar Chavez's farm worker movement, Chávez's considerable accomplishments were not without setbacks. Over the years, his initial dedication to the cause of farm workers shifted to a determination to preserve his control over the organization he created. After farm workers at many farms and ranches in California won the right to hold union elections and chose the UFW to represent them, the union found it difficult to actually deliver on the promises it had made. Chávez could be capricious, transferring staff members out of communities in which they were working hard to win the trust of and organize workers. As the union grew, Chávez became preoccupied with fighting off what he perceived to be challenges to his authority from board members, resulting in midnight purges of staffers who had lived in poverty and dedicated their lives for years to the farm workers' cause.
Pawel creates her complicated portrait of Chávez indirectly, by telling the stories of nine of the UFW's most dedicated workers in alternating vignettes. The style allows us to get to know each of the workers well, but muddies the reader's sense of a coherent timeline of events, and sometimes leads to incidents being told twice and out of order. The Union of Their Dreams is not a hatchet job in any sense; Pawel does not try to demonize Chávez nor lay the UFW's failures solely at his feet. The most grievous flaw of the book, however, is the lack of representation from UFW officials who remained loyal to Chávez throughout the 1970s turmoil. But Pawel, a journalist by trade, has a very accessible writing style, and her informality creates an intimacy that makes the reader feel part of the story.
This book is a worthy read not only for for those interested in progressive politics, but also readers looking for insight into how organization are formed, grow, and are stifled by their success. It's a familiar story for anyone who has volunteered or worked for a nonprofit organization, but it seems especially poignant in this case, because the stakes were so high for so many people, and even more significant victories were so close. I came away from this book deeply impressed by the incredible accomplishments of a group of idealistic, committed men and women, and saddened by thoughts of the opportunities lost to power struggles, disorganization and petty quarrels.