Cesar Chavez And Delano Grape Strike

In his first large protest, Cesar went on a long march. When reflecting upon the march Chavez remarked that, “We marched alone at the beginning, but today, we count men of all creeds, nationalities, and occupations in number.” (Chavez, 2) From the very beginning, Chavez brought groups of people together by uniting his small group of protesters with a group of Filipino strikers to create the United Farm Workers. Uniting his group of protesters with the group of striking Filipino workers allowed the protest to become bigger, and therefore more successful. The large numbers also attracted more attention from the media. By uniting groups of strikers, Chavez created a strong protest organization that lasts even today. Another essential group of people Chavez got to join his cause were the consumers. Chavez and his partner Dolores Huerta once wrote, “We called upon our fellow men, and were answered by consumers.” (Chavez, Huerta, 1) Consumers helped the protest by participating in a grape boycott, and did not buy grapes until the grape workers’ needs were met. With this boycott, Chavez tried to weaken the business of the grape growers until they complied, and it worked. When thousands of citizens would not by grapes, the media covered the issue. Through the media coverage, the boycott spread rapidly, uniting people from all over the United States. With the popularity of the boycott, the protest evolved into not just a protest, but a civil rights

Many of us today know about Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a Dream” speech; yet, Cesar Chavez gave a similar speech about a different crisis and we fail to recognize it. Martin Luther King, Jr. became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement to end racial segregation and discrimination in America during the 1950's and 1960's. He hoped to obtain equality through nonviolent actions. Cesar Chavez was the leader of the United Farm Workers of America, who saw the hopes for better lives for Mexican, Mexican American, and Hispanic workers in the United States. Although Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar wrote about two very different topics they tend to have many similarities throughout their speeches discussing what we as a nation need to do to solve each problem.

Chavez compares his argument with his opposition’s argument of violent resistance. This contrast makes one argument seem better. The author promotes nonviolent resistance as “our means of achieving justice for our people,” which may seem like a lofty task, but not when the other option “brings no honor to any class or community.” Blatantly minimizing violence reveals its

Cesar Chavez, a labor leader and civil rights activist, wrote an article that discusses his strong stand on how using nonviolent resistance is the better way to go rather than using violent acts. Inspired by the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Chavez writes an article about his argument on nonviolent resistance; he accomplishes that by using rhetorical choice like allusions, pathos, and tone.

On the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr, labor union organizer and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez writes to the magazine of a religious organization devoted to helping those in need, in order to persuade their conscientious readers that “only nonviolence will be able to achieve the goals of a civil rights activist”. Chavez establishes that violent tactics in a resistance are not effective for the cause by using juxtaposing diction in order to distinguish violent strategies and nonviolent strategies. Doing this allows him to elaborate on the later as his judgment as well as use of plural pronouns and rhetorical question drives his argument for nonviolent resistance.

When caught in an injustice, protesters tend to use various strategies in attempt to successfully convey their opinions. In an article published by Cesar Chavez, he describes his fight for civil rights by using Martin Luther King Junior’s methods to show how violence fails to promote victory. Chavez appeals to his audience by using ethos, pathos, and allusion to highlight how nonviolence is more of an effective form of protesting.

When Daniel Alejandrez was a young boy, he noticed his father bowing his head to a superior and thought to himself that he would never do that. The reason behind this was anger. Fast forward to around the age of seventeen, he and a few fellow coworkers had noticed that they were being paid four times less than his older coworkers who were using machines and not their bare hands. On the radio, a voice called “You must organize. You must seek justice. You must ask for better wages.” The voice was Cesar Chavez. With this quote in mind, he and his coworkers went on strike against the contractor and they raised the wages from $1.65 to $1.95. The point was not to raise wages, but to call attention to the unfair treatment that they were enduring.

In the excerpt, Cesar Chavez, labor union organizers and civil rights leader, discusses how nonviolent resistance to problems in society easily resolves a situation better than violent protest. Throughout his speech, he uses many rhetorical strategies to argue his view on nonviolent resistance. Chavez’ use of ethos, logos, and pathos, creates his passionate attitude towards nonviolent resistance.

“Letter from Delano”, by Cesar Chavez, the writer is attempting to perform this impossible feat on E.L. Barr Jr., the president of the California Grape and Tree Fruit League. Throughout his life, 1927 to 1993, Chavez was a prominent civil rights activist who fought for the rights of farm workers. He performed nonviolent protests including marches, boycotts, and hunger strikes. One famous boycott was the Grape Strike, in which Cesar urged Americans to buy grapes from foreign places in order to bring attention to the plight of field workers. By 1969, when the letter was written, Chavez had already co-founded the National Farm Workers Association. His goal was to fight for better treatment, increased pay, and improved working conditions. His nonviolent methods were extremely similar to the protests of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968, over the rights of African Americans. In the letter, Cesar Chavez is specifically addressing claims, made by the California Grape and Tree Fruit League, of a violent protest performed by the farm workers. Throughout the letter, Chavez confronts the shocking accusations, explains his use of nonviolent methods, and emphasizes the purpose of his protests. He strives to make the president understand the plight of the workers and view their protests as a product of the worker’s determination for change, not as violent and personal attacks that

Martin Luther King Jr. died fighting peacefully against injustice and for equal rights. Similarly, nonviolent protests must continue to be used today because violence only leads to more violence. For the tenth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Cesar Chavez illustrated the importances of nonviolence in his article, “He Showed Us the Way”. In the passage, Chavez expresses strong pathos, powerful diction, and complex syntax in order to encourage nonviolence.

Cesar Chavez, a civil rights leader fighting for improving pay and working conditions of farmers, employs the use of nonviolence resistance in his role as a leader of the United Farm Workers. As a child, Chavez and his family worked as farmers on a field as migrant workers who were most likely treated in an unjust manner and thus, he dedicated his life to improving the conditions for all farmers. To honor Martin Luther King Jr. on the 10th anniversary of his death, Chavez wrote to a religious magazine that helps people in need about the benefits of nonviolent resistance. Throughout his letter, Chavez applies rhetorical devices such as pathos, diction, and juxtaposition to persuade and inform people about how powerful and effective nonviolence techniques can be for civil rights.

Filipino, along with Latino farmworkers joined together in a strike on September 8, 1965. This strike became known as the Delano Grape Pickers Strike. The Delano area grape growers paid the workers poorly and left them in terrible conditions. This began a strike led by Cesar Chavez. Cesar convinced the strikers to vow to remain nonviolent. He set an example and showed the strikers that nonviolence was more powerful than violence because it presses people to be creative. He went on a 25 day fast drinking only water as an act of repentance for those who supported violence. His fast did not encourage the growers to pay the workers better so he and the United Farm Workers (UFW) travelled across the U.S. telling stories, and gathering support for the grape boycott. The stories told connected families in large cities to families working on farms and vineyards. Millions of people stopped eating grapes and this lead to the success of the boycott. This victory secured a place for the UFC in the civil rights

According to the documentary, Viva La Causa, farmworkers have gained minimum wages, rights, and a union. During the strike, the Delano growers had connections with the police, therefore, they were armed with strong forces against the picketers. The picketers were cruelly treated and we know this because the article, Fighting for Farmworkers' Rights: Cesar Chavez, The Delano Grape Strike and Boycott stated, “Picketers were sprayed with pesticides, threatened with dogs, verbally assaulted, and physically attacked.” However, Cesar Chavez responded with the nonviolent way of sending his allies in the clergy to walk the picket lines. In June of 1975, The California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the only law in the country that protects farmworkers’ right to unionize, was passed. The act stated, in Section III: Unfair Labor Practices, “The purpose of establishing an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) procedure is to prevent employers and unions from interfering with, restraining or coercing farm workers in the exercise of their rights as defined by the

Cesar Chavez once explained the horrors of society when he said, “When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering and caring for is family, the whole community of man is sick.” (ufw.org) That means that the whole of humanity is sick and cruel when the man who works the fields all day long to feed the all of the citizens of the entire world can’t even provide for himself. It was not a small amount of people it affected, it was millions, and millions of citizens across the world. Chavez was a large factor in beginning to abolish racism, or also called the Civil Rights Movement.

From 1954 to 1968, African Americans fought to end segregation in the southern United States through nonviolent protests. As a major leader of the movement, Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged this approach. Ten years after MLK’s assassination, American civil rights activist Cesar Chavez published an article to commemorate the great leader and what he stood for. In his magazine article, Cesar Chavez utilizes logos, pathos, and ethos to convey the importance of nonviolence.