5 comments about The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement.

1. The authors did a great job of detailing the early childhood that shaped the future leader of the farm workers movement. They also do a great job of highlighting the trails, ups and downs of Cesar Chavez and the farm workers movement. One gets a good idea of just how bad conditions were before the movement and how much improvement has been made since the inception of the movement. It also touches the heart with the human aspect of the lives that were shackled in the old system and changed for the good with the reforms that were won. Cesar Chavez is a true humanitarian that should be mentioned with the likes of Martin Luther King and Gandhi. This is truly a must read.



2. This is a well written book and is fun to read.



3. "The Fight in the Fields" compelled me to recognize that Cesar Chavez is arguably the greatest humanitarian in US history. He tirelessly and peacefully campaigned on behalf of underpaid and overworked farmworkers and migrants who were forced to toil amidst toxic insecticides and pesticides. Chavez was profoundly influenced by Gandhi, Martin Luther King and St. Francis of Assisi. He was an environmentalist, a vegetarian and animal welfare advocate who denounced dogfighting, bullfighting, cockfighting, slaughterhouses and rodeos because they are all rooted in inhumane violence. Cesar Chavez had reverence for all life and was a paragon of compassion. He was known as America's Catholic Ghandi of the Fields. The United States should have a national Holiday for Cesar Chavez's birthday, specifically, March 31.



4. "the fight in the fields" is an excellent biographical account of cesar chavez and the farmworkers movement. it's a must read for anyone interested in making a difference.



5. At a time when the Mexican-US border is rife with contention, one needs some inspiration for unity and dialogue. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement by Susan Ferriss and Ricardo Sandoval provides that inspiration. The book chronicles how Chavez, over almost a half-century of activism, used nonviolent tactics to promote unity among and justice for California's, and eventually the nation's, oppressed farm workers. Through his crusade, Chavez secured unionization for the US's farm workers and began the movement for Chicano rights. Although the book has its shortcomings, it offers a wonderful and inspiring picture of the farm worker's movement in the United States and Cesar Chavez's leading role.
   Cesar Chavez's origins and experiences illuminate his later call to lead a nationwide movement. He was born Cesar Estrada Chavez on March 21, 1927 on his family's farm in Yuma, Arizona. There he lived an idyllic life learning the teachings of Catholicism until 1938 when the Great Depression forced the Chavez family to sell their land and move to California. There, Chavez experienced first-hand the brutal work, meager wages, and destitute conditions suffered by nonunionized migrant farm workers as well as the intense discrimination suffered by Chicanos. Chavez married Helen Fabela in 1948 and eventually settled in the impoverished barrio Sal Si Puedes ("Leave if you can.") in San Jose. In Sal Si Puedes, Chavez met two men who would become his greatest role models. Father Donald McDonnell taught Chavez the doctrines of Catholic Social Teaching, especially the labor-related encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. Fred Ross recruited Chavez to work advocating for Chicano rights with the Community Service Organization. In 1962, however, Chavez left CSO to devote himself to a lifelong dream inspired by his time as a farm laborer: unionizing migrant farm workers.
   In 1962, shortly after leaving CSO, Chavez and his family moved to Delano, California, where built the National Farm Worker's Association from the ground up. In 1965, after three years of slowly collecting membership, the association voted to join members of the Agricultural Worker's Organizing Committee in a strike of California vineyards. Soon Chavez, most famously under the banner of the United Farm Workers Union (a merger of the NFWA and AWOC), became the leader of la causa, a nationwide movement for farm worker's rights. He, along with activists like Dolores Huerta, organized migrant farm workers in initiatives like the famous nationwide California table grape boycott of the late 1960's, the lettuce strikes of the 1970's, and the anti-pesticide grape boycott of the 1980's. Throughout his organizing, Chavez, still a devout Catholic strengthened by his family's and Father McDonnell's teachings, remained staunchly nonviolent, fasting whenever violence crept into picket lines. A proponent of creative nonviolent action, Chavez, well-trained by Fred Ross, organized ingenious tactics like praying where picketing was forbidden, holding mass perigrinaciones (pilgrimages) and even mailing squashed grapes to prominent politicians. Chavez also devoted time to political activism, securing the creation of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board in 1976. Further, inspired by the discrimination he faced as a child, he promoted Chicano culture (while always promoting unity among different farm worker nationalities) establishing newspapers like the Malcriado and theater initiatives like Teatro Campesino. Chavez was remembered fondly upon his death in 1993 as the focal point of the Chicano farm worker's movement.
   Fight in the Fields, the companion volume to a television series of the same name, paints a wonderfully creative picture of Chavez's life and legacy. The narrative thoroughly details Chavez's life, from birth to untimely death. The book features hundreds of photographs from Chavez's life that provide a useful visual reference for readers and illuminate the suffering and challenges faced during la causa. The volume also features several insets that consist of actual documents and articles authored by people active in la causa, whether on Chavez's or the opposing side. They provide a firsthand look into the visceral feelings and opinions of those involved in the farm worker's movement and are interesting reads for history buffs, like myself, who are fascinated by contextual documents.
   Fight in the Fields further succeeds by emphasizing the people in Chavez's life. Often, accounts of larger-than-life figures like Chavez focus on the figure him or herself and his or her magnanimous deeds. Little attention is paid to his or her influences or influence on others. Fight in the Fields features quotes from interviews with dozens of figures close to Chavez. The interviews of those who influenced Chavez really get to the heart of what drove him to action. In addition, the book profiles over a dozen organizers Chavez took under his wing. He loved to find young, poorly educated (though possessed of infinite creativity and potential) farm workers and presenting them with seemingly impossible challenges (as Ross had done for him). I thoroughly enjoyed the book's emphasis on these young organizers because it demonstrates that, with a little training and hard work, all can advocate for nonviolent change.
   Despite its excellent qualities, Fight in the Fields has shortcomings. The narrative is often repetitive and almost always confusing. However, the book's content more than makes up for its poorly written narrative. Furthermore, the book leaves the reader on a negative note. The last quarter of the volume is entirely devoted to the difficulties the UFW experienced in the years before Chavez's death. Almost all of the young organizers Chavez honed left the union which itself faced many defeats in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The book emphasizes these defeats with a negative and dispiriting tone. I would rather have read more about the UFW's triumphs during this time or read the setbacks presented in a more positive tone.
   Fight in the Fields left me with two conflicting emotions: inspiration and discouragement. The story of Chavez's ability to single-handedly build a union among transitory, oppressed workers who had no sense of their rights was inspiring. Chavez's story provided me with an example of success amongst impossible odds to look to when I encounter trouble with my initiatives on my college campus. My job is exponentially easier than Chavez's and his creativity and passion (along with the specific logistics of his organizing detailed in the book) motivated me. Furthermore, with the rift between white Americans and Chicanos and Mexican immigrants dug larger every day by contentious issues such as bilingual education and illegal immigration, learning about a movement that united Americans from all backgrounds to work on behalf of minority rights offered me a sense of hope. All should remember Cesar and his commitment to unity rather than division, friendship rather than hate, and dialogue rather than stony anger. However, the near-dissolution of the UFW before Chavez's death left me discouraged. The mass movement a charismatic leader devoted his life to creating easily began fragmented. How on earth can something I build in my spare time survive? The book has certainly led me to want to learn more about la causa and what went wrong at the end.
   Fight in the Fields is, all and all, a good read for the aspiring activist. It provides creative inspiration in the story of Cesar Chavez, the man who turned his life's dream into la causa. If you are already interested in Chavez or, like I did, know nothing about him, this book paints a great picture of his life. However, beware the discouragement presented at the end.

4 comments about Darker Shade of Crimson, A.

1. I've experienced much of the same situations and feelings as a student at Berkeley and (later) as a law student at Stanford. I'm sure that one does not need to be an ethnic or racial minority to feel like a "fish out of water" at any major university, yet it still interesting to find out there are others like oneself. As a Mexican-American, I welcome the day when our presence on an elite (or any) campus is not an oddity, or a source of resentment ("You kept out my more-deserving cousin!").



2. I loved this book because it describes the experience of those who are often overlooked: English speaking Mexican-Americans whose families have been here several generations. Navarrette questions the ethnic labels that have been imposed upon him (Latino, Hispanic) and rightly wonders why one can be considered Italian and American, or Irish and American, but not Mexican and American. For some reason the latter is seen as a contradiction. This book is interesting, well written and provides a good first person account of the college experience and the subsequent process of constructing one's own identity. I highly recommend it!



3. This book is worth reading since it is provocative and has interesting observations about being Latino in the Ivy League. Particularly interesting is his encounter with Richard Rodriguez, who starts out as an enemy and becomes a friend and intellectual mentor of sorts. However, as the book progresses, it feels more like a revisionist explaining away of his shortcomings--why he couldn't commit to his girlfriend and how his confrontations earn him enemies, who of course are mean, petty people in his version of events. Navarette makes everything seems so extreme--it's either Fresno State or Harvard, with nothing in between. He seems shocked that almost every institution in his life from UFW to Harvard's RAZA group turns out to be imperfect so ends up basically condemning them as evil. It seems as if he is very good at pointing out the imperfections in everything around him and is obsessed with making people agree with him. The book ends abruptly and on a note of frustration as he gets fed up with the shortcomings of the educational system and leaves graduate school. You really have to start over to the introduction to get any sense of resolution that he has learned something from his experience and not just grown in cynicism and ego.



4. 
   
   Navarette's book must be seen in its true historic context. Before the 1970s, Latinos were regarded no differently than any other "ethnic" American groups -- Italians, Poles, Swedes, Chinese, Japanese, etc.
   
   Indeed, there are only two groups that have been victims of systematic racism and discrimination in the U.S.: American Indians ("Native Americans") and blacks ("African Americans")
   
   Poor Asians and migrant Latino farmworkers have been exploited -- true -- but white coal miners are exploited right now. That is not the same thing as systematic racial oppression.
   
   Japanese-Americans were put in detention camps during WW II. But so were Italian and German-Americans. The post-1965 transformation of Asians and Latinos into "victims" of white Americans is nonsense.
   
   Latinos of mixed or pure Indian race have certainly been the victims of systematic oppression -- by Spain and Portugal, not by "Anglos" in the U.S.
   
   Up until the late sixties, we had successful Latinos such as Trini Lopez, Desi Arnaz, any number of major league baseball players...No one thought that they were "less than" or "lower" than "Anglos" in this country.
   
   The claim that Latinos have been systematically oppressed by "Anglos" in the U.S. is unsupported.
   
   Latinos have been the Presidents, CEO's or Chairmen of the Board of Coca Cola, McDonald's Corp. and AMD (American Micro Devices.)
   
   How odd: It seems that Latinos -- who can be white, mixed race, or pure Indian -- have been able to rise to the top after all.
   
   Navarrette's obsession with alleged wrongs committed against Latinos by American whites is due to the fact that some Latinos decided to jump on the "victim bandwagon" after the success of the black civil rights movement in the sixties.
   
   Latinos did -- and do -- receive racial preferences over whites and Asians in college admissions, hiring, etc., all because of this myth that they were oppressed by "Anglos" in the same way the blacks and Native Americans were oppressed.
   
   I had Latino classmates at Berkeley in the early seventies (long before Navarette went to college) who would have been offended at the thought that anyone believed they needed affirmative action in the form of racial preferences in order to get into Berkeley and succeed.
   
   Navarrette is a victim of the left-wing "race/gender/class" analysis of American society that took hold in the seventies and remains strong to this day.
   
   Did he get into Harvard only because he was Latino? Who knows?
   
   He's bright enough. But Harvard rejects bright people without a second thought.
   
   I don't blame his Harvard classmates for raising the question of his qualifications. Latinos never should have gotten affirmative action (preferential treatment at the expense of equally qualified or better qualified whites) in the first place.
   
   All Navarrette really has left is his totally unjustified hatred of white Americans.
   
   Sad.

No comments about Francisco Vasquez De Coronado (Latinos in American History).

5 comments about How Did You Get to Be Mexican?: A White/Brown Man's Search for Identity.

1. This is the story of a mother who dearly wanted to assimilate but couldn't - and her son, who could have but finally wouldn't. It is the story of a man of mixed White-Latino heritage engulfed in self-doubt about his place in a society obsessed with race. It is the story of a prominent young lawyer and college professor who can never fully enjoy his success because someone always pops up to accuse him of being a "box checker," a counterfeit Latino for affirmative action purposes.

   Contradictions run wild in Kevin Johnson's autobiographical account of growing up racially mixed and emotionally mixed up. On one page, he rightly laments racial pigeonholing. On the next, he paints a painfully detailed picture of someone's racial history and physical features. The book is replete with mixed heritage characters who "identify" publicly with the racial tradition of one parent over that of another.

   At first this approach left me frustrated (maybe I yearned for transcendence). But soon I realized that Johnson could hardly tell his story otherwise: the contradictions are not his but society's. Such is the sad - indeed the surreal - state of America's racial politics.

   However sad and surreal race relations indeed may be, books like Johnson's represent a breakthrough of sorts for diversity and understanding. For most of our nation's history, dispossessed individuals were truly silenced - either by poverty or outright discrimination. As society began to allow different voices to emerge, pure outsiders got most of the attention. Now people like Johnson, who inhabits what the book jacket calls "the borderlands between racial identities," are receiving the call to tell their stories.

   Before I run on any longer, I should reveal some modest secrets of my own. Johnson and I attended the same high school in Southern California. In college, in the late 1970s, we shared two different apartments on Berkeley's Haste Street, a student ghetto just south of the University of California campus. We remained friends as he progressed through the legal profession to his current position as associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law at the University of California, Davis.

   Johnson was born in 1958, the first child of a White father and a Mexican American mother. His parents divorced when he was young, and he grew up hopscotching from the barrio's poverty to the relative affluence of the beach cities near Los Angeles. Johnson's mother, a staunch assimilationist, neither taught him Spanish nor encouraged pride in his Latin roots. When she remarried, she attached herself yet another Anglo.

   Following the advice of his politically savvy father, the adolescent Johnson began to ponder his Mexican American background. He began taking Spanish in high school. He continued in college. Meanwhile Berkeley introduced him - as it did us all - to heretofore unimagined diversity. Yet, to me, my roommate seemed most comfortable while slam dancing to the Dead Kennedys at the San Francisco punk club Mabuhay Gardens. White like me, I would have told anyone who bothered to ask about his racial identity (though I knew, of course, about his mother's background). Tellingly, no one raised the question.

   My analysis at the time partly reflected my own lack of maturity and perception, but there's little doubt that Harvard Law School forced my friend unequivocally out of his Latino closet. Like other Harvard law students from modest economic and social backgrounds, he wondered whether he really deserved his place in the elite institution. Had the admissions committee let him in just because he'd checked the Latino box on the application? Even after he made law review, he could never convince himself.
   
   During a tussle over affirmative action on the virtually all-white law review, Johnson took a firm pro-diversity stance. From that point on, he became increasingly outspoken about his Mexican American heritage - both personally and professionally. Though it might have been easier to blend in as white, he opted for a more rewarding, if rockier, bicultural path.

   His chapter about Harvard, which opens the book, should be required reading for any undergraduate contemplating the LSAT. This isn't the first time someone has slammed Harvard Law, and it won't be the last, but Johnson's account makes the experience seem outright hellish for anyone with the slightest non-conformist streak. Pranks (probably innocuous to your average Yale man) resound with new meaning when aimed at a sensitive outsider. For his defense of affirmative action, Johnson earned a citation in a spoof yearbook as author of a volume entitled, "I Hate Whites." Nearly two decades later, the barb still stings.

   After law school, Johnson plunged into pro bono work on behalf of Latin American immigrants and married a woman of Mexican American descent. Virginia helped him grow more comfortable with his identity, and together they try to provide a foundation of Mexican culture for their three children.

   Policy discussions generally take a backseat in Johnson's autobiographical account. When they appear, they're grounded in personal experience - like his analysis of the "box checker" dilemma. The question is simple: what constitutes a member of an underprivileged group for the purposes of affirmative action? The answer is complex, if not insoluble. Under pressure to admit or hire individuals from certain groups, many institutions and businesses are keen to count anyone vaguely entitled to membership. Predictably, this has sparked a debate among civil rights activists over who qualifies to check the box. Individuals of mixed racial heritage, like Johnson, come under special scrutiny. The phenomenon is captured by the book's title, "How Did You Get to Be a Mexican?" A senior professor asked Johnson that very question during an interview for a position on a law faculty.

   Johnson's book offers a partial answer, but no response will prove satisfactory as long as our society remains obsessed with race. Indeed, we can only put racism behind us when we no longer care about the answer.

   * Bill Hinchberger is the editor of the BrazilMax website.




2. I had to read this book for a perspectives on race and ethnicity class, contrasting it with a book of a similar theme. I won't mention the other title out of respect for that author but this book was by far much more humbly introspective than the other book. Even though I am an Asian American, I was able to see the similarities between the Latino American experience and the Asian American one, and that the issues a person of a minority background experiences are to an extent universal and maddening. I am really glad I had the opportunity to read this book because it showed me that a biography that covered deep-seated social issues could be written and presented with humility and dignity. The other book, though honest too, had such an arrogance about it that I could not stand to read it. I would recommend this book to anyone regardless of their background.



3. When I saw the title, I knew I had to check out the book for myself. Since I am a bicultural person (of Venezuelan and Polish descent) I could relate to his struggle. A lot of people doubt you based on physical characteristics, surname and mannerisms when you come from a bicultural background. The situation was the same for Mr. Johnson, a lawyer of English and Mexican background. His last name, light complexion and elementary knowledge of Spanish hindered him in integrating into Mexican culture, while his non-Caucasian features separated him from his Anglo contemporaries. He wrote sensitively about his experiences and enlightened us about his process of self-discovery (finally marrying a Mexicana, having children with her, giving them Spanish names, etc). I reccomend this book to anyone who wants an education on the bicultural experience or has been through that process themselves. I can't tell you how many times, to this day, people still deny me my Latin roots because I don't look like the caricatures they have in their heads about how all Hispanics/Latinos are supposed to look (Dark skin, black hair, black eyes), and I don't have a Spanish last name because I was raised by my mom (Martinez, Morales, Rodriguez, etc). We have to get over our assumptions about people if we want the walls to come down in our thinking. It is the only way toward liberation.



4. : I loved Johnson's book and his story. I found myself saying to myself, "that happened to me too". I would say "yeah, that's totally true" and "he's right on". This book was like a breath of fresh air for me. It was a way for me to look at myself and really think about how I viewed myself. There are many sections in the book that I read and thought "that's exactly what I would have written too". Johnson put his heart into this book and put his emotions and thoughts on the table for all to read and enjoy and learn from. I think that anyone could learn a new perspective by reading the book. Anyone from a mixed heritage background could read it feel relief in that there are others in the world that have had similar experiences to that of their own. My mother is Mexican and my father is white and I could wholly relate to the author's experience. I have a white last name and always felt stuck in between the two worlds. I think that the author portrayed this feeling very well. The book gave me newfound respect for anyone who enters the legal profession. They definitely have to work very to get to where they want to be in life. Bravo to Mr. Johnson.



5. This is an interesting book where the author relates his own life experience and all that he goes through growing up in a mixed Latino-Anglo Family. Through his life the author illustrates and analyzes important issues for Latinos living in the United States.
   
   Kevin Johnson is the son of a Mexican American mother and an Anglo father. While his mom always denied her Mexican heritage and chose not to teach her kids Spanish, his dad always encouraged him to take pride on his Mexican background. Kevin Johnson's parents divorced when he was a young child and he grew up experiencing the socio economic differences between the middle class and the people on welfare. Through his experiences he narrates how he struggled developing his racial identity and how that affected his life.
   
   Johnson says that Latinos in the United States are a diverse group in terms of race, country of origin, time living in the country, language, and immigration status. According to Johnson, some Latinos may be able to choose an identity, but finding and becoming comfortable with the racial identity is a difficult task that members of a racial minority face. They can risk rejection for refusing to assimilate and trying to benefit from affirmative action. Johnson says that the United States is a much racially mixed nation today than it was in the past, and as immigration and intermarriage increase so will the diversity in the population.
   
   As a Latina, it was interesting for me to read this book because I was able to relate myself in some of the experiences and incidents that the author recounts. I consider that the book is an inspiring story for Latinos and people of other ethnic groups living in the United States that shows that although it may be hard at times to fit into the social dynamics of the United States, there are plenty of opportunities. With effort and self-determination individuals can find their own social accommodation without having to deny their own cultural background.

No comments about Futbolistas/ Soccer Players: El Club De Los 100 Latinos/ The Club of the 100 Latinos.

5 comments about The Book Of Latina Women: 150 Vidas of Passion, Strength, and Success.

1. I am writing to say how entertaining this new book features such Latin superstars like
   Vikki Carr, Gloria Estafan, and Selena. It is time we salute such great woman, and special thanks to Grammy superstar Vikki Carr for making Latin music popular here in the US. No one has done more to promote the culture in the US marketplace! I am very proud to see that the website that Vito Cifaldi and Daniel Maglione maintain, www.VikkiCarr.net is credited in this new book as well., and finally get credit for all their work.
   Vikki, there's no other site that has brought so many of us fans together, we know you are proud of them and the world is proud of you! Everyone needs to stand and give Sylvia a standing ovation for giving us such an entertaining book to read. Thanks Sylvia
   Gregory LA.



2. Concise enough to be a reference guide, yet meaty enough I coudln't put it down, Sylvia Mendoza's choice of Latina women and the material she selects to highlight for each, make a compelling read. From Malinche (my favorite) to Selena, we learn who and what drove the lives, passions and successes of these amazing, but often overlooked women. From trailblazers to entertainers, doctors to activists and leaders, the glimpses into their lives educate and inspire. I'd love to read the same delightful sweep of 150 Latina men, 150 Black women, etc., etc.
   This informative and entertaining and charming book is a must for EVERY library: town, school or home!



3. For so long women's accomplishments in society have been overlooked. This book does a marvelous job of detailing the many great contributions of women, and in particular, of Latina women. For any Latina and her daughters, this is an inspirational book that shows just how far you can reach!!



4. I really recomend this book because it talks about Latina women including famous women who are Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican and from other Latin American countries.
   This book includes famouse female Latina singers like Selena. I learned a lot about her, that she was born in 1971 and died in 1995. She had one brother and one sister. Selena had sold more than 35,000 CD'S before her unfortunate death.
   This book has 11 chapters and 13 women are featured in each chapter. This book explains when the women were born and when they died and what they accomplished in their lives.
   Another woman I will like to talk about is Julia Alvarez. She is a great Dominican writer. Alvarez won the 2002 Nebraska Book Award for ''Before We Were Free.'' Also Mrs. Alvarez wrote the book ''In the Time of the Butterflies'' to remember the real life murder of the Three Mirabals sisters who were assassinated for the opposition of the dictator Rafael Trujillo.
   If you want to know more information about Selena, Julia Alvarez and other Latina women read ''The Book of Latina Women.''
   I really recommened this book for anyone ages 10 and up.
   This book meant a lot to me because it talks about women from my culture and my friends' cultures. It is also important for us to learn about successful women from many cultures. You can be someone like the Latina women from your culture;
   these women are good role models for all of us.
   Shaina



5. Sylvia Mendoza reminds us that Latinas are smart, savvy, and powerful. The Book of Latina Women is a must-read book for young Latinas, young Latinos, and everyone looking for inspiration.

No comments about The Biographical Dictionary of Hispanic Americans (Biographical Dictionaries).

1 comments about Memoir of a Visionary: Antonia Pantoja (Hispanic Civil Rights).

1. As an ASPIRAnte, Dra Antonia Pantoja is one of my biggest role models, and I feel that through me and the other young ASPIRAntes she still lives her life. This book taught me sooo much about the life and struggles of this great spanish role model

No comments about Latin American Writers (Literary Reader).

No comments about Salma Hayek (Twentieth Century's Most Influential Hispanics).