Mexican American Chavez Chapter 2 Summary

After just finishing chapter two, I can honestly say that the farmworkers movement and the importance of worker’s rights makes a lot more sense and I understand more of the Mexican American (and Filipino) struggles. Due to César Chávez and many others just as passionate about the movement, minorities saw their fight as hope that anyone can stand up to injustices. From reading chapter 2, I can accrue more information about César Chávez and Dolores Huerta and their impacts on the movement, as well as a deeper understanding of the importance this movement is to the Mexican and Mexican American people. My people. To start, César Chávez and Dolores Huerta inspired people to stand up for worker’s rights and that standing up to higher authority

People poured their heart into the movement and they began to realize the symbolic importance of giving farm workers rights on the field. In chapter 2 it states, “‘We seek our basic, God-given rights as human beings… we have suffered-and are not afraid to suffer-in order to survive, we are ready to give up everything, even our lives, in our fight for social justice.’ And for those who recognized the farmworkers’ struggles not just as a labor issue, but as a larger social movement…‘We know that the poverty of Mexican or Filipino worker in California is the same as that of all farm workers across the country… all the races that comprise the oppressed minorities of the United States,’” (Montoya and Stavans 50). This, to me, proves that the movement was much more than a fight for higher pay; it was a fight for a higher consideration and the right to be looked upon by the white people as an equal. These poor people are sick and tired of the inequality they face daily and want to be included in our county’s “clique”. Most importantly, the movement and all it stood for inspired the younger generation to stand up for their rights and challenge society as a whole. At the end of chapter 2, it states, “... the farmworkers’ struggle was a foundation for the Chicano Movement. César Chávez and Dolores Huerta became Chicano icons, and Chicano activists who worked with the unionists were able to employ similar grassroots tactics for causes such as school reform, political campaigns, and community self-determination. Not least, the farmworker struggle showed the Mexican American community that it was possible to stand up against injustice and dare to win,” (Montoya and Stavans 63). With a history filled with labor abuse and being taken advantage of, this Mexican and Mexican American community is finally