The documentary “The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ struggle” gives the audience a small glimpse into the first ever successful organization lead by Cesar Chavez and his vision towards a better life for all farmworkers for generations to come. Viewers can also make a more profound connection of sympathy just by listening to family members of just how they lost everything back in Arizona including the farm and unfortunately had no other option except to migrate to for a better life. However, the State of California during the 1960’s was no promise land which was also immersed in unforgettable change.
The Civil Rights movement of the South with the treatment of African-American community during the 60’s had eventually made its way out to the West Coast. The fight for Civil Rights took on a more profound struggle within the agricultural business of white farmers which was built upon the generations of cheap laborers ranging from the Chinese, Filipinos, Okies, Mexicans, and Chicanos. The audience can see how the United States was seen as a promise land, but for many of these minority farm workers, they were treated as second-class citizens with no
…show more content…
By coming up with unique ideas such as providing farmers with a credit union and life insurance, Chavez was able to attract people from all over to join his movement. It was not until that the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) lead by Lary Itliong was the movement to take shape and move forward with their message. The viewers get a sense of the of the struggle that farm workers had to endure during the 1960’s to gain fair treatment, and that the only way that this movement was going to be successful was to put aside their differences and work together through non-violent