Character
"Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an
exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers."
Commitment
"...there has to be someone who is willing to do it, who is willing
to take whatever risks are required. I don't think it can be done
with money alone. The person has to be dedicated to the task. There
has to be some other motivation."
"Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the
people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return."
"Self dedication is a spiritual experience."
"The name of the game is to talk to people. If you don't talk to
people, you can't get started...You knock on twenty doors or so,
and twenty guys tell you to go to hell, or that they haven't got
time. But maybe at the fortieth or sixtieth house you find the one
guy who is all you need. You're not going to organize everything;
you're just going to get it started.
"There are vivid memories from my childhood--what we had to go
through because of low wages and the conditions, basically because
there was no union. I suppose if I wanted to be fair I could say
that I'm trying to settle a personal score. I could dramatize it
by saying that I want to bring social justice to farm workers. But
the truth is that I went through a lot of hell, and a lot of people
did. If we can even the score a little for the workers then we are
doing something. Besides, I don't know any other work I like to
do better than this. I really don't."
"There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And
there is no substitute for patience and acceptance."
"There's no turning back...We will win. We are winning because
ours is a revolution of mind and heart..."
"We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been
forced to live. We shall endure."
"We must understand that the highest form of freedom carries with
it the greatest measure of discipline."
"I remember with strong feelings the families who joined our movement
and paid dues long before there was any hope of winning contracts.
Sometimes, fathers and mothers would take money out of their meager
food budgets just because they believed that farm workers could
and must build their own union. I remember thinking then that with
spirit like that... we had to win. No force on earth could stop
us."
"The picket line is the best place to train organizers. One day
on the picket line is where a man makes his commitment. The longer
on the picket line, the stronger the commitment. A lot of workers
think they make their commitment by walking off the job when nobody
sees them. But you get a guy to walk off the field when his boss
is watching and, in front of the other guys, throw down his tools
and march right to the picket line, that is the guy who makes our
strike. The picket line is a beautiful thing because it makes a
man more human."
"As one looks at the millions of acres in this country that have
been taken out of agricultural production;a nd at the millions of
additional acres that have never been cultivated; and at the millions
of people who have moved off the farm to rot and decay in the ghettoes
of our big cities; and at all the millions of hungry people at home
and abroad; does it not seem that all these people and things were
somehow made to come together and serve one another? If we could
bring them together, we could stem the mass exodus of rural poor
to the big city ghettoes and start it going back the other way;
teach them how to operate new farm equipment; and put them to work
on those now uncultivated acres to raise food for the hungry. If
a way could be found to do this, there would be not only room but
positive need for still more machinery and still more productivity
increase. There would be enough employment, wages, profits, food
and fiber."
"If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and
eat with him...The people who give you their food give you their
heart."
"In this world it is possible to achieve great material wealth,
to live an opulent life. But a life built upon those things alone
leaves a shallow legacy. In the end, we will be judged by other
standards."
Community
"We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress
and prosperity for our community...Our ambitions must be broad enough
to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes
and for our own."
"When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our
lives are all that really belong to us. So, it how we use our lives
that determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief
that only by giving our lives do we find life."
"When you have people together who believe in something very strongly
- whether it's religion or politics or unions - things happen."
"You are never strong enough that you don't need help."
Culture
"Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or
disrespect for other cultures."
"We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the
ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this
community - and this nation."
Dignity
"A symbol is an important thing. That is why we chose an Aztec
eagle. It gives pride...When people see it they know it means dignity."
"Do not romanticize the poor...We are all people, human beings
subject to the same temptations and faults as all others. Our poverty
damages our dignity."
"From the depth of need an despair, people can work together, can
organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own
needs with dignity and strength."
"What is at stake is human dignity. If a man is not accorded respect
he cannot respect himself and if he does not respect himself, he
cannot demand it."
"The strike and the boycott, they have cost us much. What they
have not paid us in wages, better working conditions, and new contracts,
they have paid us in self-respect and human dignity."
Education
"A word as to the education of the heart. We don't believe that
this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through
the loving touch of the teacher."
"Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the
best out of our own students. What better books can there be than
the book of humanity?"
"The end of all education should surely be service to others."
"The end of all knowledge should surely be service to others."
"The end of all knowledge must be the building up of character."
"Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of
the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment."
Farm workers
"(Farm workers) are involved in the planting and the cultivation
and the harvesting of the greatest abundance of food known in this
society. They bring in so much food to feed you and me and the whole
country and enough food to export to other places. The ironic thing
and the tragic thing is that after they make this tremendous contribution,
they don't have any money or any food left for themselves."
"I have met many, many farm workers and friends who love justice
and who are willing to sacrifice for what is right. They have a
quality about them that reminds me of the beatitudes. They are living
examples that Jesus' promise is true: they have ben hungry and thirsty
for righteousness and they have been satisfied. They are determined,
patient people who believe in life and who give strength to others.
They have given me more love and hope and strength than they will
ever know."
"It's ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest
the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with
abundance have nothing left for themselves."
"Our very lives are dependent, for sustenance, on the sweat and
sacrifice of the campesinos. Children of farm workers should be
as proud of their parents' professions as other children are of
theirs."
Future Generations
"It is not enough to teach our young people to be successful...so
they can realize their ambitions, so they can earn good livings,
so they can accumulate the material things that this society bestows.
Those are worthwhile goals. But it is not enough to progress as
individuals while our friends and neighbors are left behind."
"Perhaps we can bring the day when children will learn from their
earliest days that being fully man and fully woman means to give
one's life to the liberation of the brother who suffers. It is up
to each one of us. It won't happen unless we decide to use our lives
to show the way."
"Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators.
They must learn to think and act for themselves-and be free."
Boycott
"The consumer boycott is the only open door in the dark corridor
of nothingness down which farm workers have had to walk for many
years. It is a gate of hope through which they expect to find the
sunlight of a better life for themselves and their families."
Hope
"If you are going to organize and ask for commitment, you cannot
go to the most desperately poor. They are not likely to take action.
If you stand on a man's head and push it into the dirt, he may not
even see the heel of your boot. But if his whole face is already
above ground, he can see your heel and he can see freedom ahead."
Humanity
"Our conviction is that human life and limb are a very special
possession given by God to man and that no one has the right to
take that away, in any cause, however just..."
"We are certain God's will is that all men share in the good things
this earth produces."
"When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket
line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again. He
has confirmed his own humanity. Through non-violence, he has confirmed
the humanity of others."
"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
his own family, the whole community of man is sick."
"Kindness and compassion toward all living things is a mark
of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed
against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province
of any one culture or community of people. Racism, economic deprival,
dog fighting and cock fighting, bull fighting and rodeos are cut
from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent
toward all life will we have learned to live well ourselves."
Justice
"It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see
everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane
and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the
way we will use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity."
"People who have lost their hunger for justice are not ultimately
powerful. They are like sick people who have lost their appetite
for what is truly nourishing. Such sick people should not frighten
or discourage us. They should be prayed for along with the sick
people who are in the hospital. "The love for justice that is in
us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most
true to our nature."
"There is a great fear of our Union - a fear that I do not fully
understand, but that I know is present...What is it that causes
some men to act so hastily and so cruelly? It cannot be that we
are so powerful. Is it so much to ask that the poorest people of
the land have a measure of justice?"
"We are confident. We have ourselves. We know how to sacrifice.
We know how to work. We know how to combat the forces that oppose
us. But even more than that, we are true believers in the whole
idea of justice. Justice is so much on our side, that that is going
to see us through."
"We shall strike. We shall organize boycotts. We shall demonstrate
and have political campaigns. We shall pursue the revolution we
have proposed. We are sons and daughters of the farm workers' revolution,
a revolution of the poor seeking bread and justice."
La Causa
"¢®Viva la causa!"
"Our opponents in the agricultural industry are very powerful and
farm workers are still weak in money and influence. But we have
another kind of power that comes from the justice of our cause.
So long as we are willing to sacrifice for that cause, so long as
we persist in non-violence and work to spread the message of our
struggle, then millions of people around the world will respond
from their heart, will support our efforts...and in the end we will
overcome."
"We are involved in a just cause. We know that most likely we are
not going to do anything else in the rest of our life except this.
We know that if we weren't doing this we wouldn't be doing anything
else we would like to do more than this. We know really there is
nowhere else to go and although we would like to see victory come
soon we are willing to wait."
Labor Union
"In the no-nonsense school of adversity, which we did not choose
for ourselves, we are learning how to operate a labor union."
"The road to social justice for the farm worker is the road of
unionization. Our cause, our strike against table grapes and our
international boycott are all founded upon our deep conviction that
the form of collective self-help, which is unionization, holds far
more hope for the farm worker than any other single approach, whether
public or private. This conviction is what brings spirit, high hope
and optimism to everything we do."
"We know what unions have done for other people. We have seen it
and we have studied and we have cherished the idea of unionism.
We have seen the history and development of unions in this country
and we tell the growers that we want nothing more, but that we want
our own union and we are going to fight for it as long as it takes."
"...So they are trying to do something about it. They are not doing
it by seeking charity. They are not begging at the welfare office.
They are not, like many of their employers, lobbying the halls of
Congress with their gold plated tin cups asking to be paid for not
growing crops. They are trying to do it in the way that millions
of other Americans have shown is the right way-organization, unionism,
collective bargaining."
Leadership
"I am an organizer, not a union leader. A good organizer has to
work hard and long. There are no shortcuts. You just keep talking
to people, working with them, sharing, exchanging and they come
along."
"I'm not going to ask for anything unless the workers want it.
If they want it, they'll ask for it."
"There are many reasons for why a man does what de does. To be
himself he must be able to give it all. If a leader cannot give
it all he cannot expect his people to give anything."
"These observations tie in directly with the whole question of
organizing. Why do we have leaders? We put some people out in the
fields and all of a sudden they hit, they click. Everyone's happy
with them and they begin to move mountains. With other people there
are problems and heartaches. They just don't go. When we look and
see what's happening, almost invariably the differences are along
the lines of willingness to sacrifice and work long hours."
Motivation
"¢®Si se puede!"
"If you're not frightened that you might fail, you'll never do
the job. If you're frightened, you'll work like crazy."
"The road to social justice for the farm workers is the road to
unionization. Our cause, our strike against table grapes and our
international boycott are all founded upon our deep conviction that
the form of collective self-help which is unionization holds far
more hope for the farm worker than any other single approach, whether
public or private. This conviction is what brings spirit, high hope
and optimism to everything we do."
Non-Violence
"In non-violence the cause has to be just and clear as well as
the means."
"Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by
an appeal to the brain."
"The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation
with everything humiliating."
"The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the
goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance
of God."
"There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence."
"There's no reason to be non-violent. There's no challenge unless
you are living for people."
"You know, if people are not pacifists, it's not their fault. It's
because society puts them in that spot. You've got to change it.
You don't just change a man - you've got to change his environment
as you do it."
"...people think non-violence is really weak and non-militant.
These are misconceptions that people have because they don't understand
what non-violence means. Non-violence takes more guts, if I can
put it bluntly, than violence. Most violent acts are accomplished
by getting the opponent off guard, and it doesn't take that much
character, I think, if one wants to do it."
"Farm workers everywhere are angry and worried that we cannot win
without violence. We have proved it before through persistence,
hard work, faith and willingness to sacrifice. We can win and keep
our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the
spirit of all people if we do it through a re-dedication and re-commitment
to the struggle for justice through non-violence."
"Imagine the National Guard being called against a group of peaceful
people. How far can we get; how disgraceful can it become? It's
the most disgraceful, the most wicked thing I've seen in all my
years of organizing farm labor."
"Non violence means people in action. People have to understand
that with non-violence goes a hell of a lot of organization."
"Non-violence exacts a very high price from one who practices it.
But once you are able to meet that demand then you can do most things."
"Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people
who most want to talk about it."
"Non-violence is a very powerful weapon. Most people don't understand
the power of non-violence and tend to be amazed by the whole idea.
Those who have been involved in bringing about change and see the
difference between violence and non-violence are firmly committed
to a lifetime of non-violence, not because it is easy or because
it is cowardly, but because it is an effective and very powerful
way."
"Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not
for the timid or weak...Non-violence is hard work. It is the willingness
to sacrifice. It is the patience to win."
"Non-violence is very weak in the theoretical sense; it cannot
defend itself. But it is most powerful in the action situation where
people are using non-violence because they want desperately to bring
about some change. Non-violence in action is a very potent force
and it can't be stopped. The people who are struggling have the
complete say-so. No man-made law, no human ruler, no army can destroy
this. There is no way it can be destroyed... And so, if we have
the capacity to endure, if we have the patience, things will change."
"Violence just hurts those who are already hurt...Instead of exposing
the brutality of the oppressor, it justifies it."
"We are convinced that non-violence is more powerful than violence.
We are convinced that non-violence supports you if you have a just
and moral cause...If you use violence, you have to sell part of
yourself for that violence. Then you are no longer a master of your
own struggle."
"When workers fall back on violence, they are lost. Oh, they might
win some of their demands and might end a strike a little earlier,
but they give up their imagination, their creativity, their will
to work hard and to suffer for what they believe is right."
Organizing
"...many have the idea that organizing people is very difficult,
but it isn't. It becomes difficult only at the point where you begin
to see other things that are easier. But if you are willing to give
the time and make the sacrifice, it's not that difficult to organize."
"I think one of the great, great problems...is confusing people
to the point where they become immobile. In fact, the more things
people can find out for themselves, the more vigor the organization
is going to have."
"If they had $2.00 for food, they had to give $1.00 to the union.
Otherwise, they would never get out of the trap of poverty. They
would never have a union because they couldn't afford to sacrifice
a little bit more on top of their misery."
"Money is not going to organize the disadvantaged, the powerless,
or the poor. We need other weapons. That's why the War on Poverty
is such a miserable failure. You put out a big pot of money and
all you do is fight over it. Then you run out of money and you run
out of troops."
"Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process
in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about
life."
"The life of the union depends upon more people getting to share
the limelight, because with the limelight also comes responsibility
and with the responsibility comes a little sharing of the load."
"There isn't enough money to organize poor people. There never is
enough money to organize anyone. If you put it on the basis of money,
you're not going to succeed."
"We are organizers at heart. Most of us in the movement take great
pride in being able to put things together."
"We're going to pray a lot and picket a lot."
Power
"It's amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the
moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation
of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease. When the poor
share some of the power that the affluent now monopolize, we will
give a damn."
"Society is made up of groups, and as long as the smaller groups
do not have the same rights and the same protection as others -
I don['t care whether you call it capitalism or communism -it is
not going to work. Somehow, the guys in power have to be reached
by counterpower, or through a change in their hearts and minds,
or change will not come."
"We always believed that the growers weren't that powerful, and
I could never subscribe to the theory that the growers were invincible.
I realized that the growers appeared to be so powerful simply because
the workers had no power. If they could gain some power, the growers
wouldn't seen so invincible."
Public Action
I've always maintained that it isn't the form that's going to make
the difference. It isn't the rule or the procedure or the ideology,
but it's human beings that will make it."
"In the final analysis it doesn't really matter what the political
system is...We don't need perfect political systems; we need perfect
participation."
"It is not good enough to know why we are oppressed and by whom.
We must join the struggle for what is right and just. Jesus does
not promise that it will be an easy way to live life and His own
life certainly points in a hard direction; but it does promise that
we will be "satisfied" (not stuffed; but satisfied). He promises
that by giving life we will find life - full, meaningful life as
God meant it."
"Jesus' life and words are a challenge at the same time that they
are Good News. They are a challenge to those of us who are poor
and oppressed. By His life He is calling us to give ourselves to
others, to sacrifice for those who suffer, to share our lives with
our brothers and sisters who are also oppressed. He is calling us
to "hunger and thirst after justice" in the same way that we hunger
and thirst after food and water: that is, by putting our yearning
into practice."
"Talk is cheap...It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday
that tells what we believe in."
"Until the chance for political participation is there, we who
are poor will continue to attack the soft part of the American system
- its economic structure. We will build power through boycotts,
strikes, new union - whatever techniques we can develop. These attacks
on the status quo will come, not because we hate, but because we
know America can construct a humane society for all its citizens
- and that if it does not, there will chaos."
"Those who are willing to sacrifice and be of service have very
little difficulty with people. They know what they are all about.
People can't help but want to be near them. They help them; they
work with them. That's what love is all about. It starts with your
heart and radiates out."
Respect
We want to be recognized, yes, but not with a glowing epitaph on
our tombstone..."
"Respect for faith of others stands on the same footing as culture."
Sacrifice
"it is clearly evident that our path travels through a valley of
teas well known to all farm workers, because in all valleys the
way of the farm worker has bene one of sacrifice for generations.
Our sweat and our blood have fallen on this land to make other men
rich. This Pilgrimage is a witness to the suffering we have seen
for generations."
"It takes a lot of punishment to be able to do anything to change
the social order."
"The poor, you know, have a way of solving problems...they have
a tremendous capacity for suffering. And so when you build a vehicle
to get something done, as we've done here in the strike and the
boycott, then they continue to suffer - and maybe a little bit more
- but the suffering becomes less important because they see a chance
of progress; sometimes progress itself. They've been suffering all
their live.s It's a question of suffering with some kind of hope
now. That's better than suffering with no hope at all."
"The thing that we have going for us is that people are willing
to sacrifice themselves."
"We are suffering. We have suffered. And we are not afraid to suffer
in order to win our cause."
"We can choose to use our lives for others to bring about a better
and more just world for our children. People who make that choice
will know hardship and sacrifice. But if you give yourself totally
to the non-violence struggle for peace and justice you also find
that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and
never be alone. And in giving of yourself you will discover a whole
new life full of meaning and love."
"We'll organize workers in this movement as long as we're willing
to sacrifice. The moment we stop sacrificing, we stop organizing."
"When any person suffers for someone in greater need, that person
is a human."
"I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act
of manliness is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent
struggle for justice."
"We have suffered unnumbered ills and crimes in the name of the
Law of the Land. Our men, women and children have suffered not only
the basic brutality of stoop labor, and the most obvious injustices
of the system; they have also suffered the desperation of knowing
that the system caters to the greed of callous men and not to our
needs. Now we will suffer for the purpose of ending the poverty,
the misery, and the injustice, with the hope that our children will
not be exploited as we have been. They have imposed hungers on us,
and now we hunger for justice."
The Movement
"A movement with some lasting organization is a lot less dramatic
than a movement with a lot of demonstrations and a lot of marching
and so forth. The more dramatic organization does catch attention
quicker. Over the long haul, however, it's a lot more difficult
to keep together because you're not building solid...A lasting organization
is one in which people will continue to build, develop and move
when you are not there."
"Across the San Joaquin valley, across California, across the entire
nation, wherever there are injustices against men and women and
children who work in the fields - there you will see our
flags - with the black eagle with the white and red background,
flying. Our movement is spreading like flames across a dry plain."
"There is enough love and good will in our movement to give energy
to our struggle and still have plenty left over to break down and
change the climate of hate and fear around us."
"This is the beginning of a social movement in fact and not in
pronouncements. We seek our basic, God - given rights as human beings...We
shall do it without violence because it is our destiny. To the growers
and to all who oppose us, we say the words of Benito Juarez: `Respect
for another's right is the meaning of peace.'"
"We are tired of words, of betrayals, of indifference...they years
are gone when the farm worker said nothing an did nothing to help
himself...Now we have new faith. Through our strong will, our movement
is changing these conditions...We shall be heard."
"We are tired of words, of betrayals, of indifference...the years
are gone when the farm worker said nothing and did nothing to help
himself...Now we have new faith. Through our strong will, our movement
is changing these conditions...We shall be heard."
"We do not need to kill or destroy to win. We are a movement that
builds and not destroys."
The Struggle
"...the workers aren't going to stop struggling. They're going
to struggle to have a union and they have the right to have it.
The police repression and the grower indifference to the workers'
demands for recognition cannot go unheard so we're going to keep
on struggling until we get that recognition."
"Because we have suffered, and we are not afraid to suffer in order
to survive, we are ready to give up everything - even our lives
- in our struggle for justice."
"However important the struggle is and however much misery and
poverty and degradation exist, we know that it cannot be more important
than one human life."
"Our struggle is not easy. Those who oppose our cause are rich
and powerful and they have many allies in high places. We are poor.
Our allies are few. But we have something the rich do not own. We
have our bodies and spirits and the justice of our cause as our
weapons."
"Our union represents a breaking away...represents sharing a power,
represent questioning, represents a new force...however long it
takes, we are geared for a struggle."
"When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our
lives are all that really belong to us, so it is how we use our
lives that determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest
belief that only by giving life do we find life, that the truest
act courage, the strongest act of manliness is to sacrifice ourselves
for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice. To be
a man is to suffer for others, God help us to be men."
* The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation is the intellectual
property owner of Cesar's name, voice, image, and likeness, speeches
and writings. Permission to reproduce said intellectual property
for publication purposes may be obtained by contacting the: Cesar
E. Chavez Foundation,634 South Spring Street Suite 400, Los Angeles,
CA 90014, T: (213) 362-0260 ,Fax (213) 362-0265, E: info@cecfmail.org |