Description

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The rise, fall, and legacy of the inspirational United Farm Workers movement, and the untold story of iconic community organizer Cesar Chavez.

A generation of Americans came of age boycotting grapes, swept up in a movement that vanquished California’s most powerful industry and accomplished the unthinkable: dignity and contracts for farm workers. Four decades later, Cesar Chavez’s likeness graces postage stamps, and dozens of schools and streets have been renamed in his honor. But the real story of Chavez’s farm workers’ movement—both its historic triumphs and its tragic disintegration—has remained buried beneath the hagiography.

Drawing on a rich trove of original documents, tapes, and interviews, Miriam Pawel chronicles the rise of the UFW during the heady days of civil rights struggles, the antiwar movement, and student activism in the 1960s and ’70s. From the fields, the churches, and the classrooms, hundreds were drawn to la causa by the charismatic Chavez, a brilliant risk-taker who mobilized popular support for a noble cause. But as Miriam Pawel shows, the UFW was ripped apart by the same man who built it, as Chavez proved unable to make the transition from movement icon to union leader. Pawel traces the lives of several key members of the crusade, using their stories to weave together a powerful portrait of a movement and the people who made it.

A tour de force of reporting and a spellbinding narrative, The Union of Their Dreams explores an important and untold chapter in the history of labor, civil rights, and immigration in modern America. Miriam Pawel is an award-winning reporter and editor who spent twenty-five years working for Newsday and the Los Angeles Times. She was recently an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow and a John Jacobs Fellow at the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. Eliseo Medina was a teenage farmworker, longing for a way out of the fields. Chris Hartmire was a Phi Beta Kappa minister, searching for a cause. Jerry Cohen was a brash young lawyer, looking for a righteous fight. Each found answers in the audacious crusade of a soft-spoken, iron-willed man: Cesar Chavez. They joined an eclectic cast of thousands who journeyed from fields, churches, and campuses, drawn to la causa by its charismatic leader. A brilliant risk-taker and strategist, Chavez mobilized support to build a union that accomplished the unthinkable: dignity and contracts for farmworkers. His impact spread far beyond the California fields where he began; a generation of Americans came of age marching for justice and boycotting grapes, swept up in a movement that changed their lives.  Four decades later, Chavez's likeness graces postage stamps. Dozens of streets and schools are named in his honor. But the real story of Cesar Chavez and his farm worker movement—its historic triumphs and its tragic disintegration—has remained stubbornly elusive, shrouded in legend.  Drawing on a rich trove of unpublished documents and exhaustive interviews, Miriam Pawel finally unravels this vital chapter of American history in a haunting, intimately reported narrative. With a novelist's empathy and a historian's care, Pawal chronicles the well-known story of how Chavez built the first successful union of farmworkers—and the lesser-known story of how he tore it down. The Union of Their Dreams weaves the stories of key participants into a powerful portrait of a movement, from the heady excitement of the early David-versus-Goliath victories through the pain and disillusionment of the later years, when Chavez faltered in the transition from firebrand to union leader.  The Union of Their Dreams is a spellbinding narrative that offers the definitive account of Chavez and the United Farm Workers, a milestone in the struggle for social justice in America.

"In The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement, Miriam Pawel shifts the perspective away from Chávez to highlight eight second-level members of the UFW: Jessica Govea, daughter of a cotton picker who became a member of the union executive board; Jerry Cohen, a young lawyer who ran the UFW legal department; Eliseo Medina, a shy teenage field hand from Zacatecas, Mexico, who rose to become heir apparent to Chávez; Chris Hartmire, a Presbyterian minister who risked life and limb while transforming the California Migrant Ministry into an adjunct of Chávez's union; Sabino Lopez, an irrigator from Jalisco, Mexico, who led a grass-roots revolt within the UFW; Ellen Eggers, an idealistic college student who organized the union's boycott activities; Gretchen Laue, a free spirit looking for meaning; and Sandy Nathan, a Columbia University-trained lawyer writing legal briefs by hand while stuck in a Coachella Valley hole in the wall. Devoted to changing the social order and bringing power to a class of people exploited to the hilt, they—not Chávez—formed the backbone of the union. Their stories are deeply inspiring and profoundly unsettling. Those who know Pawel's work should not be surprised that she digs deep . . . A provocative glimpse into recent history, Pawel's exposé offers deep insight into the nature of mass movements. It is not the last word on Chávez and the UFW."—Richard Steven Street, Los Angeles Times

"In The Union of Their Dreams, Miriam Pawel makes a nuanced appraisal of the late Cesar Chavez, the union leader who helped create what became the United Farm Workers. Ms. Pawel recounts the rise and fall of the UFW through the eyes of eight people who committed themselves to the struggle. Later, they would be pushed aside by Mr. Chavez, who feared losing control. The drumming-out of loyalists conjures up images of Russia's Communist Party exiling true believers in the late 1930s. The author, a 51-year-old journalist who lives in Pasadena, Calif., writes in her preface: 'The history of the United Farm Workers union begins and ends with Cesar Chavez, who had the audacity to single-handedly challenge California's most powerful industry, and the will to keep fighting for three decades. By the time he died in 1993, he stood alone again.' Her explanation of why Mr. Chavez ultimately fostered a movement, rather than a thriving labor union, forms the spine of the newly published nonfiction work."—Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, The Wall Street Journal

"In this sympathetic yet courageously honest narrative, a seasoned reporter presents the history behind the legend of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement. At the same time, Miriam Pawel pays tribute to the dreams of a generation of young Americans dedicated to social justice and the dignity of labor."—Kevin Starr, University of Southern California, author of Golden Dreams and California: A History

"This incisive and sensitive study makes a major contribution to our understanding of Cesar Chavez and the poor people’s movement he led. Moving beyond hagiography and mythology, Miriam Pawel gives new insight into the heroic struggles of some of the ordinary people who committed themselves, against unimaginable odds, to an extraordinary cause. Using an innovative approach based on exhaustive archival research, deeply illuminating oral history interviews, and keen historical judgment, Pawel puts a human face on the triumphs and failures, the tactical successes and setbacks, long-running internal struggles over leadership and direction, and above all, the tremendous courage and dignity of those who toiled in one of the most important social movements of the twentieth century."—David G. Gutiérrez, University of California, San Diego

"The Union of Their Dreams captures in fascinating detail the human stories of diverse people and how they committed themselves to the movement. It also reveals the tensions and dissensions that were a part of the union and its leadership after the early years of its formation. This is an interesting and provocative book that expands our understanding of the union from inside out."—Albert M. Camarillo, Stanford University

"Avoiding polemic or sensationalism, The Union of Their Dreams recounts for the first time how a cult of personality around Cesar Chavez (influenced by the practices of the sinister Synanon organization) ultimately betrayed the courage of the workers in the fields and the trust of a veteran organizing staff. The stories of lost campaigns and internal purges are painful, but they also transmit hugely important lessons about the necessary dialectic of militancy and democracy in labor struggles."—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz

"Miriam Pawel combines the skills of an historian and an investigative reporter to tell the story of the remarkable people upon whose dreams the farm worker movement was established, moved forward, and forever changed the nation."—William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

"Anyone interested in political idealism, trade unions, leadership, mass movements, and even the Barack Obama phenomenon will have much to think about after reading this enthralling account of great accomplishment gained and lost."—Nicholas von Hoffman, author of Hoax and Citizen Cohn

"A revealing celebration of activists in the glory days of a movement for change."—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

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Miriam Pawel is an award-winning reporter and editor who spent twenty-five years working for Newsday and the Los Angeles Times. She was recently an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow and a John Jacobs Fellow at the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.

Praise for The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement…

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“A revealing celebration of activists in the glory days of a movement for change.”—Kirkus

“In this sympathetic yet courageously honest narrative, a seasoned reporter presents the history behind the legend of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement.  At the same time, Miriam Pawel pays tribute to the dreams of a generation of young Americans dedicated to social justice and the dignity of labor.”—Kevin Starr, University of Southern California, author of Golden Dreams and California: A History

“This incisive and sensitive study makes a major contribution to our understanding of Cesar Chavez and the poor people’s movement he led. Moving beyond hagiography and mythology, Miriam Pawel gives new insight into the heroic struggles of some of the ordinary people who committed themselves, against unimaginable odds, to an extraordinary cause.”—David G. Gutiérrez, University of California, San Diego

“The Union of Their Dreams captures in fascinating detail the human stories of diverse people and how they committed themselves to the movement. It also reveals the tensions and dissensions that were a part of the union and its leadership after the early years of its formation. This is an interesting and provocative book that expands our understanding of the union from inside out.”—Albert M. Camarillo, Stanford University

“Avoiding polemic or sensationalism, The Union of Their Dreams recounts for the first time how a cult of personality around Cesar Chavez (influenced by the practices of the sinister Synanon organization) ultimately betrayed the courage of the workers in the fields and the trust of a veteran organizing staff. The stories of lost campaigns and internal purges are painful, but they also transmit hugely important lessons about the necessary dialectic of militancy and democracy in labor struggles.”—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz

“Miriam Pawel combines the skills of an historian and an investigative reporter to tell the story of the remarkable people upon whose dreams the farm worker movement was established, moved forward, and forever changed the nation.”—William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

“Anyone interested in political idealism, trade unions, leadership, mass movements, and even the Barack Obama phenomenon will have much to think about after reading this enthralling account of great accomplishment gained and lost.”—Nicholas von Hoffman, author of Hoax and Citizen Cohn