the little strike that grew to la causa

CHAVEZ UNDER PHOTO OF GANDHIAlso Zapata, Nehru and King.have signed; they could be marketedthrough the chain stores that have refusedto handle the produce of struckgrowers. However, any such confusingprocedure is bound to dilute the boycott'seffectiveness.Most of the growers bitterly disputeChavez's contentions. His claim to representthe workers is false, they say;only 3% of California's grape pickershave joined his union. Chavez has notbeen able to strip the fields of workersand, they argue, even if he personallypreaches nonviolence, his followers donot practice it. Packing sheds have beenset afire, foremen threatened, tiresslashed. Chavez also has outside help.Long-haired pickets came down fromBerkeley in the early days of /a hue/ga,and the union gets $14,500 a month ingrants from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and WalterReuther's United Automobile Workers.By insisting that all workers joinhis union, moreover, Chavez wants whatamounts to a closed shop (which is illegalunder the Taft-Hartley Act, butthe act does not apply to agriculturalworkers). This means that, for now atleast, Chavez's goal, however unpalatable,is a legal one. Chavez opposes placingfarm workers under the NationalLabor Relations Board precisely becausethat would make the closed shop heseeks unlawful.The growers of Delano are difficultto cast as villains. Many are self-mademen, Yugoslavs and Italians who cameto the valley between 1900 and 1940with nothing and worked hard to amassTIME, JULY 4, 1969enough capital to practice the grapegrowingarts they learned in Europe.Most of the Delano spreads are familyenterprises, and many of them havehad rough going. Costs have risen sharplyover the past decade, and grape priceshave now begun to decline.The California growers also pay thesecond highest agricultural wages in theU.S. (after Hawaii, where unionizedworkers average $3 an hour).While they generally belittle the extentof his support, however, the growershave gone to some lengths to counterChavez's moves. The anti-U.F.W.O.C.campaign even included for a time agroup called Mothers Against Chavez.The growers are using the J. WalterThompson agency to place $400,000worth of ads extolling the benefits oftable grapes. The California public relationsfirm of Whitaker & Baxter hasbeen retained to advise the growers abouthow to counter the boycott. Whitaker& Baxter helped to manage Richard Nixon'sunsuccessful campaign for governorof California in 1962, and mastermindedthe American Medical Association's attemptto defeat Medicare.On $10 a WeekOne reason for the lack of comprehensionbetween Chavez and thegrowers is that each has different conceptsof the fundamental issue. Thegrowers see themselves as managementin a classic labor dispute, while Chavezand his followers believe that the causeof all Mexican Americans is at stake.That is what inspires Chavez's devotionto /a causa. For years he andhis wife and eight children have livedjammed into a tiny two-bedroom housein Delano, subsisting on $10 a weekfrom the union and on food from thecommunal kitchen in nearby union headquarters.Chavez has grown increasinglyascetic. He has given up casual socializingas well as liquor and cigarettes;his idea of a real treat is aneclectic meal of Chinese food, matzohsand diet soda. The fight has becomehis life. "The days and weeks and monthsrun together," he told TrME CorrespondentRobert Anson. "I can't think backto a time when we were not on strike."Nor does he contemplate surrender tothe growers. "Either the union will be destroyed,"he says, "or they will sign acontract. There's no other alternative."The use of only peaceful means hasbeen central to his thinking since a1953 showdown in the San Joaquin Valleybetween his Mexican-AmericanC.S.O. pickets and a public official. Suddenly,he realized that if there wereany violence or serious disorder it wouldbe his responsibility. He began readingGandhi, and he says now: "If the strikemeans the blood of one grower or onegrower's son, or one worker or one worker'sson, then it isn't worth it."In February 1968, Chavez began a 25­day fast "as an act of penance, recallingworkers to the nonviolent rootsof their movement." Although he insistedthat his decision was essentiallya private one, the fast took on a certaincircus aura and raised suspicionsthat its motivation was more theatricalthan theological. During the fast, Chavezhad to make a court appearance inBakersfield, on charges of improper picketing,in a case that has yet to come totrial. As he did so, 2,000 farm workersknelt outside in prayer. One woman solemnlyasked him if he were indeed asaint. When the fast ended, Senator RobertKennedy knelt next to him to receiveCommunion. Some 8,000 othersjoined them in Delano's MemorialPark for a bread-breaking ceremony.The fast, and Chavez's years of 12­to 16-hour days, took their toll. Last Septemberhe suffered a muscular breakdownin his back-he had been in painfor years before that-and found hislegs nearly paralyzed. After spendingmore than two months in traction, hehas now substantially recovered, but isstill bedridden much of the time. Insteadof spending long hours drivingaround the state, he receives a constantstream of subordinates at his bedside.Chavez's religious conviction mingleswith the exigencies of the movement.He opposes birth control for his people,but only partly out of conventionalCatholicism; he argues that smaller familieswould diminish the numerical powerof the poor. A priest brings him Communiondaily. To Correspondent Ansonhe explained: "God prepares those whohave to suffer and take punishment. Otherwise,how could we exist? How couldthe black man exist? There must besomething special. I really think thatHe looks after us."Cesar Chavez came to his missionfrom a background of poverty and prejudicethat is a paradigm of that ofmany Chicanos. Like most MexicanCHAVEZ ENDING FAST AT MASSIdeas mainly from the encyclicals.19