Synthesis Essay – Cesar Chavez
MSgt Michael R. Chacon
Air Force Noncommissioned Officer Academy Cesar Chavez
When you hear the phrase “Hope and change” who comes to mind? What about “It is not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?” Finally, who do you think of when you hear “Si Se Puede?” Spanish for “Yes, it can be done,” the phrase is attributed to the Visionary and Ethical Leader, Cesar Chavez. Through his transformational leadership and inspirational motivation, Cesar led a movement across the United States to bring about social change for migrant farm workers in California. He called his movement “La Causa” or “The Cause” and used honorable strategies to transform their struggle into a …show more content…
Visionary Leader
A first-generation American, Caesar Chavez was born in 1927 outside Yuma, Arizona. At age 11, his family lost their farm during the Great Depression and were forced to become migrant farm workers in California (A&E Television Networks, LLC; 2017). Throughout his youth and into adulthood, this visionary leader would labor in the fields, orchards and vineyards throughout the state, and be exposed to the conditions he would dedicate his life to changing- appalling migrant camps, corrupt labor contractors, meager wages for farm workers, and racism. In the 1950s, he began a career in community organizing when he was recruited into the Community Service Organization or CSO which the most prominent and militant Latino civil rights group of the time (Cesar Chavez Foundation, 2012). Cesar spent 10 years with CSO, coordinating voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives and leading campaigns against racial and economic discrimination. In the Full Range Leadership lesson, it states that transformational leadership requires a leader to …show more content…
In the “Ethical Leadership” lesson, Dr. James Toners identifies one of the “Three O’s of Ethical Principles” as “owe-ing”, specifically that we owe others respect by treating them with dignity. Before “La Causa”, migrants were tired of being treated like disposable farm tools. They were tired of being cheated out of their meager wages. They were tired of being stripped of dignity. Cesar Chávez believed these people were “owed” respect and for thirty years he tenaciously dedicated his life to supporting it. Through marches, strikes and boycotts, he showed that treating others with respect and dignity was a matter of human decency. The movement he inspired succeeded in uniting them in their struggle by giving them a voice and empowering them to believe they mattered. Within the Critical Thinker lesson we also learned that “all reasoning leads somewhere” and that it has “implications and, when acted upon has consequences.” Cesar Chavez understood this trait by knowing that the use of violence to achieve goals within “La Cuasa” would ultimately end up hurting it. According to the book The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement, he said “Nonviolence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak…Nonviolence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win”. Through this, he was
MSgt Michael R. Chacon
Air Force Noncommissioned Officer Academy Cesar Chavez
When you hear the phrase “Hope and change” who comes to mind? What about “It is not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?” Finally, who do you think of when you hear “Si Se Puede?” Spanish for “Yes, it can be done,” the phrase is attributed to the Visionary and Ethical Leader, Cesar Chavez. Through his transformational leadership and inspirational motivation, Cesar led a movement across the United States to bring about social change for migrant farm workers in California. He called his movement “La Causa” or “The Cause” and used honorable strategies to transform their struggle into a …show more content…
Visionary Leader
A first-generation American, Caesar Chavez was born in 1927 outside Yuma, Arizona. At age 11, his family lost their farm during the Great Depression and were forced to become migrant farm workers in California (A&E Television Networks, LLC; 2017). Throughout his youth and into adulthood, this visionary leader would labor in the fields, orchards and vineyards throughout the state, and be exposed to the conditions he would dedicate his life to changing- appalling migrant camps, corrupt labor contractors, meager wages for farm workers, and racism. In the 1950s, he began a career in community organizing when he was recruited into the Community Service Organization or CSO which the most prominent and militant Latino civil rights group of the time (Cesar Chavez Foundation, 2012). Cesar spent 10 years with CSO, coordinating voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives and leading campaigns against racial and economic discrimination. In the Full Range Leadership lesson, it states that transformational leadership requires a leader to …show more content…
In the “Ethical Leadership” lesson, Dr. James Toners identifies one of the “Three O’s of Ethical Principles” as “owe-ing”, specifically that we owe others respect by treating them with dignity. Before “La Causa”, migrants were tired of being treated like disposable farm tools. They were tired of being cheated out of their meager wages. They were tired of being stripped of dignity. Cesar Chávez believed these people were “owed” respect and for thirty years he tenaciously dedicated his life to supporting it. Through marches, strikes and boycotts, he showed that treating others with respect and dignity was a matter of human decency. The movement he inspired succeeded in uniting them in their struggle by giving them a voice and empowering them to believe they mattered. Within the Critical Thinker lesson we also learned that “all reasoning leads somewhere” and that it has “implications and, when acted upon has consequences.” Cesar Chavez understood this trait by knowing that the use of violence to achieve goals within “La Cuasa” would ultimately end up hurting it. According to the book The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement, he said “Nonviolence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak…Nonviolence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win”. Through this, he was