Analysis Of Cesar Chaves 'Letter From Delano'

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The sixties is characterized as one key periods of times in which several minorities achieved a so long awaited equality in a society that by so many years was oppressive towards minority groups. It is sad to recognized that a great period of the history of the U.S. is characterized by a great barrier that the white society stablished to separate itself from many races. Although events such as the emancipation proclamation which abolished former slavery in the whole country, it did not help destroying the racial discrimination that kept the country from really coming together as a whole. Fortunately, during the birth of the “Civil rights Movement", the country finally stated to made real progress to wards an equal society. The civil Rights …show more content…
As a Latin American, understanding the struggles as well as the comping of age of my community is always a main point of interest. The most infamous civil rights activist in the Latin American Community to ever have live was Cesar Chaves. What makes Chaves such an enigmatic figure is the fact that he borrowed the same principles and tactics that the African American Community employed in their demonstrations. In the document “Letter From Delano”, Chaves expresses his disappointment with Mr. Barr which at the time was the president of the California Grape and Tree Fruit league and accused his movement to be a violent one. It is in his response that we see how deeply influenced he was by the previous movement. As a former Martin Luther King Jr. disciple, Cesar based his movement tactics on what he had learned , it is by that reason that once he was accused he stated in the letter “If what you say is true, I have been a failure and should withdrawn from the struggle”(Foner pg.295) clearly assuring that the movement had employed non-violent tactics. by citing Mr. KIng’s words on how injustice must be exposed he explained how his movement employed every possible tactic that would expose the harsh conditions that migrant workers where exposed in a brutal industry. The first section of the letter is where Cesar explained how violence was the last thing that he ever wanted to see in his movement, however he did warned Barr to retract from his charges by saying: “If For any reason you fail to come forth to substantiate your charges, then you must be held responsible for committing violence agains us, albeit violence of the tongue:(Foner pg. 295),what makes this statement so significant is the fact that threats would not be brought by the latino community instead, the opposing faction would bring the punishment upon itself. As it was seen in the the civil rights, most

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