![]() ![]() He got people to believe in themselves-those whom almost no one considered very important, giving them faith that they could challenge and overcome one of California’s richest industries. He made everyone believe their jobs were important, from attorneys to cooks. Wasn’t that what he wanted for farm workers too: the chance to negotiate with their employers as equals across the bargaining table-so they wouldn’t have to just take orders all their lives?Ĭesar said that his job as an organizer was helping ordinary people do extraordinary things. ![]() Thousands more credit the experience and training of working with Cesar and the United Farm Workers for lives of social activism and professional success. He gave hundreds opportunities that no one would have offered him when he was a young migrant worker with an eighth-grade education. ![]() He wanted office results but saw the greater good of helping people fulfill their dreams-dreams some didn’t even know they had at the time. If he spotted talented young people, especially if they were farm workers, he’d convince them that they could be accountants, administrators or attorneys. Sometimes he’d give up assistants or secretaries. People often ask for insights about Cesar. The President said he looked forward to reading it. It was an honor when UC Press asked me to write a new foreword for the re-issued Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution, Peter Matthiessen’s moving 1960s portrait that helped inspire director Diego Luna’s just-released movie Cesar Chavez.Īs part of a whirlwind cross-country tour of special screenings of the film, I met and briefly spoke with President Obama at the White House and left a copy of Matthiessen’s book. Marc Grossman (left), with Cesar Chavez in 1975 Grossman wrote the foreword to UC Press’s new reissue of Peter Matthiessen’s 1969 book, Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can). To commemorate the March 31 birthday of Cesar Chavez, we offer some perspectives on the man from his longtime spokesman, speechwriter and personal aide, Marc Grossman, who knew the civil rights and farm labor icon for the last 24 years of his life and still serves as communications director for the Cesar Chavez Foundation.
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