Frank Bardacke
The slogan â€œYes we canâ€â€”in the form â€œÂ¡SÃ­ Se Puede!â€â€”doesnâ€™t originate with Barack Obamaâ€™s 2008 presidential campaign. It goes back more than four decades to the heyday of the United Farm Workers, an organization that at its height won many labor victories, secured collective bargaining rights for California farm workers and became a major voice for the Latino community, which was previously excluded from national politics. The UFW was once a transformative political force of a kind now largely lost in contemporary America. ,Trampling Out the Vinta,ge is the authoritative account of the rise and fall of the United Farm Workers and its most famous and controversial leader, Cesar Chavez. Based on many years of interviewsâ€”with farm workers, organizers, and the opponents and friends of the UFWâ€”the book tells a story of collective action and empowerment rich in evocative detail and stirring human interest. Beginning with the influence of the ideas of Saul Alinsky and Catholic Social Action at the unionâ€™s founding, through the UFWâ€™s thrilling triumphs in the California fields, the drama concludes with the debilitating internal struggles that left the union a shadow of its former self. ,A vivid rendering of farm work and the world of the farm worker, ,Trampling Out the Vintage, is a dramatic reappraisal of the political trajectory of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and an essential re-evaluation of their most tumultuous years.
History,Labor,Nonfiction,Social Issues,Activism,Politics,United States,The United States Of America,Biography
Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers