The Words of Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez's relentless campaign for social justice for farm workers and laborers in the United States marked a milestone in U.S. history. Through his powerful rhetoric and impassioned calls to action, Chavez transformed as well as persuaded and inspired his audiences. In this first published anthology, Richard J. Jensen and John C. Hammerback present Chavez in his own terms. Through this collection of words and analysis of his major speeches and writings, Jensen and Hammerback reveal the rhetorical qualities and underlying rhetorical dynamics of a master communicator. They also offer a rich source of the history of the farm workers' movement that Chavez led from the early 1960s to his death in 1993. The Words of Cesar Chavez offers an important new resource for scholars of public discourse, Chicano studies, and Chavez himself. It complements the authors' earlier study, The Rhetorical Career of Cesar Chavez, by providing the primary materials for that rhetorical profile of Chavez. Through his own words, Jensen and Hammerback present Chavez doing what he did best: teaching and influencing audiences who would enact his agenda to create a new and better world.