History is a multicolored landscape. Through the actions of humanity, beautiful brush strokes leave an array of breath taking hues upon the otherwise blank canvas of the world. Often, tis painting is filled in slowly by each succeeding generation as time marches on at an excruciating gradual pace. There are however exceptions to this rule of thumb. Every so often, a person arises from the masses who dares to paint on their own. These are the people who make history rather than experience it. Cesar Chavez was such an individual. This Mexican American labor organizer and civil rights activist went from being a typical migrant farmer to being the face of the civil rights movement for Hispanic people everywhere in the United States. The book An Organizer’s Tale details the man’s monumental journey through exclusively primary sources such as newspaper articles, speeches, and letters. Whiles this could easily have been nothing but a haphazard conglomeration of information, the arrangement of these writings instead of the tell-tale signs of deliberate organization. Based on their careful layout, these sources paint a picture far more precisely than if had not been so painstakingly placed. All together these articles, speeches, and letter serve as a form of meta narrative of both Cesar Chavez’s extraordinary life and his illustrious career. In the same vein, each different category of primary source seems to tell Chavez’s story from a different perspective. The newspaper writings provide objective chronicling of Cesar Chavez’s organization efforts and represents both the bare bones progression of his causes and the way the average might have viewed the man. His speeches on the other hand offer a more intimate look at the goals he so fervently pursued. Chavez’ orations also provide a narrative revealing the evolution of his views and ideology as he and his followers faced the many adversities on their search for social justice. These would be the window through which one could view how Cesar Chavez’s followers viewed him. Lastly, there are the letters. These by far provide the most personal look into Chavez’s life. They reveal his story through his own eyes, arguably the most important authority on the subject. As individuals, and one of these categories of information could’ve been part of a boring book about Cesar Chavez. Instead, their combination and careful arrangement add up to something far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s beautiful.

It is common knowledge that newspapers are by no means purely objective heralds of information. No matter what the subject, the reporter’s own personal opinions bled into the story one way or another. This would have been especially true in the 1960s and 1970s in which the majority of Cesar Chavez’s organizing efforts took place. During those times, things like racism and sexism were far more normalized than they are today. It would have been easy for reporters to dismiss Chavez and his people’s cause simply because they were Mexican American. It is a testament to the strength of Chavez’s character that they didn’t. The first article in An Organizer’s Tale chronicles the first strike ever organized by Chavez: a strike of grape pickers in Delano, California. There are scant details in the article, furthering the evidence that the newspaper stories serve as the most objective sources of Cesar’s journey. The reporter instead only makes use of detail to draw the reader in rather than to illicit emotion. Another article really illustrates how the everyday American most likely viewed Chavez. The reporter noted their own surprise writing that they had expected “if not a Mexican American Lenin, at least a young, hard, intense man bristling with revolutionary zeal” (40). Much to their surprise, they instead found Chavez to be “a stocky man of forty, about five feet seven, with Indian features, brown skin darkened by television makeup and a pleasant, earnest manner”(40). Despite the prejudices of the day, Chavez was clearly able to endear himself to people to the American people based on this story. In the end, newspaper articles are the smallest kind of source present in the book. This is most likely because of their objective nature. They detail Chavez and La Causa in a way that does not get people easily fired up or motivated. Rather, that is the purpose of his speeches.

If news stories were the minority category of primary source in An Organizer’s Tale, Cesar Chavez’s speeches constitute the vast majority. This is appropriate as Chavez’s speeches are the book’s main vehicle for communicating the many ideals held by Chavez and his followers. These speeches range greatly both in their audiences and subjects but at their cores are still the values of progress and social justice that Cesar embodied. For instance, the vast majority of Chavez’s speeches focused on the organization of migrant farm workers into a single labor union. Through this, Chavez repeated reiterated that this would lead to higher wages and better working conditions for the people who Chavez often deemed “the poorest of the poor”. Chavez’s orations not only explained his ideals, they can also be viewed as evidence of his evolution of a social activist. As time goes on and his organizational efforts are completed with remarkable success, Cesar gradually adopts even more causes in addition in his commitment to Mexican American farm workers. For instance, as his labor activism starts to earn his union more contracts Chavez begins to also condemn the overuse of pesticides present on the ranches on which his union worked. Again, he tied the use of pesticides to the plight of Mexican American workers, citing the many illnesses and birth defects acquired by workers who had adverse run ins with pesticides. Through his speeches, Chavez roused the morals of nation, calling for reform and justice for those who had little more than nothing.

Newspapers and public speaking are well and good, but who exactly was Cesar Chavez when no one else was looking? This is the true measure of a man: the way he conducts himself in private. Cesar Chavez’s private life is portrayed in An Organizer’s Tale through the many letters he wrote during his lifetime. Most of them are professional letters, appealing to ranch owners to give into a strike or thanking union workers for all of their hard work. The letters that really stand out are the ones addressed to Chavez’s longtime friend and mentor Fred Ross. Before meeting Ross, Chavez had been an angry youth, disappointed and outraged at the discrimination he faced every day due to his family’s ancestry. Fred Ross was with an organization known as the Civil Service Organization that was attempting to help Mexican Americans learn English and register to vote. At first, Chavez invited Ross to his home so that he and a bunch of his friends could drive Ross out of town. Much to his surprise, Chavez found himself enthralled by Ross’s approach to organization and dedication to service. This meeting serves as the catalyst for Chavez’s lifetime commitment to organizing. Chavez soon joined the CSO as an organizer with Ross as his mentor. Later, Chavez would leave the CSO to form the National Farm Workers Association (later the United Farm Workers) with Dolores Huerta. All during this time, Chavez kept in constant with Ross via mail. For all the confidence and strength displayed at his rallies and speeches, Chavez lets down his public image when in correspondence with his old friend. He confesses his worries and insecurities with Ross even as he celebrates his successes. Fred, for his part, his always encouraging, even going as far as to use many Spanish word in his letters to Cesar. During these conversations, Chavez is less the monolithic man who stands above the tides of time and more of an actual person. Through these letters, we see Chavez for what he truly is: a human with all the same hopes, dreams, fears, and nightmares as anybody else. It is quite humbling. The book ends with Cesar’s eulogy to Fred Ross. Despite not being a letter, this should be lumped in as it one of Chavez’s most human moments. Throughout the eulogy, Chavez references the many letters shared between the two men during their lifetimes. He ends the eulogy with this: “…I didn’t have the chance to tell him that in addition to training me and inspiring me and being my hero, over forty years he also became my best friend. I shall miss him very much” (233).

Chavez is indisputably one of the greats of history. Most people will go on to live ordinary lives; they will live, die, and be forgotten. But not Chavez. He will not soon be forgotten, and An Organizer’s Tale illustrates this thoroughly and truthfully. Narrative is the source of this brilliant portrayal of Chavez’s accomplishments. The newspaper articles and interviews provide clear cut facts from which the strikes and marches that Chavez led can be clearly organized and recognized. Through these writings, one also can imagine or infer the image that Chavez put up for the media so that he might appeal to the majority of America. To get a feel for the beliefs that Chavez prized, the book includes Chavez’s numerous speeches. Here, the reader learns about the organizer’s ideology and personal philosophy in his own words. In a way, the speeches also serve as milestones for the evolution of Chavez’s creed with every new cause he took up and every new obstacle he encountered. Last but certainly not least, there are the personal letters that Chavez wrote, most of them to Fred Ross. From these, readers do not necessarily gain a better understanding of Chavez’s causes nor his career as labor and community organizer. In these, Chavez is seen at his most vulnerable. His not the co-founder of the United Farm Workers in his letters; he is nothing more than human. There is some comfort in that. Knowing that Chavez is, at his core, not at all inherently different than any other person can be inspiring. The great painting of history is perpetually a work in progress. Ordinary will continually add their small contributions to the masterpiece for all eternity, with the occasional greats of human society stepping up to add entirely new perspective. Through these writings, it can be argued that anyone can become one of these monumental greats the same as Cesar Chavez did. All it takes is hard work and a great deal of organization.