The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement

by Miriam Pawel

The rise, fall, and legacy of the inspirational United Farm Workers movement, and the untold story of iconic community organizer Cesar Chavez.

A generation of Americans came of age boycotting grapes, swept up in a movement that vanquished California's most powerful industry and accomplished the dignity and contracts for farm workers. Four decades later, Cesar Chavez's likeness graces postage stamps, and dozens of schools and streets have been renamed in his honor. But the real story of Chavez's farm workers' movement―both its historic triumphs and its tragic disintegration―has remained buried beneath the hagiography.

Drawing on a rich trove of original documents, tapes, and interviews, Miriam Pawel chronicles the rise of the UFW during the heady days of civil rights struggles, the antiwar movement, and student activism in the 1960s and '70s. From the fields, the churches, and the classrooms, hundreds were drawn to la causa by the charismatic Chavez, a brilliant risk-taker who mobilized popular support for a noble cause. But as Miriam Pawel shows, the UFW was ripped apart by the same man who built it, as Chavez proved unable to make the transition from movement icon to union leader. Pawel traces the lives of several key members of the crusade, using their stories to weave together a powerful portrait of a movement and the people who made it.

A tour de force of reporting and a spellbinding narrative, The Union of Their Dreams explores an important and untold chapter in the history of labor, civil rights, and immigration in modern America.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Labor, Politics, Memoir, Biography, Agriculture

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Miriam Pawel is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who spent 25 years as a reporter and editor at Newsday and the Los Angeles Times before becoming an author and independent historian. For more information about Miriam, background on "The Union of Their Dreams," photos and audio clips, check out http://www.unionoftheirdreams.com

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miriam Pawel's Union of their dreams is a must read for so many reasons, but if you aren't versed in the history of Cesar Chavez, the UFW (United Farm Workers) and the struggle of Chicano farm workers (like I was not) it may require some additional research.

The book is ambitious. Pawel is telling eight personal stories. Within those stories she is describing an epic triumph and tragedy of a movement and of a man, and that epic is woven through the dry complexities of legal tactics, court cases, corporate negotiations and contracts. But, despite the complexities, I think that by the end the reader is carried through by the compelling personal sagas.

Pawel succeeds in opening a window onto the lives of people dedicated to a movement that changed world history economically, socially, and politically. She succeeds in demonstrating the monumental joy and tragedy of idealistic causes in that era of idealistic causes. And, she succeeds in showing us that a man named Cesar Chavez was in the end also just a man. For those who have followed the movement, there are fresh perspectives and probably new revelations.

However, for the less well informed, there just doesn't seem to be enough space to give full substance to many of the events. For example, Pawel shows us how Chavez was flawed but not why he was deified. I was young and far away from California when Chavez staged his strikes and boycotts, but when I watched the PBS special The Struggle In The Fields, it is easy to see that Cesar Chavez was an inspirational figurehead for the Chicanos similar to Martin Luther King, jr. or Mahatma Gandhi for their people and that his charisma spread across the nation and beyond our borders. I just didn't get that from the book.

Another slight, probably due to scope, was the meager references to Dolores Huerta who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Chavez.

Despite the occasional abbreviations, Pawel told a story of eight people who matter to the world and to the reader.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty brutal look at the UFW and Cesar Chavez. I had been partial to an almost flawless portrait of the labor leader and though much of it is still intact after reading this book, it paints a pretty searing portrait of the man - especially in how he treated loyal staff who had sacrificed much of their lives to La Causa. If you don't know much about UFW, I don't know if this is the place to start - it is hard to come away from the book without feelings of outrage, yet it is important to remember that this movement, as flawed and self-wounding as it was, took a group of workers who worked essentially in slavery and shined a spotlight on the fields, leading to immense change. As with any movement, it did not solve the root problem - and in fact in recent years, many of the problems have returned to the fields with new populations working to provide vegetables and fruit to our supermarkets - but the book often focuses on the failures of UFW far more frequently than successes. Perhaps this is a function of the overly glowing biographies that make up most literature about Chavez - and in terms of opening up the eyes of the reader to some of the repugnant practices in the movement, I think it is important.

Lastly, as someone who works in the labor movement, it was sad yet simultaneously strangely gratifying to read about much of the infighting that went on in this movement - that it achieved so much despite the natural predilection for human flaws to get in the way of communal action is a fascinating study. At one point, a character makes the point that movements do not always get the minute or the immediate correct, but it is deemed successful if the overall trajectory is beneficial. It is a slippery slope, certainly - and this book I think is useful in peeling back the veneer from the La Causa (or whatever cause it may be), reminding those of us involved in movements to never forget the impact on individual lives as well as the impact on the group as a whole.

[Ronald Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Chavez will forever remain an iconic leader. From his activism timeline of 1952-1993 the struggle was on to raise the living standards for so many. United Farm workers have a strong foundation today because Cesar and his leadership teams built the movement. Nothing good is ever done without adversity and reading this book you will find out about the barriers UFW had to deal with inside and outside the Union as the rising tide lifted all boats.

"Keep the children stupid and we will always have our cheap labor supply. Keep them stupid, and we will always have them for our needs."

Find out about the Mexican and Filipino merger on the prized commodity. And the battles between the Teamsters and the UFW.

Mr Chavez believed that the Union has a responsibility to the membership to change the quality of life.

Find out about the two Germans, Boycott and Huelga.

"It is our sweat, our backs, our muscle that have made the farmers of the Imperial Valley the rich men they are today."

There is so much more in this well written book about the conditions in the fields with none of the basic protections and rights afforded almost all other workers in the USA.

We are all reaping the benefits today of the UFW in the food we eat and the struggle will forever continue.

[Ajk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this detailed look at the UFW and Chavez's lieutenants in particular. It could be a bleak read at times, and if anything it handles Chavez a bit too softly (especially when he starts hanging out with a cult and asking why the union can't be more like the cult), it was an eye-opening read into a fascinating part of California history.
My only real critique is that the "telling it from many individuals' perspectives" didn't really work with my schedule, because I often got individuals mixed up. But that goes to show me for reading a history book at a "20 pages every three days" pace.
In terms of making heroes into well-rounded people, and making well-rounded people into heroes, this book is amazing. So many fascinating, complex, characters – the way the writer went through their personal archives to flesh out their interests, dreams, and desires was remarkable.
This was a really great work in terms of research and cohering everything to a narrative. If anything, I wish I had a bit more context for everything. But again, that's as much on me (if not moreso) than the writer.

[Kevin F · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed account of the organizing work of Cesar Chavez as well as the people in his orbit. Chavez's eventual decline is hinted and foreshadowed throughout the book, and seems to be the main focus of this telling. While Chavez has the charisma and dedication needed to form the union and inspire farm workers to believe they can ask for a better life, his administrative and leadership abilities are poor overall, and his reach exceeds his grasp when moving union HQ to La Paz and forming something of a quasi-religious movement out of the union. Hidden among this tale are the bright spots of some of the rank-and-file farm workers, immigrants like Eliseo Medina who were inspired by Chavez despite it all and went on to do great things.

[Jesus Galindo · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone deeply entrenched in union work, particularly in the complex and often politically charged realm of organizing educators in a post-COVID world, I found this book exceptionally resonant.

"The Union of Their Dreams" is an indispensable read for anyone involved in or interested in the intricacies of union organizing. It educates, inspires, and, most importantly, echoes the complexities and triumphs of bringing people together for a common cause against all odds.

[Alessandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

a humanizing portrait of the people within the farm worker movement
exploring the complications of transforming a social movement into institutionalized change, in particular the internal and external disconnect that began once they could not commit to becoming a union vs. a movement

[Austin Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good lil history book, would have liked to delve more into organizing philosophy and structure but I think Pavel accomplished the goal well. Telling the story of the farm worker movement through a few different perspectives and positions presented a full picture from top leadership to laborer.

[Paul Wilner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tough but thorough and well reported look at what went wrong in an organization that was founded to do what's right.

[Robert Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for basic info about movement which I was doing for research. Dosen't read well.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Union of Their Dreams by Miriam Pawel is an examination of the United Farm Workers (UFW) rise as a economic and political force as an agricultural union in California in the 1960s and 1970. This book takes as its premise that the often glowing accounts of the UFW, which focus mainly on the personality of its founder Cesar Chavez, tell an incomplete and inaccurate story of the union. Pawel’s premise is that while Chavez accomplish med much, much more could have been accomplished if it was not for Chavez’s management style and seemingly paranoia about people in the union who would actually betray its ideals.
Pawel’s method of unfolding her story is by focusing on various people who eventually became disaffiliated from the union, mostly through the use of purges of union leadership. Through the use of interviews of eight former members who were all victims of these purges, Pawel pieces together an alternative vision of the rise of the UFW that is not expressed in standard accounts of the UFW.
There are a number of important contributions that Pawel has made to the often complex picture that has become the UFW. First, she shows the dynamic group of people who were all part of the union’s rise. By not focusing solely on Chavez, Pawel shows how a whole group of people,- idealist lawyers and college students, ministers, and farm workers- contributed to the often startling successes of the UFW. In addition, she does not hesitate to show Chavez in solely glowing terms. This account gives a more realistic picture to the person of Cesar Chavez.
However, this positive also becomes a negative. This book should also not be seen as an objective account of the UFW. Rather, it has its own understanding and biases which are shown through her methodology. All of her primary sources are people who, in one way or another, feel that they were victims of these purges. In other words, her sources are not wholly objective either. A far different account of the union would be shown if she included in her sources others who were not disaffiliated with the union. However, I do not believe that this is her purpose for the book. It is not to provide an objective account, but rather an account from a certain point of view.
In addition, there are two aspects of her writing that I find problematic. First, is the way the various chapters are broken up. Rather then being told in a narrative form, the chapters are broken by the person speaking. This way of writing was at times confusing with characters coming in and out of the story at various times. From an organization standpoint, I found this extremely confusing. From a standpoint of respecting each individuals distinctive voice it is commendable. In this case, I would have preferred clarity however. Second, there is one serious act which I find to be more on gossip mongering then actual reporting. Pawel’s account of the death of Cleofas Guzman insinuates that Cesar Chavez had wanted his death is startling. Providing nothing but rumors her account seemed to wallow in the rumors of people who she did not speak to nor could their account be evenly remotely proved. It seemed that rather then just tell the account of former union members, Pawel also desired to denounce a person for the sake of denouncing them.
Would I recommend this book? My answer is maybe. I would not recommend it for a person who knows nothing about Chavez or the union. The book, while not focusing on Chavez, also focuses a lot on Chavez. Other members of the leadership and their part in the union are barely mentioned or within a completely one-sided way, most important would be Delores Huerta. I would recommend this book if one has some familiarity with the union and its various accounts. I believe that a person would need to have some background in the general development of the union before one reads this book.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miriam Pawel presents an incomplete but illuminating history of the United Farm Workers (UFW) from 1965 through 1989. The book focuses tightly on the experiences of eight people in the movement, including boycott organizers, attorneys, a minister, and farmworkers who became team leaders and union organizers. Although Cesar Chavez is a dominant figure in the story, he is presented at a distance, always through others' eyes, and Pawel spends virtually no time explaining his background. For the reader, as for the focal characters, Chavez' leadership and legendary status is a given from the outset. This stylistic choice makes it easier to grasp how, for so long, movement and union members could defer to Chavez and overlook his flaws, while giving greatly of themselves to realize his dreams.

For students of advocacy movements, the central lesson of the story is that Chavez was a charismatic and idealistic movement leader, and a terrible administrator. Once the movement won -- institutionalizing, through state legislation in 1975, the right of workers to form a union -- Chavez should have stepped away from the fledgling UFW, turning it over to the gifted organizers and managers he had recruited. That would have freed him to build new movements -- a broad campaign for poor people, a utopian spiritual community, a community services organization. Instead, Chavez tried to have it all, refusing to hand over control of the union, but neglecting union business to pursue a series of experimental initiatives. The story Pawel tells is a tragedy -- for Chavez, who destroyed much of what he had built and turned on staff who loved him; for the farmworkers, many of whom lost contracts they had fought hard to win; and especially for committed union staffers forced out in a series of emotionally brutal purges.

While this book will benefit anyone interested in labor or advocacy movements, it has too narrow a focus to serve as the definitive account of the entire UFW. For example, Dolores Huerta comes across in this book as Cesar Chavez' hatchet woman, though she has had a distinguished career in Sacramento as a lobbyist for workers. Richard Chavez, Cesar's brother, comes across as a Cassandra who repeatedly warns Cesar against his mistakes but is ignored. The book is simply silent on Richard and Dolores' long-running relationship, which could hardly be overlooked in a book that wanted to address all facets of the UFW's history. In later chapters, Chavez' son Paul and son-in-law Arturo Rodriguez climb to leadership positions in the union, but are never sketched with any depth. The book also gives little sense of how the union has evolved since Cesar Chavez' unexpected death in 1993 (although Pawel published a long and highly critical article on that in the Los Angeles Times in 2006). Pawel has little to say about the theory of organizing, another dimension of the story that would have been interesting to understand better. But, with respect to its purpose -- capturing the experience of working for Cesar Chavez during the UFW's initial rise and fall -- the Union of Their Dreams does an excellent job.

[Stuart Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Union of Their Dreams is one of the best books about workers that I have read in recent years.

The book is not a biography of Cesar Chavez or a history of the United Farmworkers. Rather it is a collective biography of eight people who jointed the farm workers movement and played important roles in the movement.

They include Eliseo Medina who was recently elected Secretary-Treasurer of the SEIU, making him the highest ranking Mexican-American in the US labor movement.

At a book talk at Watermark Books in Wichita, Pawel described the United Farm Workers as “last great social movement in the country, it changed live in the farm workers in the field and those who worked in the movement...” She added “one of Chavez's great achievements was to bring visibility to a class of workers who had before been invisible, excluded from all labor law legislation. His crusades and boycotts brought them into public consciousness.”

Her book tells the story of how Chavez imposed techniques from the human potential movement, especially the controversial “game” from the controversial Synanon group and demanded that the UFW remain a movement powered by volunteers. Others, including Eliseo Medina, wanted the UFW to concentrate on bread-and-butter union issues of winning better wages and working conditions and empowering rank-and-file union members.

The path chosen by the charismatic Chavez, in Pawel's view, led to the stagnation and decline of the UFW. “The UFW today if a very small union, which is really more of a Hispanic lobbying organization,” Pawel said

“Chavez has never been examined in his totaltiy, he has been relegated to a saintly position that does neither him or the cause any good... there are lessons about what to do if you are in an organization and there is something going wrong when do you speak up, how do you preserve democracy in an organization and still get things done,” Pawel said.

Pawel said that she hopes the stories in Union of Their Dreams will inspire and inform a new generation of activists for farmworkers. She pointed to the current exciting work by FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee), an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, and the Coalition of Immakolee Workers.

To learn more about the book and for additional materials, including historical photos and recordings, be sure to visit the book's website.

[Sal Valdez · Rating 5 out of 5]

started this book a couple of days ago and it is hard for me to put it down. so far it has been a mesmerizing story. of course it helps me that i got to meet Cesar Chavez personally and that I have worked with Eliseo Medina, one of the central figures in the book and in the UFW during the strike years.
finished this book today; 8.21.12. a hard action yet critical look at Cesar and the union he built. through the initial strikes to the fierce boycotts in cities all over the nation, through the passge of Agrcultural Labor Relations board. And finally into hid a=dabbling into Synanon and the internal purges that decimated the union and led to its demnise. A hard read for myths are shattered here and in the end we are left with Cesar an extraordinary man but a hunan nonetheless with strenghths and weaknesses just like any one of us.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good history book for people who don't like to read history books. It's written more like a novel than a text book so it should be pretty accessible to anyone who has even a passing interest in the farm worker movement in the US. It will be hard for anyone to read this book without feeling a full range of emotions from depression to anger to joy. The author gives a side of the story which is often left unheard. All too often we only hear Chavez's story. In my experience most people don't even know what the United Farm Workers was or is but if you bring up Cesar Chavez they immediately remember.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC received through the First Reads giveaway program.

This was an interesting look at the people behind the farm worker movement. The writer blends history and journalism techniques, lending a personal feel to the story. For the first half of the book, I found this very hard to follow (especially since I don't know much about Cesar Chavez or the UFW). By the second half, however, I was riveted.

This is an informative book that really humanizes the major players in the movement. I'd suggest some background information first, though. I'm curious to know how Chavez got started.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really proud to have worked on this book -- it's an amazing story. For obvious reasons, the basic UFW narrative you get in a school textbook is one of triumph -- and what they accomplished was important. But it could have been so much more. Regardless of the politics, the story that Miriam tells, braiding eight lives around the central push of the Union's peak years from the late 60s to the early 80s, is incredibly compelling even if you aren't an activist or a friend of labor. I don't want to sound like a shill, but this book is eminently worth your time and rubles.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm only half way through this book and it is fascinating. As someone who is an organizer and has seen behind the curtain, it's good to read about other organizations and their own struggles.

I will be looking for critical responses to this book as it doesn't paint Chavez in the best light, but one I can only hope is an honest look at a man who became a movement. And what that means when one person becomes "the organization."

[Antdugl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I rate a book based not on whether I agree with it, but based on how much it makes me think and ponder. This book rates among the highest I've read for a long time, because it touches on all the key issues that continue to plague the labor movement. And I'll take an author with a little bit of animus over hagiography any day. This book is definitely a must-read for everyone involved in the labor movement today.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hooray for a book that provides an outlet for so many voices and which paints a realistic image of an important historical figure.

The voices in Pawel's book could surely have written this themselves--but the way Pawel weaves their stories together is what makes this a book, a testament to a life, a new way of seeing Chavez that at once sheds more light on the farm workers movement (both the good and the bad for the people involved), but on Chavez and his personal life as well.

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm off to a slow start, but by no way a fault of the story or writing. Very approachable and fluid so far.

Good approach to conveying a lot of factual information, as well as giving the reader a view into the process and feelings of the people involved

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to receive this book in a Goodreads giveaway. The author uses the main leaders in the movement as a vehicle to tell its history, which made history seem more personal. By the end of the book, I felt as though I had met each of them personally.

[Jan Tucker]

This book confirmed much of what I knew about the United Farmworkers, filled in a lot of details, and provides valuable lessons for any organizational leader about what to do and especially, what to avoid.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very painful (for me) internal history of the United Farm Workers union. Things were apparently worse than I thought. I am hoping there is another side to it. Well written and researched, though...

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't really finish it. Fine for what it is (interviews of several activists around Chavez), although didn't give even brief necessary timelines or backstory to the movement. Found something more useful for my needs in Mooney and Majka's -Farmers' and Farm Workers' Movements-.

[Connie]

Very interesting. Never knew Cesar Chavez was such a jerk to his own committed followers. How sad.

[Gabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and tragic- kinda like my tenure in the labor movement

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rather sobering examination of a not often asked question... "what the heck happened to the United Farm Workers?"
Important lessons for anyone in the social justice, labor rights world.

[Carol Rugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complicated portrait of a leader and a movement that swept through the lives of thousands of people, mine included. A poignant depiction of the duplicity of man.