Editing Cesar Chavez (section)

==Political views==
{{Quote box
| quote = The men and women who have suffered and endured much and not only because of our abject poverty but because we have been kept poor. The color of our skins, the languages of our cultural and native origins, the lack of formal education, the exclusion from the democratic process, the numbers of our slain in recent wars — all these burdens generation after generation have sought to demoralize us, to break our human spirit. But God knows we are not beasts of burden, we are not agricultural implements or rented slaves, we are men. And mark this well [..] we are men locked in a death struggle against man's inhumanity to man in the industry you represent. And this struggle itself gives meaning to our life and ennobles our dying.
| source=— Cesar Chavez's open letter to the grape industry amid the Grape Strike{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=67}}
| align = right
| width = 25em
}}

Chavez described his movement as promoting "a Christian radical philosophy".{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=155}}
According to Chavez biographer Roger Bruns, he "focused the movement on the ethnic identity of Mexican Americans" and on a "quest for justice rooted in Catholic social teaching".{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=50}} Chavez saw his fight for farmworkers' rights as a symbol for the broader cultural and ethnic struggle for Mexican Americans in the United States.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=57}}

Chavez utilized a range of tactics drawing on Roman Catholic religion, including vigils, public prayers, a shrine on the back of his station wagon, and references to dead farmworkers as "martyrs".{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=409}} His point in doing so was not necessarily to proselytize, but to use the socio-political potential of Christianity for his own campaigns.{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=409}} Most of the farmworkers his union represented shared his Roman Catholicism and were happy to incorporate its religious practices into their marches, strikes, and other UFW activities.{{Sfn|Ospino|2013|p=408}} Chavez called on his fellow Roman Catholics to be more consistent in standing up for the religion's values.{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=409}} He stated that "in a nutshell, what do we want the Church to do? We don't ask for more cathedrals. We don't ask for bigger churches or fine gifts. We ask for its presence with us, beside us, as Christ among us. We ask the Church to sacrifice with the people for social change, for justice, and for love of brother."{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=409}} Ospino stated that "The combination of labor organizing strategies with explicit expressions of Catholic religiosity made Chavez's approach unique" within the U.S. labor movement,{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=407}} although some of his associates, non-Catholics, and other parts of the labor movement were critical of his use of Catholic elements.{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=409}}

Chavez abhorred poverty,{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=195}} regarding it as dehumanizing,{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=415}} and wanted to ensure a better standard of living for the poor.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=195}} He was frustrated that most farmworkers appeared more interested in money and did not appreciate the values that he espoused.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=358}} He was concerned that, as he had seen with the CSO, individuals moving out of poverty often adopted middle-class values; he viewed the middle classes with contempt.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=195}} He recognized that union activity was not a long-term solution to poverty across society and suggested that forming co-operatives therefore might be the best solution.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=195}} In Chavez's view, workers' [[cooperatives]] offered a middle ground economic choice between the failed system of capitalism and the [[state socialism]] of Marxist-Leninist countries.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=196}} His son Paul recalls "My father's basic premise was that capitalism was not going to work because it was too harsh and always took advantage of those least able to defend themselves".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levy |first1=Jacques E. |title=Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa |publisher=University of Minnesota Press}}</ref> He also embraced ideals about communal living, and saw the La Paz commune he established in California as a model for others to follow.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=238}}

Chavez kept a large portrait of Gandhi in his office,{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=60|2a1=Pawel|2y=2014|2p=190}} alongside another of Martin Luther King and busts of both [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Abraham Lincoln]].{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=190}} Influenced by the ideas of Gandhi and King, Chavez emphasized non-violent confrontation as a tactic.{{sfnm|1a1=Bruns|1y=2005|1p=46|2a1=Wells|2y=2009|2p=8}} He repeatedly referred to himself as the leader of the "non-violent Viet Cong", a reference to [[Viet Cong|the Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist militia]] that the U.S. was combating in the Vietnam War.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=260}} He was interested not only in Gandhi's ideas on non-violence but also in the Indian's voluntary embrace of poverty, his use of fasting, and his ideas about community.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=157}} Fasting was important for Chavez.{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=410}} He saw it not as a tactic to pressure his opponents, but rather to motivate his supporters, keeping them focused on the cause and on avoiding violence.{{sfn|Wells|2009|p=8}} He also saw it as a sign of solidarity with the suffering of the people.{{sfn|Ospino|2013|p=411}} Chavez was also interested in Gandhi's ideas about sacrifice, noting that "I like the idea of sacrifice to do things. If they are done that way they are more lasting. If they cost more, then you will value them more."{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=157}}

Apart from Catholic social teaching, the movement of Chavez was also based on [[liberation theology]], emphasizing liberation of the poor and self-sacrifice in the pursuit of justice.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/0008429816654427e |last=Pontoriero |first=Eleanor |year=2016 |title=Book Review: The Political Spirituality of Cesar Chavez: Crossing Religious Borders |journal=Studies in Religion/Sciences |volume=45 |issue=3 |publisher=University of California Press |page=446}}</ref> Liberation theology sought to centralize Catholic faith on the perspective and plight of the excluded, marginalized, poor and oppressed;<ref name="dalton_38">{{cite book |title=The Moral Vision of Cesar Chavez |first=Frederick John |last=Dalton |year=2003 |publisher=Orbis Books |isbn=1-57075-458-6 |pages=38–39}}</ref> basic points of liberation theology was the belief that God speaks directly for and to the poor, and that socioeconomic systems that oppress the poor are morally unacceptable.<ref>{{cite journal |page=41 |title=César Chávez and the Secularization of an American Prophet of Social Reform |url=https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1352&context=cmc_theses |volume=346 |journal=CMC Senior Theses |year=2012 |first=Chelsee Lynn |last=Cox |publisher=Claremont McKenna College}}</ref> [[Gustavo Gutierrez]], who provided much of the theoretical basis for liberation theology, stated that the "theology of liberation represents the right of the poor to think". Frederick John Dalton argues that Chavez was the reflection of liberation theology, writing: "The moral vision of Cesar Chavez is the moral vision of a Mexican-American migrant farm worker and labor organizer with no formal education beyond the eighth grade. It is the moral vision of a man who knew the indignities of being impoverished and excluded. A field laborer of Mexican descent, he experienced life as a nonperson, as little more than an agricultural implement, a cost to be minimized."<ref name="dalton_38"/> Similarly, Mark R. Day, a member of UFW, remarked that "in many ways we were practicing liberation theology in Delano in the late 1960s."<ref>{{cite book |page=151 |title=The Political Spirituality of Cesar Chavez: Crossing Religious Borders |first=Luis D. |last=León |year=2015 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-95948-4}}</ref>

Many of the UFW's protests have been interpreted as representing not only farmworkers but the Mexican-American community more broadly, making a statement that Anglo-Americans must recognize Mexican-Americans as "legitimate players in American life".{{sfn|Wells|2009|p=7}} Chavez saw parallels in the way that African Americans were treated in the United States to the way that he and his fellow Mexican Americans were treated.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=44}} He absorbed many of the tactics that African American civil rights activists had employed throughout the 1960s, applying them to his own movement.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=44}} He was willing to take risks.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=264}} Chavez recognized the impact that his farm-worker campaigns had had on the [[Chicano Movement]] during the early 1970s, although he kept his distance from the latter movement and many of its leaders.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=243}} He condemned the violence that some figures in the Chicano Movement espoused.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=243}}

===On organization and leadership===
Chavez placed the success of the movement above all else;{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=292}} Pawel described him as "the ultimate pragmatist".{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=177}} He felt that he had to be both the leader and the organizer-in-chief of his movement because only he had the necessary commitment to the cause.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=143}} He was interested in power and how to use it; although his role model in this was Gandhi, he also studied the ideas about power by [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], [[Adolf Hitler]], and [[Mao Zedong]], drawing ideas from each.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=157}} His use of purges to expel people from his movement was influenced by Mao's Cultural Revolution,{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=343}} and he opened a June 1978 board meeting by reciting a poem by Mao.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=390}} Chavez repeatedly referred to himself as a community organizer rather than as a labor leader and underscored that distinction.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=115}} He wanted his organization to represent not just a union but a larger social movement.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=100}} He was ambivalent about the national labor movement.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=115}} He personally disliked many of the prominent figures within the American labor movement but, as a pragmatist, recognized the value of working with organized labor groups.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=140}} He opposed the idea of paying wages to those who worked for the union, believing that it would destroy the spirit of the movement.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=281}} He rarely fired people from their positions, but instead made their working situation uncomfortable so that they would resign.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=279}}

Chavez's leadership style was authoritarian;{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=379}} he stated that when he launched his movement, he initially had "total, absolute power" over it.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=378}} Bruns characterized the UFW under Chavez as an "autocratic regime".{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=100}} Ex-members of the group, such as Bustamante and Padilla described Chavez as a dictator within the union.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=430, 431}} Chavez felt unable to share the responsibilities of running his movement with others.{{sfn|Bruns|2005|p=99}} In 1968, Fred Hirsch noted that "one thing which characterizes Cesar's leadership is that he takes full responsibility for as much of the operation as he is physically capable of. All decisions are made by him."{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=179}} Itliong noted that "Cesar is afraid that if he shares the authority with the people [...] they might run away from him."{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=179}} Pawel noted that Chavez wanted "yes-men" around him.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=385}} He divided members of movements such as his into three groups: those that achieved what they set out to do, those that worked hard but failed what they set out to do, and those that were lazy. He thought that the latter needed to be expelled from the movement.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=144}} He highly valued individuals who were loyal, efficient, and took the initiative.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=148}} Explaining his attitudes toward activism, he told his volunteers that "nice guys throughout the ages have done very little for humanity. It isn't the nice guy who gets things done. It's the hardheaded guy."{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=144}} He admitted that he could be "a real bastard" when dealing with movement members;{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=178}} Chavez told UFW volunteers that "I'm a son of a bitch to work with."{{sfn|Pawel|2014|p=341}} He would play different people against each other to get what he wanted, particularly to break apart allies who might form an independent power bloc that would threaten his domination of the movement.{{sfn|Pawel|2014|pp=257, 280}}