Cesar's Last Fast

Gr 9 Up—In the summer of 1988, Cesar Chavez, cofounder of the United Farm Workers union, undertook a water-only fast that would last for 36 days. His fast was a penance, he felt, for not doing enough to halt the spraying of pesticides that damaged the well-being of agricultural workers. Using the fast as a framing device, directors Richard Ray Perez and Lorena Parlee have created a moving biographical study of a man who inspired united action on the part of uniformly poor, mostly Mexican American farm workers and who simultaneously brought the plight of agricultural workers to the forefront of American consciousness. He was deeply grounded in his own experience as the child of migrant workers and informed on the spiritual level by Native American practices, which required sacrifice of their leaders. A riveting précis on the history of the union, the film is vastly enhanced by interviews with Dolores Huerta, Martin Sheen, Luis Valdez, and Chavez's family. The bittersweet ending notes that despite the work of the UFW, little has changed for agricultural workers. Due to large growers and government indifference, field work remains grueling, the pay miserable, the living conditions barely tolerable, and life expectancy short. Students may well reflect on the cost of real change while being inspired by Chavez's single-minded focus on justice. An excellent choice for curricula addressing civil rights.—Ann Welton, Helen B. Stafford Elementary, Tacoma, WA