Each of this week’s readings explores Mexican-American

Each of this week’s readings explores Mexican-American radicalism during the 1960s Chicano Movement. The first article covers the life and times of Cesar Chavez, founder and leader of the United Farm Workers (UFW). Chavez became nationally known for his work on behalf of empowering Mexican Americans in California and throughout the nation by winning recognition of their economic rights through the UFW in the farmworkers’ struggle (La Lucha). Chavez is often hailed as a leader of civil rights as well as labor struggles and the reading contrasts his goals with those of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as of 1968. The second reading explores the cultural and political work of Luis Valdez, a filmmaker, screen writer, actor, and founder of El Teatro Campesino, an important farmworkers’ theater group that supported the work of Chavez in California. Here Valdez is interviewed about the development of his strategies, perceptions, and interests.Choose either reading to assess synthesizing the historical significance of that individual within the given regional and national context. Analyze his goals and effectiveness in advocacy and leadership on behalf of Chicanas/os, as well as his impact within the larger activist struggle of Mexican Americans of that era.