Matthew Garcia

The early chapters are the best thing I've read on the nuts-and-bolts of the UMW boycotts—arguably the most successful national boycotts in American history. The later two-thirds of the book covers the cannibalization and disintegration of the UFW (in no small part due to outside forces). It is an ugly picture of Cesar Chavez, and taught me that the Chavez-as-MLK hagiography is based on selective history. That's not to say that Chavez wasn't a phenomenal and important leader for much of show more his life, but there's a big part of his legacy that still needs to be wrestled with. show less