The Crusades of Cesar Chavez

In her second book on Chavez, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Pawel (The Union of Their Dreams) turns away from the United Farm Workers organization to offer a comprehensive portrait of its founder, a “poor, brown, and homeless” child whose career as a “eccentrically charismatic” community organizer saw him join his idol Gandhi in the pantheon of celebrated nonviolent activists. Chavez, often remembered in murals as a solitary hunger striker, receives greater contextualization by examining his long and complex relationships with his associates, many of whom were interviewed for this work. Some relationships are particularly revealing, as when his own lifelong plea that his followers “refrain from violence” is contradicted by a tolerance of violent activism of his “troublemaker cousin.” Chavez comes across as a shrewd leader with a “willingness to endure” hardship for la causa, yet was also demanding and increasingly authoritarian and suspicious of his colleagues later in his career. Particularly intriguing is Chavez’s little memorialized relationship with the Synanon cult group, from whom he zealously appropriated “authoritarian tactics” of group therapy for his own commune, La Paz, throughout the 1970s. Pawel’s clear, accessible prose befits a subject famous for his plain rhetoric, ensuring a broad readership can appreciate this valuable exploration of Chavez’s unique legacy. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins/Loomis Agency. (Apr.)