Sal si puedes;: Cesar Chavez and the new American revolution [Paperback]

Peter Matthiessen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1973

In the summer of 1968 Peter Matthiessen met Cesar Chavez for the first time. They were the same age: forty-one. Matthiessen lived in New York City while Chavez lived in Sal Si Puedes, the San Jose barrio where his career as a union organizer took off. This book is Matthiessen's panoramic yet finely detailed account of the three years he spent traveling and working with Chavez. In it, Matthiessen provides a candid look into the many sides of this enigmatic and charismatic leader who lived by the laws of nonviolence.
More than thirty years later, Sal Si Puedes is less reportage than living history. A whole era comes alive in its pages: the Chicano, Black Power, and antiwar movements; the browning of the labor movement; Chavez's series of hunger strikes; the nationwide boycott of California grapes. When Chavez died in 1993, thousands gathered at his funeral. It was a clear sign of how beloved he was, how important his life had been.
A new postscript by the author brings the reader up to date as to the events that have unfolded since the writing of Sal Si Puedes. Ilan Stavans's insightful foreword considers the significance of Chavez's legacy for our time. As well as serving as an indispensable guide to the 1960s, this book rejuvenates the extraordinary vitality of Chavez's life and spirit, giving his message a renewed and much-needed urgency.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cesar Chavez . . . is gracefully revealed by Peter Matthiessen as a curiously private public figure who is in love with people."--"Chicago Tribune" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

"Reading this book becomes an act of self-confrontation, for Peter Matthiessen has made it clear that Cesar Chavez's battle is not only for the agricultural workers but for the redemption of the country. In illuminating the intactness of this one man, Matthiessen provides a measure for the rest of us."--Nat Hentoff --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 394 pages
• Publisher: Random House; Revised edition (1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394484924
• ISBN-13: 978-0394484921
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,478,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sal Si Puedes means Escape If You Can, June 20, 2001

By 

MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can): Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution (Paperback)

Am forever indebted to my mentor Bea Brickey for getting me involved with the United Farm Worker union locally, and for instilling in me the importance of getting involved and living by Christ's motto that what you do to the least of them you do to Christ.

The book begins with a reminder form Cesar Chavez himself, who said in 1992 two years before his death that "The rich have money, the poor have time". The reader is reminded that patience was his tool of success.

The book is just shy of 400 pages and is a humbling as well as an energizing read. The title Sal Si Puedes is from the San Jose barrio where Chavez' farm workers union work was birthed. The book was begun with a three year stint the author had in the late 70's with Chavez with much appreciated postscript that brings the reader up to date with the events that incurred since the 60's and 70's.

Bea would spend hours passing on the wisdom that Chavez and the other UFW activists had taught her. How she and her husband were often taunted by San Joaquin farmers and called commies and pinkos and how Chavez and the other UFW workers who simply wanted decent working conditions and a living wage were taunted like this as well. How migrant workers were/are exposed to high pesticide levels and that in one breath the farmers denounce the "slave" labour workers for wanting decent housing and wages, while bemoaning the fact that they can't find American who will do the damn stoop labour for slave wages.

This is a book I am passing on to a lot of people, since I believe it is so important that we as citizens, stand up for what is right and that sometimes people have to have their comfort levels challenged.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do you really want to escape?, June 2, 2004

By 

michael chavez (lakewood ,ca usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution (Hardcover)

Sal Si Puedes, by Peter Matthiessen, is an excellent chronicle of the adult life of the farm workers' revolutionary, Cesar Chavez. This Biography written by Matthiessen is from the day he meets Chavez to the time he passed away in 1992. Chavez was a activist for the rights of all farm workers, and believed that union representation was not only a privilege, but a right of all workers. With the installment of the Bracero program, non American people brought into the united states were allowed to work in the fields, because Lobbyists in Washington were successfully able to determine that no American was willing to do the back breaking manual labor of picking and harvesting the fields in California. This book was simply put, is the best book that I have read in my young adult life.
One thing that I enjoyed in this biography is the use of language. I found the linguistics easy to understand. With the easy language and prose writing, this made the biography an easy read. Because I spent a short time of my later childhood in Delano, Where the book took place, I knew exactly where everything was, and with his descriptive, powerful words, I felt like I was back in Delano. Stepping out of my own skin and looking at the book from a non-Californian's perspective, the description and detail is awesome.
Another thing I liked about the book was the accuracy of the historical fact. Family members of mine lived in the time of the farm workers movement, and after having discussed the biography with them, they, too, agree that the accuracy and detail of events that took place are superior. The chronicling of not only the personal life, but also business life of Chavez was easily understood, and Matthiessen did an excellent job with this Biography.