Cesar Chavez
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2018-01-21T15:35:31-08:00
Cesar Chavez (2014) is a Chicanx biographical film that depicts the life of the labor activist, Cesar Chavez. The film documents his efforts to organize more than 50,000 farm workers in California to protest against exploitation, brutality, and racism at the hands of the employers. It shows three major campaigns by the United Farm Workers: the Delano grape strike, the Salad Bowl Strike, and the 1975 Modesto march. Though the biopic has received mixed reviews from film critics, Rosario Dawson’s portrayal of Dolores Huerta has been highly lauded.
Dolores Huerta is a labor and civil rights activists who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, helped organize the Delano grape strike, and was the lead negotiator in the workers’ contract that was settled on after the event. Obviously, as Huerta is not Afro-Latina, there was no reference to Dawson’s Afro-Latina heritage in this film. Dolores Huerta is shown to be strong, passionate, and steadfast in her activism, but the film does not give her as much credit as she deserves for her contribution to the cause. She is generally portrayed as Chavez’s right-hand woman, as his supporter rather than his partner, and an important political activist on her own.
A rare moment of Huerta’s leadership is shown in the “We Have To Take The Next Step” scene, even though the decision is ultimately up to Chavez:
To be fair, one could argue that it is Chavez’s biopic, so it makes sense that the spotlight would be on him. Further, although Dawson does not have a lead role in this film, there is something to be said about the fact that her character is a strong, inspirational woman; a stark contrast to the hyper-sexual delinquent teenager and heroin-addict she played in her previous roles.