Nonviolence
Cesar Chavez on nonviolent social protest, excerpt, Romero, Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity:
Chavez’s firm belief in non-violence flowed centrally from his Christian convictions. These convictions were shaped most directly by the “abuelita theology” of his youth, Catholic social teachings, and the historical examples of St. Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. For Chávez, non-violence was not the same as passivity, but involved the employment of peaceful, strategic methods such as boycotts, strikes, pilgrimages, prayer, and fasting: “People equate nonviolence with inaction—with not doing anything—and its not that at all. It’s exactly the opposite.” Chávez referred to this approach as “militant nonviolence” and Gandhian “moral jujitsu.” According to Chávez, moreover, the utilization of violence was ineffective because the growers wielded greater physical power through local police forces. Simply put, the growers would always win a violent standoff because they had the police on their side. To draw a biblical analogy, challenging the growers to a battle of physical force would be akin to the fledgling early Christian church waging direct war with Rome and Caesar’s mighty army.
César’s mother communicated to him the wisdom of non-violence through “dichos,” or Mexican folk sayings. These dichos challenged the logic of machísmo and echoed Jesus’ admonitions to love your enemy and “turn the other cheek.” According to Chávez,
“She taught her children to reject that part of a culture which too often tells its young men that you’re not a man if you don’t fight back. She would say, ‘No, its best to turn the other cheek. God gave you senses like eyes and mind and tongue and you can get out of anything. It takes two to fight and one can’t do it alone.’”
Chávez also looked to history in search of successful role models of non-violent activism. Drawing from his Catholic background, he found inspiration in the story of Moses and the Israelite exodus from slavery in Egypt, as well as in the life of Christ and the Roman persecution of the early church. Gandhi was also a central inspiration:
“Some great nonviolent successes have been achieved in history. Moses is about the best example, and the first one. Christ is also a beautiful example, as is the way Christians overcame tyranny. They needed over three hundred years, but they did it. The most recent example is Gandhi. To me that’s the most beautiful one. We can examine it more closely because it happened during our lifetime.”
It is conceivable that Chávez viewed farmworkers as modern day Israelites who were being oppressed by the “Egypt” of his day–growers, police, and local political officials. Drawing another parallel to the experience of Jesus and the early church, perhaps he also viewed the growers as the Roman empire which violently oppressed the first century Jewish community.
Echoing the teachings of Jesus and the “dichos” of his early upbringing, Chávez viewed suffering, sacrifice, and love of enemy as the path to farmworker liberation. Although Chávez claimed that love of enemies was a key principal of non-violent resistance, he was honest in his assessment that this was difficult to embody:
“Love is the most important ingredient in nonviolent work—love the opponent—but we really haven’t learned yet how to love the growers. I think we’ve learned how not to hate them, and maybe love comes in stages.”
Central to Chavez’s practice of nonviolence were the beliefs that God was on the side of the farmworkers and that Jesus was the source of justice. The idea of God’s special concern for agricultural workers is supported poignantly in the book of James:
“4 Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.” James 5: 4-6 (NRSV)
Because God had heard the cries of the farmworkers, moreover, victory in the grape boycott would come ultimately by the hand of God. It would not be the result of human efforts, no matter how strategic. In the words of César:
“The only justice is Christ—God’s justice. We’re the victims of a lot of shenanigans by the courts but ultimately, down the line, real justice comes. It does not come from the courts, but it comes from a set of circumstances and I think God’s hand is in it. God tends to write very straight with crooked lines.”
Do This:
Watch the film “Cesar Chavez” (2014) or the Liberation Theology film, “Romero” (1989)