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Kirkus Reviews

“The inside story of the first successful attempt to unionize farmworkers in the United States.

In the early 1960s, workers in America ’s vineyards and lettuce fields lacked basic protections and rights, writes former Newsday and Los Angeles Times reporter and editor Pawel. Earning about $2,500 per year, they worked without drinking water or bathrooms, were often cheated out of wages and lacked unemployment and health insurance. In this extensively researched history of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union, the author focuses on a handful of men and women who joined la causa of the charismatic César Chávez (1927–1993), taking part in strikes and boycotts to win bargaining agreements. Pawel deftly weaves their stories into a narrative of three turbulent decades of protest against California growers and the U.S. supermarket chains that sold their produce. The principals include teenage farmworker Eliseo Medina, who joined the nascent union movement in 1965 and eventually became a leader; Chris Hartmire , a former East Harlem youth minister who acted as a propagandist in what he deemed to be a moral crusade for the poor; and Ellen Eggers, a naïve young college graduate from Indiana, who went from “ignorance to outrage” in her work as a boycott coordinator. These deeply engaged workers and middle-class youths were among thousands who received $5 per week plus room and board as volunteer foot soldiers in a crusade that convinced 17 million Americans to stop eating grapes. Recounting strategizing sessions, dealmaking and internal squabbles, Pawel shows how the movement grew and won legitimacy as a union. The iconic Chávez is seen as a micromanager whose fasts and fervor galvanized others, but who could not tolerate internal dissent and failed ultimately to build a strong union. By 2005, the UFW had no contracts in the grape vineyards or the lettuce fields, but had “mastered the art of cashing in on Latino political power.” Meanwhile, a new generation of farmworkers toiled at minimum wage.

A revealing celebration of activists in the glory days of a movement for change."

Advance Praise for “The Union of Their Dreams”

“In this sympathetic yet courageously honest narrative, a seasoned reporter presents the history behind the legend of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement. At the same time, Miriam Pawel pays tribute to the dreams of a generation of young Americans dedicated to social justice and the dignity of labor.”

- Kevin Starr, University of Southern California, author of Golden Dreams and California: A History

“This incisive and sensitive study makes a major contribution to our understanding of Cesar Chavez and the poor people’s movement he led. Moving beyond hagiography and mythology, Miriam Pawel gives new insight into the heroic struggles of some of the ordinary people who committed themselves, against unimaginable odds, to an extraordinary cause. Using an innovative approach based on exhaustive archival research, deeply illuminating oral history interviews, and keen historical judgment, Pawel puts a human face on the triumphs and failures, the tactical successes and setbacks, long-running internal struggles over leadership and direction, and above all, the tremendous courage and dignity of those who toiled in one of the most important social movements of the twentieth century.”

- David G. Gutiérrez, University of California, San Diego

“Anyone interested in political idealism, trade unions, leadership, mass movements, and even the Barack Obama phenomenon will have much to think about after reading this enthralling account of great accomplishment gained and lost.”

- Nicholas von Hoffman, author of Hoax and Citizen Cohn

“Avoiding polemic or sensationalism, The Union of Their Dreams recounts for the first time how a cult of personality around Cesar Chavez (influenced by the practices of the sinister Synanon organization) ultimately betrayed the courage of the workers in the fields and the trust of a veteran organizing staff. The stories of lost campaigns and internal purges are painful, but they also transmit hugely important lessons about the necessary dialectic of militancy and democracy in labor struggles.”

– Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz.

“Miriam Pawel combines the skills of an historian and an investigative reporter to tell the story of the remarkable people upon whose dreams the farm worker movement was established, moved forward, and forever changed the nation.”

-William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

“The Union of Their Dreams captures in fascinating detail the human stories of diverse people and how they committed themselves to the movement. It also reveals the tensions and dissensions that were a part of the union and its leadership after the early years of its formation. This is an interesting and provocative book that expands our understanding of the union from inside out.”

—Albert M. Camarillo, Stanford University

Los Menos

“Chavez decided the time had come to pursue his dream of communal farms. He envisioned the farms as havens for poor people, a resource for the union, and a refuge for loyal supporters. He wanted a strong religious element and thought perhaps the collectives could be run by a new religious order. He had picked Oxnard as the first farm, with its fertile soil and year-round season. He had the perfect director for the endeavor, Chris. And a name for the new order: Los Menos. The Least. He took the name from the words of Jesus in the book of Matthew: “In as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

Chavez had a long-standing interest in cooperatives for the poor. Real community would be vital, Chavez said, to keep people involved and avoid the fate of the faltering civil rights and labor movements. He read voraciously and studied the mistakes of the past. He had been exploring economic cooperatives since 1970, when he described his position as comparable to where he had been in terms of the union in 1965: “I was just talking about ideas and what could be done and a lot of people thought I was nuts.”

Six years later, with the state law imposing a welter of rules that held little interest for Chavez, he saw community as the future of his movement. He kept the plans from his own board, which would have been as skeptical as his friends in the labor movement.”

Excerpt from The Union of Their Dreams