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Media Contacts: Dr. John C. Hammerback, 919/515-7942, [email protected]
Pam Smith, News Services, 919/515-3470 [email protected]
NC State Professor Examines Power of Cesar Chavez's Legacy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan. 26, 1999
Cesar Chavez was an unlikely hero: small of stature, soft-spoken, from most humble beginnings. Yet, he inspired thousands of Mexican Americans to stand against oppression and injustice to claim a share of the American Dream.
News that Chavez will be inducted into the U.S. Labor Department's Hall of Fame on Jan. 28 came as no surprise to one North Carolina State University scholar, who for decades has studied and written about Chavez's lifework.
"His commitment to empowering poor and powerless migrant farm workers and his awesome success at achieving nearly impossible goals led to the almost mythic status he is accorded by many," says Dr. John C. Hammerback, NC State professor of communication and department head. "Chavez was an extraordinarily effective communicator who convinced a sizeable portion of the American public to support his cause."
In a recently published book, The Rhetorical Career of Cesar Chavez (Texas A&M Press, 1998), Hammerback and his research colleague, Richard J. Jensen of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, examine the remarkable power of Chavez to move -- and transform -- audiences to activism and support. The authors set out to understand how Chavez's "less than fiery" speeches established an aura of greatness and how his spirit was infused in his followers.
The book is a culmination of the authors' 20 years of exploring the Mexican-American activist's discourse -- his writings, speeches, marches and fasts. Their research also resulted in more than a dozen articles and book chapters, as well as an earlier book on Chicano rhetoric. Unlike previous biographical works on Chavez, they focus on Chavez as a speaker and writer, and as a "nondiscursive communicator." They analyzed hundreds of Chavez's own texts -- most never before studied by scholars.
Chavez, whose life as a well-known activist spanned three decades from 1962 until his death in 1993, organized the first successful farm workers union, influenced federal legislation that included protection for farm workers, and led a national boycott of grapes to call attention to the plight of the farm workers. At its peak, the United Farm Workers union numbered 50,000 members.
Hammerback applied a model he had been developing in several other studies of public figures to help explain Chavez's ability to reformulate, or change, the character of some audiences and persuade others.
"The key to reconstituting character is to embody your message -- to become the message in content, style, organization and themes, arguments and explanations; and to incarnate your themes in such non-textual areas as personal appearance, speech delivery and history," Hammerback says.
Also, he said, it is essential to project a second persona -- one that is a reflection of the audience and works with the message to create deep, multiple layers of identification with the audiences. Indeed, Hammerback says, Chavez became synonymous with the farm workers' and Mexican-American civil rights' movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
Hammerback's research shows that Chavez consciously built a conception of public discourse (writings, speeches and nonviolent actions) that grew out of his own life experiences: Family, culture, religion, poverty, discrimination, and his experience as a migrant worker and son of migrant workers influenced him and his view of unions. His early training as an organizer for the Community Services Organization (CSO) in the 1950s gave him impressive leadership skills.
Though his formal education ended at the eighth grade, Chavez read incessantly. From his studies of revolutionary advocates such as St. Paul, he learned the importance of communicating his message of empowerment in one-to-one encounters and large gatherings alike; from Catholic teachings on social justice he formed his convictions about unions; and from Ghandi, he learned the power of nonviolent acts.
Hammerback says Chavez became a skilled speaker who carefully adapted his message to the values and rhetorical expectations of his audiences, including his Spanish-speaking audiences. "Chavez was deeply committed to a clearly presented and well-supported case for his just cause. He relied on a simple repetitive and personal style of language to inform rather than to draw attention to himself. His modest persona stood aside in favor of his substantive message," he says.
Modest though he was, the power of his United Farm Workers message convinced California legislators to give farm workers the right to vote in union elections. It grew strong enough to face -- and win -- a jurisdictional standoff against the powerful Teamsters Union in the mid-1970s. The message was heard from lettuce fields and grape vineyards to Main Street U.S.A., where citizens responded to farm workers' marches for justice by boycotting grapes and lettuce.
Hammerback says his understanding of Chavez's discourse was deepened by his study of Chavez's handwritten comments on drafts, outlines and notes of speeches. Interviews with Chavez's press secretary, UFW colleagues, and family gave further insight.
"Truly, Chavez's was a life committed to words, a legacy of devotion to things rhetorical, a story of deep and lasting influence of a teacher of truth," Hammerback says.
-- smith --
NOTE TO EDITORS: John C. Hammerback is head of the department of communication at North Carolina State University and past president of the Western States Communication Association. Richard J. Jensen is a professor in the Greensput School of Communication at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Separately and together, they have written some 50 scholarly articles and chapters, and have collaborated on two other communication and rhetoric books.
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