Cesar Chavez , a Tribute

César Chávez was one of our last honest and incorruptible leaders, and was vehemently opposed to illegal immigration because he understood supply and demand economics. He knew that illegal immigration is a tool of Big Business used to drive the workingman’s wages down, and that it is allowed by the US government because it benefits Big Business, and Big Business gives big campaign contributions.

Are you aware that César Chávez formed the first Minute Man Project? He called it the “Wet Line”, only he was not nonviolent and non-confrontational. He advocated beating undocumented workers (scabs) with baseball bats.

This is a mis interpretation of a historical event being widely circulated on right wing and Minutemen type web sites.
It did not happen that way.
Chavez and Huerta spent years teaching citizenship classes and helping undocumented workers to become citizens. The UFW continues this today. Chavez did oppose the Bracero or Guest Worker program as it existed.
The case you are referring to was when there was a strike and large numbers of undocumented were brought across the border to break the strike. The UFW and Chavez opposed the use of undocumented workers to break a strike. There is no evidence to support your claims of his advocating violence.
You can find documents on this in The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement.(1997) by Susan Ferriss and Ricardo Sandoval.
It was a cruel and difficult fight. But, to claim that Cesar Chavez opposed undocumented workers is simply false. It is a part of the organized campaign at present to expel the thousands of farmworkers presently harvesting the crops.
Very important. You can't believe everything you read on a web site. You need to use critical reading tools to search for reliable information.
Duane Campbell

Google has 267 references to "Cesar Chavez" & "Wet Line".
http://tinyurl.com/2c629x

It was reported in several newspapers, at the time, and has been written about in numerous books.

A quote from a Ruben Navarrette article
Despite the fact that Chavez is these days revered among Mexican-American activists, the labor leader in his day was no more tolerant of illegal immigration than the Arizona Minutemen are now. Worried that the hiring of illegal immigrants drove down wages, Chavez — according to numerous historical accounts — instructed union members to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service to report the presence of illegal immigrants in the fields and demand that the agency deport them. UFW officials were even known to picket INS offices to demand a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
And in 1973, in one of the most disgraceful chapters in UFW history, the union set up a “wet line” to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering the United States. Under the guidance of Chavez’s cousin, Manuel, UFW members tried at first to convince the immigrants not to cross. When that didn’t work, they physically attacked the immigrants and left some bloody in the process. It happened in the same place that the Minutemen are now planning to gather: the Arizona-Mexico border.
At the time, The Village Voice newspaper said that the UFW conducted a “campaign of random terror against anyone hapless enough to fall into its net.” In their book, “The Fight in the Fields,” Susan Ferris and Ricardo Sandoval recall the border incident and write that the issue of how to deal with the undocumented was “particularly vexing” for Chavez.
No doubt it was. And now it vexes an entire country.

Duane,

If you care for the Mexican people and want to help them, help expose and end Mexico's Apartheid government, and promote equality among all Mexicans, and stop the forced migration of the Indigenos into the US.

Mexico has a caste system that is based on ethnic purity, Europeans at the top and the Indigenous at the bottom, and Mestizos are somewhere in-between based on skin color and ethnic purity. Just look at how the Zapatistas, who are Indigenos, are treated.

Haven’t you noticed that the ruling class is composed almost exclusively of White elitist Europeans who hate the brown peasants, and will do anything to drive them out of Mexico? They, “the White elitists”, have succeeded in driving approximately 30 percent of Mexico’s population out of their own country and into the US.

Why is it that virtually all 10 of Mexico’s billionaires, famous actors and actresses past and present, and Mexican Consuls, and “ethnic hustlers/corporate prostitutes” in the US are of European heritage?

Pablo.
First you claim over 200 entries on a google search. Correct, but look at the entries. Few of them are more than a repeat of a myspace page from one another.
Thank you for pointing out the wikipedia entry. Like your post, it is a direct quote from Rueben Navarrette. Fine, if you wish to believe him. He offers no sources.
I checked several of the sources on wikipedia. Sources 6 & 7 are legitimate sources, but they do not support the claim. They are sources on immigration, but not on this claim.
Reed Irving is the long recognized source of Media manipulation. That leads you back to only the Navarrette claim. Since he did not offer references, I could not evaluate his claim.
So, again, this is a claim that has not been supported by evidence. But, thanks to your notice- I placed a notice of the deception on the Wikipedia page.

Duane,

Nice try.

http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Cesar_Chavez

Drop down to the References section and click on the links.

The only people who support illegal immigration are those who profit from it. So tell us Duane who pays your bills?

I have been reasearching Cesar Chavez's views on illegals, and I'm confused. I have historical evidence that he was against it. In a speech in 1969, Chavez said about illegals that: “Our potential competition appears almost unlimited as thousands upon thousands of green carders pour across the border during peak harvest seasons. These are people who, though lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence, have not now, and probably never had, any bona fide intention of making the United States of America their permanent home. They come here to earn American dollars to spend in Mexico where the cost of living is lower. They are natural economic rivals of those who become American citizens or who otherwise decide to stake out their future in this country. In abolishing the bracero program, Congress has but scotched the snake, not killed it. The program lives on in the annual parade of thousands of illegal and green carders across the United States-Mexico border to work in our fields. To achieve law and order in any phase of human activity, legislators must pay need to other laws not made by man, one of which is the economic law of supply and demand. We are asking Congress to pay heed to this law in the light of some hard facts about farm labor supply along our southern border. Otherwise, extension of [the National Labors Relations Act] coverage to farm workers in that part of the country will not produce much law and order. What we ask is some way to keep the illegals and green carders from breaking strikes; some civil remedy against growers who employ behind our picket lines those who have entered the United States illegally, and, likewise those green carders who have not permanently moved their residence and domicile to the United States.” But then again if you read his speech called: "What is Democracy?" he did favor amnesty in 1982. However, when you read this speech, people still get the vibe that he still wanted illegal immigration to stop, but was not against amnesty. I was wondering if Chavez's views changed in the 80s or if he was hypocritcal about illegal immigration? Becasue if Chavez tried to help illegals gain citzenship, he also appealed to the governement in Mexico to stop the flow of illegals into the U.S., because they were being recruited as strikebreakers, causing problems for the UFW. This is hypocritical on Chavez's part.

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