Cesar Chavez's Plan Delano - Essay Example

"The Plan of Delano" is the Proclamation issued by La Causa when the National Farm Workers' Association voted to join the Filipino grape pickers' strike in 1965. It spells out the platform of Cesar Chavez' peaceful yet forceful demand for farm workers' welfare and labor reforms to end the injustice that has been oppressing them. He calls it a pilgrimage, a journey that moves towards a hopeful end. This journey is bathed in the blood and sweat of their forefathers in the last one hundred years.

He says that they are not afraid to suffer for the sake of attaining their goals of a better life and development. The Plan is a six-point proposition that entails the following: 1. It is going to be a peaceful rally seeking for their basic human rights, quoting Benito Jurez: "El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz" (Respect for the rights of others is the way to peace); 2. It calls for the "support of political groups and protection of the government," for in the past they have been ignored and less favored; 3.

It is also a call for support from the Church of all denominations believing that "God shall not abandon" them; 4. It further calls for endurance amidst the suffering; 5. It also calls for unity, for there is strength in being united; and 6. Finally, it calls for unarmed revolution.This Proclamation has not only been limited to the area where Chavez and his followers belong but it has been a window to the heart and soul of the Mexicans all over the world. For instance, Lorena Oropeza, in "Raza S!

Guerra No!: Chicano Protest and Patriotism during the Viet Nam War Era, valorizes the Chicano patriotism and protest as she refers to the "Plan de Delano" as "a ringing plea for dignity and equality for all farmworkers" (72). In addition, the Postmodern Political Communication: The Fringe Challenges the Center edited by Andrew King mentions that the "Plan of Delano" wasTop of Form "inspired by [Emiliano] Zapata" (88) and is a "reflection of the ideas of a Chicano prophet, Cesar Chavez" (93).

Further, the book states that "His (Chavez) Plan of Delano, like all his rhetoric, focuses on this moral view of the world" (94) as it "presents a powerful call for unity among Mexican-Americans" (96). Looking into the text, one can glean the admirable and ideal characteristics of this action for a cause. Unlike the present strikes and rallies all over the world, particularly in Third World countries, Chavez' group exemplifies one that is peaceful, impartial, spiritual, enduring, united and unarmed as spelled out in the six-point plan.

Works CitedThe Plan of Delano. (18 April 2008). This site contains the full text of the platform of Chavez's call for a peaceful strike that demands for reforms regarding the social injustices that the farm workers are subjected to. Csar E. Chvez. Social Justice and Civil Rights. California Department of Education. (18 April 2008). This site contains a comprehensive collection of materials and articles pertaining to Cesar Chavez and his