César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!

Some men seem born to become the subject of countless children's picture book biographies. Take, for example, Cesar Chavez. Aside from Martin Luther King Jr. (Gandhi, for reasons unclear, hasn't had the same oomph) there is no other civil rights hero who has inspired such a wide range of artistic and well-penned children's bios. I had read "Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez" by Kathleen Krull some years ago and was impressed with the information presented in that book. Meaning no disrespect to Ms. Krull, however, "Cesar: Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!", trumps all previous Chavez titles when it comes to its scope, tone, and sheer amount of factual information tucked away in Bibliography, Notes, Glossary and more. Want a bio of Cesar Chavez but want something poetic and beautiful to look at as well? Then just take a quick gander at Carmen T. Bernier-Grand's amazing Pura Belpre Honor Book. The first spread of this book says simply, "Who Could Tell?". "Who could tell that Cesario Estrada Chavez, the shy American wearing a checkered shirt walking with a cane to ease his back from the burden of the fields, could organize so many people to march for La Causa, The Cause?". Who indeed? A turn of the page and suddenly we're witnessing the birth of a legend. Cesario was born March 31, 1927 but everyone eventually knew him as Cesar. As a child he grew up in a ranch as his father managed a gas station. Then the Depression hit and the family lost the ranch on which Cesar had always lived. From then on in, times were tough. The family had to pick fruit and vegetables for their keep. People inhaled pesticides and made a scant amount of money. Cesar went into the navy but when he returned the only jobs for a Mexican-American were in the fields tending to crops. Cesar married, had kids, and with the help of a member of the Community Service Organization he began to understand the point of unions. He decided to fight for better pay, housing, and health, "To satisfy the farm workers' hunger for decency and dignity and self-respect". By the end of his life Chavez fought for the rights of the common farmworkers and he may well have saved countless lives due to his struggle. He died in his sleep on April 23, 1993. I suppose the greatest difference between this book and "Harvesting Hope" is how the information of Cesar's life is presented. In "Harvesting Hope" author Kathleen Krull saw an obvious amount of dramatic tension in Cesar's 1968 nationwide boycott. Bernier-Grand, on the other hand, chooses to give each event in Chavez's life equal weight. Actual battles are passed over as the obvious outgrowth of Cesar's journey. By the end, when Cesar dies in his bed in 1993, we've seen more injustice than we have slow justice. This is as it should be. Nobody is saying that the road Chavez hoed was easy. Least of all the biographers that praise him. In this book, each step of Cesar's life is presented with a kind of free verse poem. Su

Some men seem born to become the subject of countless children's picture book biographies. Take, for example, Cesar Chavez. Aside from Martin Luther King Jr. (Gandhi, for reasons unclear, hasn't had the same oomph) there is no other civil rights hero who has inspired such a wide range of artistic and well-penned children's bios. I had read "Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez" by Kathleen Krull some years ago and was impressed with the information presented in that book. Meaning no disrespect to Ms. Krull, however, "Cesar: Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!", trumps all previous Chavez titles when it comes to its scope, tone, and sheer amount of factual information tucked away in Bibliography, Notes, Glossary and more. Want a bio of Cesar Chavez but want something poetic and beautiful to look at as well? Then just take a quick gander at Carmen T. Bernier-Grand's amazing Pura Belpre Honor Book. The first spread of this book says simply, "Who Could Tell?". "Who could tell that Cesario Estrada Chavez, the shy American wearing a checkered shirt walking with a cane to ease his back from the burden of the fields, could organize so many people to march for La Causa, The Cause?". Who indeed? A turn of the page and suddenly we're witnessing the birth of a legend. Cesario was born March 31, 1927 but everyone eventually knew him as Cesar. As a child he grew up in a ranch as his father managed a gas station. Then the Depression hit and the family lost the ranch on which Cesar had always lived. From then on in, times were tough. The family had to pick fruit and vegetables for their keep. People inhaled pesticides and made a scant amount of money. Cesar went into the navy but when he returned the only jobs for a Mexican-American were in the fields tending to crops. Cesar married, had kids, and with the help of a member of the Community Service Organization he began to understand the point of unions. He decided to fight for better pay, housing, and health, "To satisfy the farm workers' hunger for decency and dignity and self-respect". By the end of his life Chavez fought for the rights of the common farmworkers and he may well have saved countless lives due to his struggle. He died in his sleep on April 23, 1993. I suppose the greatest difference between this book and "Harvesting Hope" is how the information of Cesar's life is presented. In "Harvesting Hope" author Kathleen Krull saw an obvious amount of dramatic tension in Cesar's 1968 nationwide boycott. Bernier-Grand, on the other hand, chooses to give each event in Chavez's life equal weight. Actual battles are passed over as the obvious outgrowth of Cesar's journey. By the end, when Cesar dies in his bed in 1993, we've seen more injustice than we have slow justice. This is as it should be. Nobody is saying that the road Chavez hoed was easy. Least of all the biographers that praise him. In this book, each step of Cesar's life is presented with a kind of free verse poem. Such a format could easily be mis