VL-IV: Chap 9- Close-ups

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Cesar Chavez may have been a committed organizer, but part of his strategy was organizing not just the workers, but the grape and lettuce boycotts.  This boycott had to succeed in the cities and the 'burbs, far away from the fields.  Propaganda (printed and filmed) was crucial to draw people in.  While a flick made by Frenesi and her group might seem naive or simplistic to some, simple but heartfelt words and images can go a long way toward stirring idealists into action (leafletting outside supermarkets, for starters).  Frenesi-like propagandists aren't a replacement for Chavez, they're a useful adjunct.

Laura 

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>

>
>If Vineland were the America we were once "promised" or that it could be,
>it might be because its citizens were engaged in making it so.
>
>That American citizenship is active engagement in making America just.
>
>As I mentioned, working with Cesar Chavez re the farmworkers for example, not
>just filming them. Maybe Food Co-ops rather than film Co-ops would be where
>'real committed action' lay?
>
> Fighting such as Vond, of course, rather than falling for him. 
>
>
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