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In depth about "The Fight in the Fields" Chávez organizing farmworkers The Independent Television Service (ITVS) presents "The Fight in the Fields: César Chávez and the Farmworkers' Struggle", the history of the United Farmworkers Union (UFW) and a profile of Chávez, the charismatic leader who won the first successful labor contracts for California farmworkers by leading international grape and lettuce boycotts. Produced, directed, and written by Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Telles, "The Fight in the Fields" was produced by Paradigm Productions, Inc. for ITVS with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional funding by the San Francisco Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, the California Council for the Humanities, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The two-hour documentary premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival in January, aired across the nation on PBS. The heart of the UFW, Chávez remains the most important Latino leader in this country's history. The activities he and his dedicated organizers led inspired the Chicano activism of the 1960's and '70s, helping to create a Latino civil rights movement. Their struggle united agricultural workers, who were largely immigrant laborers, with students, religious people, and union members, and in the process involved millions of American consumers in a non-violent fight for social justice through international grape and lettuce boycotts. Chávez combined the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, the hard-earned lessons of the African American civil rights movement, and labor activism with Mexican American traditions and values. "We weren't ready for the grape strike, but we had to do it. And we didn't know what we were doing. All we knew was that there had to be a way to win." - a striking farmworker More than two years in the making, "The Fight in the Fields" is the first film to cover the full arc of Chávez' life. Using archival footage, newsreel, and present-day interviews with Ethel Kennedy, former California Governor Jerry Brown, Dolores Huerta, and Chávez' brother, sister, son and daughter, among others, the documentary traces the remarkable contributions of Chávez and others involved in this monumental struggle. It is tempting, given the setbacks that Chávez suffered - the murder of several farmworkers on picket lines, the dismantling of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board - to see his life in tragic terms. But Chávez was not a martyr, and the documentary reflects his role as a catalyst and human being, not a saint. "The Fight in the Fields" follows two parallel threads: the unsuccessful history of farm labor organizing in the early 20th century, and the crushing effects of the braceros program which flooded the fields with Mexican contract workers (or temporary immigrants) from World War II through the 1960s in a joint effort supported by the Mexican and U.S. governments whenever strikes resulted in labor shortages for the growers. Woven through this historical mosaic is the story of Chávez' life, including his adolescence as the son of migrant farmworkers, his early days as a community organizer, his marriage to Helen Chávez, whose support allowed him to commit to the movement, his successful efforts to unionize farmworkers, his dramatic fasts which kept the eyes of the country's press on the issue and the striking workers committed to non-violence, the pivotal 300-mile march he led from Delano to Sacramento, and his friendship and landmark political alliance with Robert Kennedy. Chávez with Robert Kennedy Farmworkers themselves could never successfully win the battle for unionization, and even important friends like the Kennedys could not turn the tide. What finally won the small union of Mexicans and Filipinos its contracts was the overwhelming support of the American public - more than 14 million American responded to the farmworkers' pleas for economic justice by not buying grapes and lettuce. The union was attacked by conservative politicians, including then California Governor Ronald Reagan (whose labor policies during his presidency mirrored his efforts to stop the farmworkers union a decade before). The powerful Teamsters Union was brought into the fields by growers to replace the UFW, and the strikes and bloody confrontations that followed left thousands in jail, and two members of the UFW dead. But Chávez and the UFW rebounded from these defeats, and engineered the passage of the nation's first farm labor law in 1977. In the elections that followed, the UFW won a series of overwhelming victories. "The Fight in the Fields" is not a traditional biography, but the story of a social history with César Chávez as the leading character. It was only through the enormous sacrifices of people like Chávez that important changes were made which impacted the lives of millions of poor people. Many of these changes are now taken for granted, like getting fresh water and public toilets in the fields, and larger reforms like ensuring fair labor practices and ending the braceros program. Dolores Huerta with "Strike" sign Unfortunately, many of the early successes of the UFW are now eroding. Children are back in the fields. Workers wages are down. The successes of the '60s and '70s were gutted in the '80s and early '90s, and things remain very tough for these Americans. Yet despite the setbacks, in the years since Chávez' death at age 66 in 1993, the UFW has enjoyed a surprising rebirth. After a 20-year slide, the union grew at the fastest rate of any labor union last year. Still, out of 1.6 million farmworkers in this country, only 26,000 are members of the UFW. "The Fight in the Fields" pays tribute to the tremendous advances made by Chávez and all the men and women of the United Farmworkers Union who fought and sacrificed for a stake in the American dream.