Both U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Anthony Wayne have recently hosted screenings of “Cesar Chavez,” a new film about the inspirational U.S. labor leader who in the 1960s stood up for the rights of migrant workers and cofounded the United Farm Workers union.
In attendance at both screenings was the film’s director and producer Diego Luna, who is known for his acting endeavors in films such as “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” “Frida” and “The Terminal.”
“Cesar Chavez” was a labor of love, says Luna, who attended the premier of the movie in Guadalajara last week. Interestingly, he noted that U.S. investors repeatedly shunned the film, which was financed entirely from Mexico at a cost of 10 million dollars. Equally conversely, few Mexicans know who Chavez – a Mexican American – was, his fame being almost exclusively restricted to the United States.
The film follows Chavez’s efforts to organize 50,000 farm workers in California, many of whom were braceros – temporary agricultural workers from Mexico permitted to live and work in the United States. The program required them to return to their homeland if they stopped working.Working conditions for the braceros were dreadful, and they also suffered from racism and brutality at the hands of their employers and others. Chavez (played by Michael Peña in the movie) organizes a labor union but finds his efforts thwarted – often violently– by farm owners.
The film begins well into Chavez’s activism and does not dwell on his early life, something Luna says would have been impossible in less than two hours. “You can’t talk about someone’s entire life. That’s why I concentrated on a single achievement, the commercial boycott.”
In 1966 Chavez led striking California grape pickers on an historic march from Delano to Sacramento to protest for higher wages. The UFW encouraged all Americans to boycott table grapes as a show of support. The strike lasted five years and attracted national attention, turning Chavez into a celebrity.
Chavez undertook several “spiritual fasts” during his life, including one lasting 25 days in 1968 to promote the principle of nonviolence.
Critics have reacted cautiously to “Cesar Chavez,” which also features America Ferrera, Rosario Dawson and John Malkovich, as well as a cameo by Luna’s great buddy Gael Garcia Bernal.
Some have highlighted the movie’s understated approach and lack of dramatic highs. Unlike “Ghandi,” (1982), Luna’s biopic “never rises to the inspirational level of its titular subject,” wrote one critic. “It’s a competent step in this phase of Luna’s career, but the film’s low aspirations and unwillingness to show any flawed aspects of Chavez’s character doom it to the realm of so-so biopics,” wrote another.
“I tried to represent a real man, not idealize the character or canonize him,” Luna says. “Cesar was a man like anyone else. I always liked the phrase, ‘This a movement of ordinary people doing something extraordinary.’”
Chavez’s wife Helen, who has attended some of the film’s premiers, has praised the film for its accuracy and portrayal of her husband.
“Cesar Chavez” is currently playing in around 600 theaters in Mexico.