STUDY GUIDE: THE FIGHT IN THE FIELDS
1. What strategies and tactics were used by the UFW to recruit members?
2. What symbols were used to inspire members and what do they mean?
3. What tactics were used by the UFW and other social action organizations to recruit?
new organizers?
4. What personal sacrifices were made by the organizers and their families? Were
these sacrifices "worth it."
5. What strategies and tactics were used to garner public support?
6. What resources were used to build the Farm Worker Movement?
7. How were volunteers who were not from the target community utilized?
8. How did the UFW raise funds for organizing efforts?
9. Who were the political allies of the UFW?
a) Did the UFW share a common cultural orientation and value system with some
of its political allies?
b) How did one of the political allies assess the "cost" of his alliance with the
UFW?
10. What was the most powerful interest group that opposed the UFW? What were its
power resources?
11. What power resources did the UFW use to fight this group?
12. How would you assess the effectiveness of the non-violent tactics used by Cesar
Chavez?
13. How did opponents respond to those tactics?
14. Did the benefits generated through non-violent, civil disobedience outweigh the
potential risks to Chavez and the UFW members? Why or why not?
15. What environmental influences were essential to the development of the UFW
during the1960's. Why was there a decline in union membership during the 1980's?