Chavez was charismatic; a self-taught rhetorical genius he created commitment by inspiring well educated Latino idealists with undiscovered organizing potential and encouraged them to offer a liberating, self-abnegating devotion to the farmworkers' movement. Claiming as his models the violent Mexican warlord [[Emiliano Zapata]] as well as non-violent leaders [[Gandhi]], [[Nehru]] and [[Martin Luther King]], Chavez called on his people to, "Make a solemn promise: to enjoy our rightful part of the riches of this land, to throw off the yoke of being considered as agricultural implements or slaves. We are free men and we demand justice." | Chavez was charismatic; a self-taught rhetorical genius he created commitment by inspiring well educated Latino idealists with undiscovered organizing potential and encouraged them to offer a liberating, self-abnegating devotion to the farmworkers' movement. Claiming as his models the violent Mexican warlord [[Emiliano Zapata]] as well as non-violent leaders [[Gandhi]], [[Nehru]] and [[Martin Luther King]], Chavez called on his people to, "Make a solemn promise: to enjoy our rightful part of the riches of this land, to throw off the yoke of being considered as agricultural implements or slaves. We are free men and we demand justice." |