{"id":9486,"date":"2014-03-27T11:51:56","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T15:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=9486"},"modified":"2014-03-27T12:36:41","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T16:36:41","slug":"when-we-didnt-eat-grapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2014\/03\/27\/when-we-didnt-eat-grapes\/","title":{"rendered":"When we didn’t eat grapes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lionsgate<\/a>

Lionsgate movie poster.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

From somewhere between the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s no one in my family or circle of friends bought grapes.<\/p>\n

Why? Cesar Chavez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The United Farm Workers<\/a> co-founder was successful in using a boycott of grapes to raise the national consciousness about migrant worker conditions. He was so successful that grapes became a “tainted” fruit for many of us even years after the boycott ended (it was certainly over by 1970). In truth, there’s a little bell that goes off in my mind even today whenever I purchase grapes. The bell signals this message: it’s okay, the boycott is over, you’re not a bad person for buying grapes.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0 new movie based on the life and work of Cesar Chavez is being released this week. Like his contemporary social activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Chavez made personal and professional mistakes. And, like Dr. King, the flaws made the man more human, more approachable, and ultimately more admirable. Neither was a saint; both were extraordinary–and ordinary–men.<\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer for the movie, directed by Diego Luna and starring Michael Pena, with John Malkovich, America Ferraro, Rosario Dawson and Wes Bentley:<\/p>\n