A Question for Cesar Chavez Day

Cesar Chavez believed that “the end of all education should surely be service to others.“

The word service has been on our minds a lot lately. It’s definitely come to the forefront over the last few days as we’ve poured over our shelf of books devoted to Cesar Chavez and the farm worker movement. As many of you know, the Rocky Mountain Land Library is an all-volunteer organization. In the past, volunteers have hoisted boxes of books, organized book caravans, assembled shelves, and last summer scraped & painted ranch buildings in Colorado’s South Park (the future home of the majority of the RMLL’s books).

If anything, these tasks will multiply in the future, but something is still nagging at us, and here is our question on Cesar Chavez Day: can the Land Library as an organization do more?? Are there other ways of contributing to the community that we haven’t thought of?

This is where we NEED YOUR HELP! We would love to hear your ideas (or if you’d like to keep in touch concerning future volunteer days). At least once or twice a year, the Land Library would like to organize a Service Day — taking on some community project, and pitching in where we can help.

Picture this: we gather (in person or electronically) around Martin Luther King Day and come up with a plan. We prepare throughout the winter, and have a fun community work day(s) to coincide with Cesar Chavez Day. And if there’s more to accomplish, we’ll get it done on Earth Day!

Even though the Rocky Mountain Land Library is a relatively small organization, we would still like to join the effort to infuse these significant days with the spirit of community and service. And we’d like to join with others to make that happen.
Please send us your thoughts & ideas directly to this site, via our Facebook page, or by email to jeff@landlibrary.org.

Thanks for reading this, and we hope you’ve enjoyed our week-long focus on Cesar Chavez and the world he helped create!

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The Perfect Blend of Pancakes & Paleontology

You never know who you’ll come across along the Fossil Freeway:

Kirk Johnson is the chief curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and one of the world’s leading paleobotanists. Ray Troll’s art has been exhibited across the globe. Put them together and you have — well, actually, I’m not sure what you have, but science has never been as much fun as this!

All points bulletin: artist Ray Troll & paleontologist Kirk Johnson, authors of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000 Mile Paleo Road Trip.

and, the Land Library strongly recommends these titles as well:

Prehistoric Journey by Kirk Johnson, Rapture of the Deep: The Art of Ray Troll, Planet Ocean: Dancing to the Fossil Record by Brad Matsen & Ray Troll

for more information on Ray Troll’s work, and to order books, cards, t-shirts, posters, and more, be sure to visit his website, where you can also order a wall-size map inspired by Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway (a detail of the map is below).

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A Dangerous Idea: The Books on Cesar Chavez’s shelves

Cesar Chavez’s childhood education was not the best. His family became migrant workers after they lost their farm in the Great Depression. Throughout his youth, Chavez migrated across the southwest, laboring in the fields and vineyards.
While there was little time for school and books as he grew up, several biographers point to the growing passion Cesar Chavez had for education in his later years. The walls of his United Farm Worker’s office were lined with hundreds of books, ranging from philosophy, economics, and union histories, to the works of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Kennedys.
Cesar Chavez believed that “the end of all education should surely be service to others.”
Knowledge leading to action — a good segue for tomorrow’s Cesar Chavez Day post!

The Essential Gandhi, edited by Louis Fischer, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., edited by James Washington, To Seek a Newer World by Robert F. Kennedy

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Cesar Chavez’s Fast for Life

Several times in his life as a community organizer, Cesar Chavez used the excruciatingly personal tool of fasting to advance what we all recognize today as simple human justice. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (pictured above) joined with Chavez in March 1968, soon before the end of Chavez’s 25-day fast for basic farm worker’s rights.

In July 1988, the struggle continued as Chavez began a fast in response to the dangers of deadly pesticides. Thirty-six days later, he ended his strike by breaking bread with Ethel Kennedy, the widow of his old ally. As he ended his fast, Cesar Chavez handed a wooden cross to Rev. Jesse Jackson, symbolizing the passing on of a Fast for Life to concerned people across the country.

To learn more about all aspects of Chavez’s life, and the ongoing work he inspired please visit the Cesar Chavez Foundation website, and we can also recommend Miriam Pawel’s book, The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Survival in Cesar Chavez’s Farm Worker Movement.

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Cesar Chavez’s Message for Today: dignity, justice, nonviolence

Robert F. Kennedy called Cesar Chavez “one of the heroic figures of our time.” Chavez founded and led the first successful farm workers union in the country — the United Farm Workers of America. Throughout his life he fought for social justice, better pay, and safer working conditions for a woefully neglected class. The tools he used were the nonviolent ones of boycott, fasting, and strikes.
In the next few days, as we lead up to the annual Cesar Chavez Day commemoration, the Land Library will add a few more posts on Chavez’s remarkable life. But for now we wanted to share a few books with you. They all give us a link to where true progress comes from. Read on!

The titles pictured above: The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement by Susan Ferriss & Ricardo Sandoval, Voices from the Fields: Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories by S. Beth Atkins, Sal Si Puedes (Escape if You Can): Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution by Peter Mattheissen

and here’s a few more, from the Land Library’s shelves:

Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa by Jacques E. Levy, et al, “Where do I go from Here?” Meeting the Unique Needs of Migrant Students by Karen S. Vocke, Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child by Elva Trevino Hart, Delano: The Story of the California Grape Strike by John Gregory Dunne

along with titles from our Waterton Canyon Kids Library:

First Day in Grapes by L. King Perez & Robert Castilla, Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull & Yuyi Morales, The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jimenez

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Sweetgrass & a Vanishing Way of Life

“In 2005, Montana ranchers drove the last band of sheep through the Absaroka-Beartooth Pass for summer pasture. The trip marked the end of a centuries-long journey and the waning of a traditional way of life. Sweetgrass, a film by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash (a husband-wife team of visual anthropologists currently working at Harvard), documents one of the last of these journeys with lush, yet unsentimental intimacy.” — Annie Strother, PBS Newshour

Sorry to show our bias here, but the PBS Newshour is clearly a national treasure, and they keep getting better and better. We have also become fans of their website, and in particular Jeffrey Brown’s Art Beat page. Annie Strother just posted a wonderful piece there on the new film Sweetgrass, including an extensive interview with the film makers. PLEASE take a look at the trailer — if you’re like us, it will get you scrambling to see where it’s showing in your area. Luckily the official website for Sweetgrass includes screening information.

Sweetgrass took over seven years to complete. “We never interviewed anybody. Nothing was scripted. We never directed anybody. We never asked anybody to do anything again,” Castaing-Taylor says, “what that kind of film methodology demands is this unbelievable kind of patience.”

If this film is as unsentimental as Annie Strother indicates, it looks like an important part of the West’s heritage has been captured. Can’t wait to see it!

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Child’s Play, Bush Houses & More

Earlier in the week, as we sang the praises of The Field Guide to Fields, we thought more about the power of nearby landscapes, especially in the life of a child. All of this reminded us of one of the Land Library’s favorite quotes:

“…the places children like best for play are the secret places where no one else goes….the peaks of a child’s experience are not visits to a cinema, or even family outings to the sea, but occasions when he escapes into places that are disused and overgrown and silent. To a child there is more joy in a rubbish heap than a flowery rockery, in a fallen tree than a piece of statuary, in a muddy track than a gravel path.” — Iona & Peter Opie

Very much in keeping with the Opie quote are two books from our Waterton Canyon Kids Library: In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids’ Inner Wildness by Chris Mercogliano, and David Sobel’s classic book Children’s Special Places: Exploring the Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood. May every child have a bush house in their life!

When the Opies write about a secret place disused and silent, they definitely could be describing the imaginary town that’s the subject of Alice McLerran & Barbara Cooney’s picture book Roxaboxen (pictured above). To the adult eye, Roxaboxen was a rubble strewn hilltop, but to a child this was a magic place where imagination was let out the door. They line the “streets” with white stones and broken glass, and use pebbles for their currency. This is a classic book that captures a children’s innate ability to infuse their environment with meaning, fun, and excitement.

and here’s three more titles that will keep your sense of wonder alive, no matter how old you are:

I Love Dirt! 52 Activities to Help You & Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature by Jennifer Ward, Natural History of Vacant Lots by Matthew Vessel & Herbert Wong, and A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids with Nature through the Seasons by Rick Van Noy

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A Remarkable Life

Stewart Udall, Secretary of Interior during the Kennedy & Johnson administrations, died at his Santa Fe home this past Saturday. During his tenure at the Interior Department, Udall helped write both the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act and the Wilderness Act. He also successfully pushed for the establishment of four national parks — including Utah’s Canyonlands National Park.

Stewart Udall was also a lifelong student of the Environmental Movement, and the history of the American West. He was the author of several books, including the influential conservation book, The Quiet Crisis, and The Myths of August: A Personal Exploration of Our Tragic Cold War Affair with the Atom.

The story of one of Stewart Udall’s later books was best told this past weekend by Jason Blevins in the Denver Post:
“Udall was most proud of his decades of work on behalf of American Indians — especially the Navajos from his native Arizona — who developed cancer and fell ill from working in uranium mines….
He began battling for sickened Navajo miners in the 1970s, after leaving Washington. He sued the federal government on behalf of Navajo miners who developed lung cancer from uranium exposure. That case failed at the U.S. Supreme Court, which left Udall ‘deeply disappointed, even angered,’ Mark Udall said.
Stewart Udall redirected his dismay toward Washington, where he lobbied for congressional investigations that ultimately led to the 1990 Radiation Exposure Safety Act, which compensated thousands of Americans.
‘He fought hard to bring justice to not just uranium miners, but for any victims exposed to uranium tailings and mining and radiation,’ said Esther Yazzie-Lewis, a Navajo who co-authored the book The Navajo People and Uranium Mining.”

Stewart Udall provided the foreword for that book. This is one Udall title the Land Library does not have. But we will soon, in honor of a remarkable life.

The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking the History of the Old West, The Navajo People and Uranium Mining, edited by Esther Yazzie-Lewis, et al, To the Inland Empire: Coronado and our Spanish Legacy

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A Common Landscape?

It’s not the pristine wilderness where most of us form life-long ties to the land, but from the more common landscapes of grassland, pasture, parkland, and meadows — the edge zone between wilderness and where we live. Just published, The Field Guide to Fields: Hidden Treasures of Meadows, Prairies, and Pastures makes for a one-of-a-kind addition to anyone’s natural history shelves. We love its focus on landscapes long in association with man, as well as its celebration of worldwide rural traditions. Author Bill Laws tells a story rich in history, flora, and fauna, born from this vibrant borderland.
Please pick this book up and you’ll also discover one of the most beautifully illustrated and designed books of the season!

Finding this fun new book reminded us of many other Land Library titles, all united by their attention to rural traditions. Here’s three!

Field Days: An Anthology of Poetry, edited by Angela King & Sue Clifford, and published by one of our all-time favorite groups: Common Ground (more on them in future posts), Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm by Jane Brox, The History of the Countryside, Oliver Rackham’s classic study of the British landscape.

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Is Reading Dead? Does Yann Martel want a tattoo??

Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi just received a surprise bit of fan mail. Why don’t you read the original, and then we can go from there:

http://bit.ly/bAUqP6

Martel reports: “If there was a way of tattooing it on my back, I would. What amazes me is the gratuity of it. As you know, there is a large measure of calculation in what public figures do. But here, what does he have to gain? I’m not a US citizen. In no way can I be a help to President Obama. Clearly he did it for personal reasons, as a reader and as a father. And in two lines, what an insightful analysis of Life of Pi. Bless him, bless him.”

Reading may not be dead, but there goes my excuse for never having time to sit down with a good book!

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