BIOGRAPHICAL POETRY

Bernier-Grand, Carmen  T & David Díaz. César: ¡Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can! New York: Marshall Cavendish. 2004.

ISBN: 978-0-7614-5172-3.

César: ¡Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can! is a book of poetry which tells the story of Cesar Chavez who was a Mexican American farm worker. He eventually became the leader of the United Farm Workers and worked hard to improve the working conditions of migrant farm workers through non-violent protests.

The poems in this book are factual, free-verse poems which chronologically highlight important events in Cesar’s life from his childhood until his death in 1993. They are short poems which will lend themselves to choral reading by children and can actually stand alone and be used to study other subjects. For example in the poems “The Depression,” “Papá Chayo’s Rancho” and “On the Move,” students can get a beginning feel for what things were like during the depression years. Many of the poems in this book also contain quotes and sayings from Cesar Chavez himself and are noted with quotation marks. In the poem “Prayer of the Farm Workers’ Struggle,” Bernier-Grand begins and ends with quotes from Chavez’s prayer he wrote by the same name. “Give me honesty and patience, so that I can work with other workers” and “Help us love even those who hate us, so we can change the world” are two such examples. Another interesting tidbit about the book is that the author uses Spanish and English words intermixed in a majority of the poems.

The illustrations by David Diaz are reminiscent of folk art and appear on every page on which there is a poem. The pictures do reflect the subject of the poem on that page. At the end of the book, there is a glossary of the Spanish terms used in the book and their English meanings. There are notes on various subjects, as well as a chronological timeline and short synopsis of Cesar Chavez’s life.

SPOTLIGHT POEM:

Who Could Tell?

¡Hijole!

Who could tell?

Who could tell

That Cesario Estrada Chávez,

the shy American

wearing a checkered shirt,

walking with a cane to ease his back

from the burden of the fields

could organize so many people

to march for La Causa, The Cause?

Who could tell

that he with a soft pan dulce voice,

hair the color of mesquite,

and downcast, Aztec eyes,

would have the courage to speak up

for the campesinos

to get better pay,

better housing,

better health?

¡Hijole!

Who could tell?

I would use this poem to introduce Cesar Chavez in a unit of study on famous people who fought for people’s civil rights peacefully. During the unit which would include other figures such as Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King and others, I would ask students to write their own free verse poem about one of these figures and read their poem. On the day they are assigned to read their poem, they could dress up as the subject of their poem.