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Chavez Catholic Church Analysis

Decent Essays

During the mid twentieth century, many Mexican immigrants fled to California in search of employment opportunities. This spike in available labor allowed wealthy land-owning Americans to decrease pay and quality working conditions, while elongating work hours and demanding higher daily quotas. Consequently, many farm workers protested unfair working conditions. Despite this plight for social justice, the Catholic Church did not choose to take action in supporting those in need. As a result, many Mexican Americans felt as if their voices were not being valued within the Catholic community. Without the Church’s support, Mexican Americans had little hope of promoting their cause because they were not valued in society due to their race and social …show more content…

Considering that he is speaking at the Mexican Convention during a highly religious era, his ideal and situated audiences most likely overlap significantly. According to a Pew research study, over 55% of Hispanics identify as Catholic. Being a member of this ideal audience himself, Chavez is able to understand his listener’s problems and concerns. Consequently, he is able to empathize with his audience because he himself is among them. Thus, he is the most qualified to pose a reasonable solution. Chavez makes sure to emphasize, “there is a tremendous spiritual and economic power in the church” (Chavez 3). Essentially, he means that there is so much potential within the Church that is simply not being utilized. Ultimately, it is the job of the working Mexican Americans to seek out the hurting and the broken, thus becoming leaders in the Church. By utilizing the Biblical ideals of servant leadership, they can attract the attention of the Church leaders and therefore gain the support of the diocese. In this way, they will have access to the plethora of economic and financial support within the Church. But in order to achieve this, they must humble themselves and reach out to support those who are still fighting for equality. Chavez cites two examples of this method in proof of its effectiveness. When “priests would speak out loudly and clearly …show more content…

Despite being the clear auditor in this situation, he still is able to participate in a “passive kind of interaction,” that allows his audience to feel like they are being heard and understood (Rogers 103). It is not unlikely that many of the members of Chavez’s own audience is either currently in or was once in need of support from the Church. Therefore, he is easily able to create an environment in which his audience can or at least in some point in their lives could have related. Carl Rogers suggests that an effective empathizer should “listen for the feelings,” however; Chavez predicts the feelings based on his own personal experience (Rogers 103). In this way, he is able to make remarks that resonate with his audience because they have specific feelings towards the experiences he describes. He relives the memories of “When the strike began, [and the Church] told [them they] could not even use the Church’s auditorium for the meetings” (Chavez 2). Outraged, Chavez reminds the audience, “The farm workers money helped build that auditorium!” (Chavez 2). Thus, he paints a vivid picture of the unfortunate reality of the Church’s lackluster endorsement of farmer’s rights. Many members of the audience probably remember these instances and experienced them personally.
Ultimately, Chavez’s empathetic approach to social justice spurred the movement leading to the mobilization of common

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