Nonviolence in Context: César Chávez, the Chican@ Movement, and a Poetics of Deferral

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this essay I argue that César Chávez’s 1968 “Speech Breaking the Fast” put on display the concrete effects of a poetics of deferral, a form of rhetorical agency capable of negotiating the tensions between nonviolence and Chican@ identity. Drawing from rhetorical and Chican@ studies scholarship, I posit that Chávez’s poetics supplied an alternative to the violent turn within Chican@ activism in the latter 1960s. From my reading of the delivery and design of Chávez’s speech, I conclude that his appeals resonated with Chican@ ideals and validated the performance of Chican@ identity through nonviolence.