It's been a great week for attention to "The Union of Their Dreams" in all sorts of venues .... from a recommendation in School Library Journal as an adult book that high school students should read, to a lead review in the Sunday Los Angeles Times. The book was featured in a Telemundo report in Bakersfield, mentioned in Tablet Magazine's weekly round-up of new reads, and was the subject of an insightful feature in the San Antonio Express-News.
Even in this age of shrinking newspapers and newspaper readers, it's clear that a review in a paper like the LA Times attracts attention -- the book shot up in the Amazon rankings this afternoon! People still read book reviews on Sunday morning, find out about books that interest them through the paper, and buy books!
I was happy that the book got some attention in Texas, a state with a lot of farmworkers and a history of its own with Chavez and the UFW. Elaine Ayala, the reporter who wrote the feature, asked smart questions that reflected an understanding that Chavez could still be a hero and have an important place in history -- yet have real flaws that needed to be discussed as well. She also understood how difficult it might be for some people to accept that. "Are we ready to hear this?" she asked me, referring to some of the revelations in the book about Chavez's destructive actions. And, like some of the other reviewers, she tied the problems of the past to the present situation, when farmworkers still don't have a union.
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